Karyakarta – Contd

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Mar 31st is Yugaadi, Pa. Pu. Doctor ji’s birth day. Next few weeks, we will read inspiring stories of Doctor ji.

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 P.P.Doctorjee’s Immense humility and self-confidence:

 In a Sangha Baithak for elderly people, some leading thinkers came forward and said to P.P.Doctorjee: “Doctor Saheb, today, the immensely needed Sangha work is flourishing, because of the virtue of your personal merit, self-sacrifice and hard work. However, what will happen in the future, after you have passed away? Society’s need for Sangha work and the nourishment it provides will continue unabated. Therefore, today, while you are still alive and well enough to guide us, we strongly suggest that Sangha should form a Central Governing Committee, which can continue the work in the event of your disability or death.”

 P.P.Doctorjee calmly replied: “Please do not think that Sangha work is flourishing today only due to my virtuousness (“Punya”) or contribution alone. I certainly do not think so. I am but a very ordinary man. I do not have any special qualities. However, if we imagine for a moment that you are right, and Sangha work depends solely on my virtue to flourish and for its continued growth, it will require other equally virtuous people. It would inevitably perish, if such people were to be unavailable. Sangha work today flourishes without any such “Central Governing Committee.”

 Sangha work is, verily the creation of swayamsevaks, patriotic citizens with great integrity, unity and self-discipline. P.P.Doctorjee was so confident of the swayamsevaks that he was able to assert their future success, even after his own death.

  P.P.Doctorjee explains the concept behind Sangha’s pledge of Dedication:

 In 1929, P.P.Doctorjee was addressing a meeting at Benares (Varanasi), explaining the need for Sangha. He customarily carried a Bhagwa Dhwaja (Saffron flag) and a small statue of the God Hanuman with him. At the conclusion of his program, he would administer the Sangha Oath (Pledge) of dedication to those who were willing to take it. On the same occasion, he would also nominate the “Sangha Chalak” and the “Karyawaha” for that Shakha (after due consultation with all concerned).

 On that day in 1929, the meeting attendees included many University professors, and other equally learned people. Some of them began to waver, when the time came to take the oath. They suggested that the wording of the Oath should be changed to state that person who takes the oath will work for the upliftment of the downtrodden Bharateeya society “as much as possible” (Yathaa-Shakti) instead of its original wording. The original wording stated that the oath taker shall dedicate himself with all he or she had, including bodily labor, mental/intellectual strength and monetary strength. The wavering people demanded that the Oath must have this change of wording, if they were to take it.

 P.P.Doctorjee explained that, as a practical matter any person who takes the Oath can work only to the extent that he could possibly work. No one could work beyond his/her limits. Thus, in saying “Yathaa Shakti” (as much as possible), self-deceit was definitely involved. The Oath taker was in fact saying that his oath was making the work yet more limited. Since service of the downtrodden was the ultimate lofty ideal, self-deceit and lowering the extent of dedication would serve no purpose!

 Needless to say, after this explanation, all attendees take the oath without any further questions!

Karyakarta – Contd

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Expectations from the Shakha of employed Swayamsevaks - The primary responsibility of this Shakha is to assist and economically strengthen the service projects and various projects for social education that have been inspired by Sangh. This must be emphasized in the Shakhas for working Swayamsevaks. Those karyakartas sitting here who are associated with such Shakhas should think whether their Shakha is attached to any service project. Does their home have a welcoming atmosphere for the society? Does their home have an atmosphere of Hindutva and show the qualities gained in Sangh? I remember once one of our karyakartas daughter learnt embroidery and asked her father to draw her a picture of  the Taj Mahal, as she wanted to use that as a design. That karyakarta was our bauddhik pramukh. He told his daughter – ‘you will not find a picture if Taj Mahal here. You will find a picture of Velur Math, a Somnath Mandir, a Ramchandraji Mandir from Ayodhya, but no picture of Taj Mahal!’ So do u see the Hindutva in this man’s life or not? We cannot expect a young Swayamsevak to bring an atmosphere of Hindutva in his family, as he does not make the decisions. But a Swayamsevak from a working Shakha – the head of his family – his family should have an atmosphere of Hindutva. Does his family have an attitude of social equality? In the neighborhood, does he live integrated with the society or not? I want to place these questions in front of the karyawaha, mukhya shikshaks present here today. They need to think – what are our expectations from the evening Shakha? What are our expectations from the evening working Swayamsevaks Shakha? Everyone should decide that they must give their devotion to the daily Shakha. I am a karyawaha, I am a mukhya shikshak, I have a responsibility for a geographical area, and so I give my devotion to the daily Shakha and do justice to my responsibility. I need not think how the BJP will be victorious, who will be selected in university or union elections- there are other people who will think about these things.
There was a war between two countries. The people from the country that lost sat together to find the cause of their defeat. One person noted that the leader of the army was at the front, but while riding his horse stumbled and the leader fell, leaving the army without a leader. The committee discussed that it was odd for a house to stumble like this as only the best horses were chosen for the generals after rigorous tests. Someone said that they had noticed that one horseshoe had been loose, that was why the horse stumbled. Nails were attached to the horseshoes, and one nail had become loose. In the end the committee decided that the loose nail in the horse’s shoe had been the cause of the countries defeat.
 
More efforts necessary - My belief is that, if we are to create an atmosphere of Hindutva around the country then our Shakha activities have to be strengthened. With this thought in mind, I have to ensure that my horse’s nail is so secure that it will not become loose. I remember a saying in the army – “give more sweat in peace time, then lose less blood in war time.” We should remember the first part of this. We have the time now to use our sweat to make our Shakhas stronger, more widespread and more able to bring about change. If we have a karyawaha who thinks this way, then that vibhag becomes an inspiration to the rest of the country.

Karyakarta – Contd

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The standards of Swayamsevaks - Along with this the pravaasi karyakarta should think about ‘product’. What is the standard of the Swayamsevaks attending our Shakhas? In what manner do they speak? How do they follow directions? Are they able to put in the required efforts to achieve success? The way in which our Swayamsevaks develop needs to be measured by different methods. At the same time his growth should be all round. The decision to field him should also be decided by the pravaasi karyakarta. This can be within Sangh or in various fields within the wider society. This is also the work of pravaasi karyakarta.
 
The sustenance of Sangh work - Sangh work is sustained by the following five terms that we have talked about: Organization, Education, Expansion, Creation and Application. The organization is the main responsibility of the karyawaha and mukhya shikshak, and other four are the responsibility of the pravaasi karyakartas. All of us karyakartas should understand our responsibilities and put efforts into advancing our work.  We need to think separately about the evening Shakhas (for school – age Swayamsevaks) and morning or night Shakhas (for working Swayamsevaks). An evening Shakha should be one that can create persons every year who can devote 25 days for the spread of Sangh work. There should be Swayamsevaks who, after finishing their education, can devote one year, three years or five years to become pracharaks. There should be Swayamsevaks who give Sangh work foremost priority in their lives and mould their lives accordingly. Every Shakha should have newly trained karyakartas.

Karyakarta – contd

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The arrangement of training -There is another aspect of the Shakha, which we call training. There are two types of training, one is the baithak (meeting) and the other is in shareerik vargs on the sanghasthan. As far as baithaks are concerned, they are also a part of training- how we should sit I the meeting, how we should discuss – if we do not agree with something, how we should express our disagreement and which words we should use etc. These are important lessons in how to work in a group. We may have Shakha baithaks (meetings) weekly, the nagar baithak may be monthly, vibhag baithak once or twice a year – the frequency of the baithaks is that we use them to train our karyakartas.
In the same way we should think of the shakeerik vargs we hold on the sanghasthan. At which time and place these vargs are to be held is left to each vibhag to decide for itself, but they are a must. It must be kept in mind that the vargs are held at regular intervals. If someone were to ask what ‘sharbat’ is, the answer would be a mixture of water, sugar, lemon and salt. So if we were to take 20 liters of water, put in one spoon of sugar, two drops of lemon, a small amount of salt and mix this up and gave this to someone saying it was ‘sharbat’, what would he say? They would taste it and say this is just water. But if we analyze it, we could prove it contained lemon, sugar and salt. But it is not ‘sharbat’ because the proportion of water is much greater than the other components. In this way if someone was to say that in five years we held one shareerik varg – so we hold varg every five years, this can also be called regular. The frequency of these varg is too low. We need to have regular training and this is the work of the pravaasi karyakartas.
 
The spread of work (Vistaar) - The second important work of the pravaasi karyakarta is the spread of Sangh work (Vistaar). We should have Shakhas in more places than we have today. We should think – where can we start a new Shakha? Which two karyakartas can I send there, who can become the supports for a new Shakha? We can think about the spread of our work I many ways, but this is not the work of Shakha karyawaha, it is the responsibility of nagar karyawaha to decide which Swayamsevak from which Shakha should be sent to start a new Shakha?

 

Karyakarta – Contd

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The Gat system of the Shakha - To generate organizational strength there are two important factors – a list of all Swayamsevaks who have been contacted by the Shakha and gat system. I have noticed that there is often confusion about this. When we have special function, in preparation for this the gat system is activated, and once the function is over the gat nayak puts his list to one side and it is often forgotten and not used for the regular Shakha. This is not a positive thing for the strength of our organization. For the increased development of our organizational work we need to form the habit of this working pattern. The karyawaha and mukhya shikshak need to ensure they prepare the list for their Shakha, and prepare gat nayaks who are able to keep contact with ten people, and train this gat nayak to work daily. These gat nayaks should meet at least monthly. We need to set-up this system of work, in every vibhag and every nagar, and the pravaasi karyakartas must ensure that this takes place in each Shakha.
New development is necessary - The third characteristic of our Shakha work is thus the attendance register. We have discussed this at length in this varg. Along with attendance I would like to attach the fourth characteristic, that is new development. After all, the place for creating karyakartas from the next generation is also my Shakha. The karyawaha and mukhya shikshak should be confident that their Shakha can provide 2-4 karyakartas every year. In this way we can see that in the functioning of the Shakha, the program, organization, attendance register and new development are essential. With these four characteristics the daily one-hour Shakha activity is one hundred percent the responsibility of the karyawaha and mukhya shikshak.

Karyakarta – Contd

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What is an ideal Shakha like? - Which Shakha will we call ideal? The first characteristic of an ideal Shakha is a planned program. The shareerik vibhag has prepared guideline as to how the sixty-minute (may be 90 min in USA) of the Shakha should be distributed amongst various activities. They have suggested that some of the time should be spent in strength-building exercise, some of the activities should be to instill discipline, some of the activities should be to develop competitive skills and there should be some activities to instill a sense of national pride (outside bharat, we can call it pride in being hindus ). In this way the activities of the Shakha should be divided into strength, discipline, will to win and nationalism generating activities. This is why my Shakha has yoga, Suryanamaskar, running, martial arts, samata, games, and songs on nationalism, inspirational quotes and daily prathana. With this fourfold program, of strength, discipline, will to win and nationalism, the Swayamsevaks are developed into great personalities through the Shakha program. The varied Shakha program of sixty minutes every day is of primarily importance to us.
Fabric of our organization - The second characteristic of our Shakha is organization. We are an organization, so it is essential that we should have a system. In the clothing business, Mumbai and Ahmedabad are well known. Cloths are also prepared in Nagpur. We know that there are many types of cloth. In the past the only cloth available was natural cotton, now artificial threads are also available. Some clothes fifty percent cotton and fifty percent artificial fibers. We also have silk threads to make clothing. In this way we can see that there is a variety of material available, but one thing is certain. You will not be able to find material anywhere in the world which consists of threads going in one direction only. We need to weave threads across other threads to create a fabric. We wish to create the fabric of an organization. In our organization one layer of threads are the attendance registers of our Shakha, and they are woven together by the gat nayaks who keep contact with all of them. In this way we create the fabric of our organization. For this reason each Shakha should have an attendance register. It should not be in someone’s mind, but it should be on paper or in a dairy. The names of the Swayamsevak should be recorded and there should be a gat system to keep contact with them.

Karyakarta – Contd

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From Boudhik of Sureshrao ji  Ketkar’s 
 
How should the karyakarta work? - Normally a karyakarta does not work alone, but keeping others with him, he becomes a team worker. In teamwork, how can we describe the work of the karyakarta? When we think of this, the following sequence is useful:
Thought —-> Discussion —-> Decision—–> Planning —-> Efforts
Our karyakarta is one who works in a group. We have one Shakha. I am the karyawaha. My Shakha has a mukhya shikshak. As my Shakha is an evening Shakha there is a tarun shikshak, a bal shikshak and two shishu shikshaks. Each age group has three gat nayaks. All of these together make up 23-26 karyakartas. In our Shakha we work as a team. Every karyakarta must give some thought as to how we can improve our Shakha. If I were to decide the programs for the Shakha myself and then begin to carry them out, this would be contrary to the Sangh method. I should first of all share my thoughts with my fellow karyakartas. This is why I used the word ‘discussion’. So after our thought and discussion, our karyawaha would make a decision. This is our decision. After the decision is made we need to make a plan, and for the plan to be successful, each karyakarta needs to put in his efforts. In this way the work achieves success.
Thought and behavior - Whilst we are advancing the work of our Shakha, we must keep in mind that the development of Shakha must occur in the proper manner. All the karyakartas engaged in Sangh work should think and work in this way. Therefore it is our first duty to ensure that the Shakha activities run in the correct way. The responsibility of Shakha is primarily the duty of the karyawaha, mukhya shikshak and their team, whose duty is to ensure that the one-hour of the Shakha and the necessary work in the other twenty-three hours is organized and coordinated.

Karyakarta – Contd

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The karyakarta is not a decoration - There is a roof above the hall in which we are sitting. If someone were to ask what the purpose of this roof is, we would say it is to protect the occupants from rain and sun. We may also see a fan on the ceiling. What is the purpose of this? It is to create the movement of air when it is hot. In the same way the purpose of the light bulb is to provide light when it is dark. However, in some rich homes we see the head of a deer displayed on the wall. This was certainly the custom in years gone past. So we might wonder why it is placed there? Does it give light? Does it move the air? The answer to these questions would definitely be ‘no’. The purpose of the deer head is to decorate the house. It is there to make the room and the house look better. In sangh, do we have karyakarta to make sangh better? The answer is ‘no’. The Shakha should be improved, but there is no karyakarta to make the sangh work look better.
The late Nanarao Palkar was a person who dedicated his life to sangh. He often used to say in his lectures – ‘There is no decorative post in RSS, all are living posts’. We should always remember – I do not work to make sangh look better, I am a living karyakarta, so whatever type of responsibility I am given – whether to determine the speed of the work or the direction – I am a karyakarta to do justice to it. By keeping this in mind I shall develop myself. This what sangh expects from its karyakarta.
I am one, I shall become many - Once, while walking in Nagpur bazaar, I saw a man who was selling corn on the cob. I felt a desire to eat this, so I picked a good one to buy. What do I mean by a good one? I mean the corn on the cob with many grains on it. I bought this and returned home. I thought of the way home – this corn on the cob has around a hundred grains on it, does this mean that when it was grown the farmer planted a hundred grains together? Then I realized that this was not the case. The farmer sowed just one seed. He sweated over it – he watered it, provided compost – and after some time it had grown into corn with many seeds on its own. The seed knows that it is one and that is has to become many. We should also have this thinking. I am a sangh karyakarta – I am one, I must become many. With this in mind, how can I inspire other people to also become karyakartas, how can I make them join in this work and how can I develop them? We need to keep this in mind as we work within our area of responsibility. This is why in the Shastras we have this maxim: ‘Ekoham Bahusyam’ – I am one, I shall become many.
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Here is the story of aa Sangh Pracharak, who moulded Narendra Modi ji.
This series is taken from “Jyothi Punj” in Gujarathi written by Narendra Modi ji himself. Aakar Patel has been translating this into English and it has been appearing in bits and pieces on first post.
http://www.firstpost.com/blogs/modis-mentors-vasudevrao-talwalkar-the-man-who-lived-for-rss-1355865.html

Karyakarta-Contd

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Contd based on Baudhik of SureshRao ji Ketkar’s Baudhik
Crew of the Sangh boat - A rough outline of the roles of these two groups of karyakartas is as follows. Those who are Shakha karyakartas determine the speed of our work, and those who are pravaasi karyakartas determine the direction of our work. It is like functioning of a boat. This boat has two instruments for movement. One of these is the helm that turns the rudder to change the direction of the boat. If you wanted to turn the boat to the left or right you would make the use of helm. It is due to the rudder that the boat maintains its direction. The boat also has an engine, which is used to propel the boat forward. What would we call a good boat? Would a good boat be one that has only a helm? No, because while we would be able to give direction to this boat, we would be unable to move it forward. A boat that has an engine but no helm is also not a good boat, as it is able to move forward but cannot be steered. A competent boat maker will make both an engine and a helm for the boat – the engine to move the boat forward and the helm to give the boat direction. To move the sangh boat forward in the proper direction, there is the karyawaha and mukhya shikshak to generate the forward motion of our work and at the same time there are the pravaasi karyakartas who give proper direction to our work. All of us, as karyakartas, should individually assess and decide as to which category we belong to.
The hands of a clock and the karyakartas - Amongst our karyakartas we have karyawahas, mukhya shikshaks and karyakartas with nagar, vibhag and kendriya responsibilities. Whatever is the responsibility, it out duty to give it prime importance and create a condition allowing for the uninterrupted progress of sangh work We can use the analogy of the hands of a clock to understand different responsibilities. The second hand moves very fast and has obvious movement when observed. The minute hand moves slower but if we look at the watch after fifteen minutes we notice that this hand has moved significantly forward. The hour hand moves very slowly, needing twelve hours to complete a circuit. We can see that there are three hands in a watch, having different speeds, length, shape and color but their work is the same- to tell the correct time. In our work, the karyawaha mukhya shikshak, shikshak, gatnayak, agresara, shareerik pramukh, baudhik pramukh, sewa pramukh, sampark pramukh have different areas of responsibility, nevertheless the work is the same, namely the development of sangh work. This should be kept in mind while we discharge our responsibilities.

What/Who is a “Karyakarta”

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From Baudhik of SureshRao ji Ketkar

“Karyakarta” is a term widely used in Sangh. Basically it means a “worker”, someone with some responsibility in organization. All who come to Shakha are “swayamsevaks”. As a swayamsevak becomes regular in attending Shakha, understands the work of Sangh and then takes on some responsibility, he becomes a “Sangh Karyakarta”. In a sense, every swayamsevak is potential karyakarta.

It is often said that a Swayamsevak is the blood of Sangh, and a Karyakarta is its heart. Similarly, karyakarta is also the engine of the organization. The success and progress of the organization depends on his dedication and commitment. Therefore, regular training and development of a karyakarta are essential requisites for a successful and expansion of the organization. “Abhayas Varg” of karyakartas on a regular basis is therefore a must.

The Karyakarta – the life force of our mission – To translate an idea into reality, one needs a technique – a modus operandi. What is our idea and what is our method? In my opinion, the idea is the ‘theory’ and the method is the ‘practice’. For any work there is a purpose, and for this purpose to be fulfilled there is a technique. Here also we can think of the purpose as the theory and technique as the practice. For the task of uniting people, if we were to consider the life force behind it, we would realize that man is the life force. In sangh we call such a man ‘swayamsevak’. For some special reasons, we may use another word to describe a swayamsevak and that is ‘karyakarta’. This Swayamsevak karyakarta is the life force behind our work. We are all karyakartas. This is why, whenever we have any discussion sessions, we should always keep some topic relating to karyakartas.

Types of Karyakartas – There are primarily three types of karyakarta in sangh. The first type of karyakartas are those who are known as pracharaks, who use their entire time for sangh work. The number of pracharaks we have in relation to the society is a minuscule fraction, so I will keep this group apart. The second types are those whom we know as Shakha karyakartas. This includes karyawaha, mukhya shikshaks, gana shikshaks, gana agresaras, gat nayaks, sah gat nayaks etc. This type includes all those karyakartas who have a responsibilities within Shakha. There is a third type of karyakartas, mandal pramukh, nagar shareerik pramukh, bauddhik pramukh, prant karyawaha, prant sanghchalak and so on. These are those karyakartas who do not have a designated Shakha but have a responsibility for a geographical area. In this way there is a group of karyakartas involved in running a Shakha and another group that give direction to geographical area of Shakha, who guides them and who provides them with information. This third group of karyakartas are known as ‘pravaasi karyakartas’ i.e. touring karyakartas.