When a Mandir Delivers Beyond the Call of its Religious Duties
By Thakur Ranjit Singh
HINDUS believe in the concept of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam� which translated, means, “the world is one family� And such teaching prompt Hindu religious organisations to go beyond the call of its religion and serve humanity and people of all religions. Shri Ram Mandir at Brick Street Henderson, Auckland, New Zealand has adopted this spirit and has been helping the community through walkathon over the years. They have appropriately named it RAM-A-THON This philanthropic service to the community has now snowballed into a day of fun and sports for the whole family, while serving a good cause. This article by FIJI PUNDIT tells you more, and hope Hindu organisations in Australia can also emulate this gesture and go beyond the call of prayers and religious rituals. We have multitudes of religious societies and organisations in New Zealand and Australia. They are performing commendable duties of religious teachings, promoting their respective Gods, and in doing so, handsomely collecting
funds for upkeep of their respective institution. Some have accumulated loads of money. Nothing wrong with that, in fact very admirable, if properly utilised. However, one among very few, that stands out from the above categorising is SHRI RAM MANDIR at Brick Street, Henderson, Auckland, New Zealand. Being a Hindu institution, it really stands out and appropriately follows the GH¿QLWLRQ RI +LQGXLVP which is more of a way of life than mere rituals. The spirituality is their priority, which means being good, compassionate, caring, respecting, community -conscious, God-loving and a good human being. And these teachings need to physically translate into practical deeds rather WKDQ EHLQJ FRQ¿QHG DV theoretical discourse only. And according to our scriptures, the best deed one can do is service to humanity, what we call parr hitt. This is also taught by other religions and well depicted in Abu Ben Adam poem by Leigh Hunt. The bottom line message here is that God loves and blesses those who love their fellow beings. And that is exactly what Shri Ram Mandir does – it literally walks the talk in
loving its fellow beings. And this is done through its walkathon which they call Ram-A-Thon, named after Lord Ram, who walked across India during his exile. Here, the devotees walk and raise funds for worthy causes. Six years ago, this started as a full day 35 km of marathon walk from Papatoetoe to Henderson. It was later reduced to 20km walk from Auckland Domain (Museum) to Mandir at Henderson. Since then they have held two other walkathon to help out Starship Children’s Hospital (over $10,000) and Saint John Ambulance (over $16,000) This year, it was decided to reduce the walk to 10km, but utilise the day to assemble people together in a huge community networking and people wellbeing quest, developing it into a family carnival. As we have said before, since the inception of Ram
Mandir in Henderson, it has developed more than a religious institution into a Community hub. There was Ghazal and Bollywood nights, hosted Senior Citizens group, has become a venue for wedding and birthdays and promotes music, arts, culture and history. The family carnival that was held after the walk at Henderson Park was fun¿OOHG 0LQL )LML FDUQLYDO where we had friendly sporting rivalry between WKH GLVWULFWV LQ )LML OLNH Suva, Lautoka, Rewa, Ba, Tavua, Rakiraki, Labasa and Nadroga. And we had a bucketful of family and sporting events such as Men’s soccer, Tug of war, seniors lawn balls, seniors ball and bucket, Ladies penalty kicks and Ladies Volley ball. The friendly district loyalties and rivalries prompted greater efforts to make your team win. The highest funds were collected
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by Tavua, over $16,000, followed by neighbor Ba, with a distant $6000 and 5HZD ZLWK MXVW RYHU being third. Some individuals were recognized for their efforts. Master Shiu Charan was the best overall fundraiser, who put great efforts in penetrating to the community and donors to raise funds. Bhavishna Datt from Tavua was the highest fundraiser with $5070 raised. And of course, the 7DYXD WHDP ZDV DOVR MXGJHG the best with overall high points. The coordinator of the event, Mahendra Sharma was elated with the overall results and thanked all for their overall efforts. Another reason for his MR\ ZDV WKDW KH KDG KLV brother Pundit Dhirendra Sharma and his wife from Surrey, Canada, who participated in the event. While Dhirendra raised RYHU LQ MXVW D IHZ GD\V and walked the distance, his wife, Punditaain helped in preparing food for the participants. The success of the IXQGUDLVLQJ DQG D MR\IXO family day goes to the very kind-hearted sponsors and partners. These, among others were, Sport Waitakere, Corporative Bank, Northern Football Federation, Oratia Football, Auckland Co-op Taxis, Subway Central (Daven and %DELWD 0DKDUDM 5RVKDQ Nauhria, Sam Achari, Lotus Foreign Exchange, The Indian News, Apna TV and Apna 990 Radio. While having fun, the friendly rivalry between the districts accelerated the fundraising efforts, as amount collected far exceeded what they did previously. This year funds collected went to Friends RI )LML +HDOWK )2)+ Statement by them is selfexplanatory: $43,442.60 was donated by Shri Ram Mandir Trust to FOFH. This was the highest amount by a single donor. Our most sincere appreciation to Pravin Kumar, Mahen Sharma
and a large number of their executive members, volunteers, soccer team members, youth groups and community and social workers. A big thanks to FOFH Medical team who provided free basic medical check-up to the general public who attended the fundraiser and family festival. The cheque was presented by Hon. Phil Twyford, Minister of Transport and Housing. The managing Trustee of Shri Ram Mandir observed that while Ram-A- Thon has been intended to raise funds for worthy charities that is not necessarily their prime REMHFWLYH We wish to engage with the wider community, including children, youths, elders, women and people from all walks to life, while enhancing diversity, teamwork, networking and multiculturalism. It has been an effort to create awareness of wellbeing, healthy living, walking, exercising and NHHSLQJ ÂżW ZKLOH UDLVLQJ funds for worthy causes. In doing so we worked collaboratively with other like-minded charitable, community and religious organisations and obtained corporate and commercial businesses on board as sponsors. Indeed, it was a fruitful day, and the general verdict from community elders is that other like-minded religious institutions need to broaden their base and lower their radar to capture many in the community who are normally by-passed by Mandirs focussing on religion only. As the message from Abu Ben Adam speaks, God loves and blesses those who love their fellow beings. And Shri Ram Mandir receives such blessings in abundance for its trendsetting humanitarian and philanthropic deeds. >7KDNXU 5DQMLW 6LQJK UXQV his blog, FIJI PUNDIT and has been part of Ram-AThon since its inception in 2014]