As I start on a journey of putting my thoughts into words & sharing them with you, it is just befitting that I start from the very beginning. The beginning of me!
I hail from a small town in Bihar (India) called Jamalpur. And, I wouldn’t blame it on you for not having heard of it earlier. I would start with describing it for you as the most beautiful town ever, picturesque, full with its share of hills, lakes & waterfalls. It is best known for hosting India’s first & the largest Railway workshop. It also boasts of churning out in its foothills, the most revered Special Class Railway Apprentices, better understood as the Indian Railways’ top brass, its mighty officers. Thanks to the Railways, Jamalpur has always had a very cosmopolitan feel.
This site is the birthplace of the social activist and spiritualist Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar (spiritual name Shrii Shrii Anandamurti, or simply ‘Baba’). He was born on the full moon in May 1921.
The building in this photo is new and is used for practising meditation. The sign for “Abha Seva Sadhan” is a service project giving free medicine to the poor. The sign “Baba Naam Kevalam” is a mantra meaning ‘Everything is an expression of one infinite, loving Consciousness’.
Baba’s orginal house was to the right of this photo. The building is no more. Instead, a garden of many flowers and plants is being nurtured in its place.
December 21, 2008 at 4:07 pm · Filed under Tourism |
Death Valley, Jamalpur
Death Valley is so-called for a couple of reasons. Firstly, because its formerly dense jungle harboured many dangerous animals and secondly because a Mughal king used one of the hills as an execution point for his enemies – he would order them to be walked to the top thrown off the edge.
The nature here is very beautiful. The lake and the well-known tamarind tree are beautiful spots for self-reflection and meditation.
Sadly, the idyllic beauty is being destroyed by the practice of dynamite blasting and chiselling of local rock for building material. The practice is officially illegal, but government corruption (i.e. taking bribes from dynamite users) allows the exploiters to continue without intervention. If no action is taken, Death Valley’s beauty will be lost forever.
In a lonely field on the outskirts of Jamalpur – a small town, insignificant but for the presence of its railway workshop – lies the Tiger’s Grave. A few feet away rests the grave of the Englishman – the soldier who shot the tiger and was, in turn, fatally injured by the beast.
The field was later cleared and prepared as a golf course, for the frivolities of the ruling British, but the project was abandoned and never completed.
In this lonely field, in the dead of night, Tiger’s Grave became the chosen spot for many sittings with spiritual master Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar (known also by the spiritual name, Shrii Shrii Anandamurti).
He gave lessons and demonstrations of mysticism and meditation to small groups of spiritual practitioners. He dictated many books and scriptures by the light of a lantern. Such seminal works as Ananda Sutram, Guide to Human Conduct and Elementary Philosophy were given here.
Spiritual aspirants still come from around the world to see and meditate on the grave – much to the bewilderment of many locals, who have but the slightest idea of the incredible spiritual heritage that was born in their homeland.
This tree has a story. Apparently, in its previous life it was a human being. It was a man who asked to borrow money from his father. When the father refused, the son was so angry that he took an axe and killed him.
As a way to exhaust the mental reaction created by this axe-murder, the son was reborn as a tree with a cleave down its middle.
It has been around as a tree for several decades now. The monkeys seem to enjoy its company.
JAMALPUR: In many places of eastern Bihar, like Bhagalpur, Munger and Jamalpur, the local units of Bihari-Bengali Association (BBA) postponed their Baisakh (the new year day in Bengali calender) celebrations on Saturday in the wake of the brutal killing of a Bengali couple in Jamalpur. A few families of this linguistic minority wore black badges on the new year day.
The killings have triggered large scale migration of Bengali families from this area. According to local BBA secretary Mani Kumar Roy, more than 200 Bengali employees in the railway workshop have obtained transfer orders in the last two months. Altogether 37 people were transferred to West Bengal on April 10 and another 50 Bengali rail employees are scheduled to leave Jamalpur in coming months. “These families, who settled here due to the employment of their one or another member, are a frightened lot and they feel insecure,” said Ujjwal Chatterjee, convenor of BBA here. According to him, more than 1,000 Bengalis have migrated from here in the last one year.
Earlier, the local BBA had organised a meeting of its members on the Durgabari premises. The participants expressed serious concern over the mass exodus of their brethren from the area. The association members urged the local administration to ensure security to the frightened Bengalis. Otherwise, they too would leave the place as was done by the Sikhs, Sindhis and Marwaris earlier, they said.
Whereas the Bengalis were relieved of their ancestral properties by the vested interests which led to their migration from many places of eastern Bihar, the scenario in Jamalpur is somewhat different. “Some local unemployed youths do not like the Bengalis who are in majority at the Jamalpur railway workshop. At times, such elements force the outsiders to leave the place,” said Lakhani Lal Prasad, a local businessman.
The murder of the couple was not an isolated case of atrocity on the linguistic minorities by the local goons. A few years ago, close associates of a former state minister and former MP allegedly sexually abused all the female members of a Bengali railway employee in the Rampur railway colony. The wife of a Bengali supervisor was stabbed recently.
“But the local administration never provided a helping hand to the community members who are spending agonising moments for quite sometime now,” rued a local Bengali citizen.
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