Everyone has a dream to own a home. If a person takes a loan of five lakh rupees to construct a house, he will land up paying a monthly loan interest of Rs.5000. And it will take years for him to pay up the principal amount.  As his family grows in size, he has to take care of his children’s expenses – school fees, transport, medical expenses, marriage expenses and so on. He will find it very difficult to cope up with the loan repayment. He will take another loan to offset this loan. Ultimately, he will repay the loan by selling the house for which he underwent so much of mental turmoil. This is the major problem of middle class. Or, having been employed for 30 years, he would obtain voluntary retirement and invest all this money to safeguard his home. How will he meet his food expenses then?

I wished to provide a solution to these problems by constructing houses at an affordable budget for Samratchana volunteers. This is why, the Ramarajya commune has a common kitchen, common places of worship. In a typical middle class family where both parents work to make ends meet, children return from school in the early evening, they eat the food available in the kitchen and tend to themselves till the parents return home late in the evening. Children tend to start missing the parental love that is essential at that age. So also, elderly people cannot be left alone at home, and so the need for a social outing is not met. So I started this housing at an affordable price with many facilities. Parents need not worry about their children. The question of security problem is also solved, since it is a commune of like-minded individuals who consider themselves as part of an extended family (Vasudeiva Kutumbakam).

The next is to provide a solution to health problems. There are the concepts of prevention and of cure. Some ways of preventing health problems is good drinking water, exercises to ensure physical fitness. If a health problem sets in, there must be a doctor available nearby to take care. We have a state-of-the-art air-conditioned hospital on our campus, equipped with many medical facilities. 

The commune is a reflection of my wish to attend to the housing and other worldly problems of Samratchanites who have invested their faith in me across the years.

We became involved more with this project because of its success. Earlier when persons visited me, their relatives scorned them, ‘Don’t you have any other work? Why are you visiting that samiyar?’ There was a time when visiting me was a discomfiting situation for many. But you are now reaping the benefits of the trust you reposed in me. Whoever believed me like the Azhwar, ‘Even if the whole world derides me, my Lord, I will forever cling to You’, have done well in life. They have acquired material comforts: car, air-conditioner, own house. And they are very peaceful too, in the company of like-minded persons during Sathsangh, worshipping idols of their choice. It is an all-in-all spirituality. A common kitchen managed by volunteers caters to the palate of the residents, at a nominal cost. There is a gym that helps the residents tune their physique. And mental harmony is nurtured by the free yoga classes and meditating in the serene meditation hall. In fact, the whole environment provides such blissful serenity not easily available in the external world. A library feeds those who are in quest of further knowledge. The commune has vegetable gardens, departmental store and post office. There is a transport facility to ply people to their offices, colleges. Hi-tech facilities include Internet, Video conferencing and telephone access. There is a Church, Mosque and Buddha Vihar apart from the temples for various deities. A Jain temple and a Gurudwara are under construction. 

There is nothing lacking here. We have a school, we have an air-conditioned hospital, such wonderful infrastructure. We live amidst nature’s bountiful blessing.

Those who scorned my volunteers are now asking them to recommend to me (their need) for an apartment here. They have come to realize that I champion your cause always. Time has proved to them that we are wise, and we are treading the right path. This concept of living is our challenge to society and it has become our reply too to the society that scorned us.

God decides every step. All plans are His (Master) plans. He is the Grand Master. So everything that happens, happens well. In the coming times, more persons will be asking this question in rapid succession. They will wonder how we conceived this idea. It is our success that has brought forth this question. 

We have stabilized now. We have never needed, nor will ever need any external support. We have progressed well, and will continue to taste success.

Instead of creating individual infrastructure, I wanted to create common infrastructure. Since we are part of a metropolitan city, we are not constrained by the need to create accommodation for everyone who visits us. The place has well-connected transport, so persons can actually stay in nearby hotels and come to visit us.  

I have many plans for the colony. It will be a paradise in its own way. We are constantly improving its facilities. It will be a radically different concept. Those who stood by Samratchana during the fire incident, and all those volunteers who have served Samratchana in any way will be accorded priority over others. All facilities will be free for them. For others, there will be a nominal charge for food and accommodation. There will be no need to consult me on this. Everything will be automated, volunteers will be given an identity card and the facilities will be automatically arranged for you.

Everything has a cost attached to it. I do not want to drain the resources of volunteers who have sacrificed so much for this organization. So my future policy will be to provide facilities free of cost to volunteers and charge the others nominally. Those who invested their trust in me are the beneficiaries. We will be planning more excursions for our school children, more pilgrimages for the volunteers. We visited Kailash (Mt. Kailash in the Himalayas is considered the abode of Lord Siva); we will be visiting Kathirkamam (There is a temple for Lord Muruga in Kathirkamam, a pilgrim centre in Sri Lanka. Kathirkamam is hailed as ‘Kailash of the South’).

'Continues next week....'

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