Abstract
Faith manifests in practice in HIFMs through tangible social service. The genesis of social service for the HIFMs has been initially serendipitous and later systematized or a priori streamlined for translation of charisma and faith.
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Notes
- 1.
Ramsay, Manderson, and Smith (2010) have explored how the members of the Brahmakumaris World Spiritual University (Brahmakumari WSU) based in centres in New York applied spiritual knowledge to understand the destruction of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York on 11 September 2001. Drawing on primary Brahmakumari WSU texts and ethnographic data from field research conducted in 2007, they have illustrated how the spiritual knowledge and practices of its members (Brahmakumaris) uniquely shaped their perspective on catastrophic events.
- 2.
Swami Akhandananda (1864–1937) became the third president of the Ramakrishna Mission in 1934. He initiated a number of people after assuming office, including Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar, the second sarsanghachalak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. He was the first monk of the Ramakrishna order, who gave shape to the cherished desire of Swami Vivekananda to begin rural development work, even before the mission was established. In 1894, Akhandananda began his campaign against poverty. The idea of working for the poor was conceived while he stayed in Jamnagar with an Ayurvedic physician. While in Khetri, Rajasthan, in 1894, he worked for the cause of education of tribal groups. He first came in contact with widespread famine during his travel in the Murshidabad District of Bengal. On 15 May 1897, Swami Akhandananda opened a relief centre in Murshidabad to save people from an all-devouring famine. Swami Akhandananda started an orphanage in Mahula, Bengal, on 31 August 1897 and then established the first Rural Branch Centre of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission in Mahula. In 1899, he opened an ashram in Shivnagar near Sargachi which continued for 14 years. In 1899, he opened a free school there to deal with the problem of illiteracy in the locality. Carpentry and weaving section also were added to revive those perishing village industries and made boys self-reliant. Cotton cultivation was taught to the rural women to enhance their family income. In 1913, the present ashram was founded on 13 acres of land in March 1913. He also led in relief activities in the Bhagalpur District of Bihar and during the Munger earthquake in Bihar (Adiswarananda, 2006).
- 3.
The mission’s work received its definite shape, both in its form and function, after Narendranath emerged as a world figure under the name of Swami Vivekananda from the World Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893. He further emphasized that ‘service implies the dedication of one’s capacities and energies to the order conceiving it as a symbol of the master. Spiritual talents are therefore more important than worldly abilities, but by the very nature and object of the order a harmonious combination of both is ideal’ (Tapsyananda, 1995). Although it is recognized that the important struggle is to know transcendent reality, the work or service is the means to that knowledge. Through devoted service, the mission believes it is possible to be disillusioned from false notions of the ego and body consciousness and move to selflessness and universal consciousness (Mumukshananda, 1997).
- 4.
In the four decades of work thus far, several aspects have been covered. From 1974 to 1979, Swaminarayan Sanstha volunteers served during three disasters: 1974–1975 famines in Gujarat and Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh typhoon in 1977, and the 1979 Morbi dam disaster. In 1982–1983, Swaminarayan Sanstha volunteers served during the Saurashtra floods and in 1987 during the drought and famine in Gujarat. In 1987, Swaminarayan Sanstha Gunatit Vidyamandir, an educational institution, was established in Gunatitnagar, Bhadra. In 1991, the Swaminarayan Sanstha Swaminarayan Chhatralaya, Nadiad, was established followed by three developments in the following year. First, Pramukh Swami Health Services, a division of Swaminarayan Sanstha, undertook the administration of TMV hospital in Botad. Second, the Swaminarayan Day School was started in London, and third, Swaminarayan Sanstha volunteers served during the Jamnagar famine. In 1993, services were provided during the Latur earthquake, and in the following year the Swaminarayan Sanstha students’ hostel at Mehsana was established. In 1995, the Mumbai Pramukh Swami Eye Hospital was inaugurated followed by the Pramukh Swami Health Care and Research Centre in the following year. In 1996, Swaminarayan Sanstha volunteer efforts were also dedicated to cyclone rehab operations in Andhra Pradesh and subsequently during Gujarat floods. Two institutional developments took place in the following year: the Swaminarayan school was established in Nagpur, and the Akshardham Centre for Applied Research into Social Harmony was set up in Gandhinagar. In 1998, Swaminarayan students’ hostel was set up in Dhuliya, and in the following year Swaminarayan Sanstha mobile dispensaries were launched for tribal populace of Khedbrahma, Pavi Jetpur, and Dharampur. In the same year, relief and rehab operations were undertaken after the Orissa supercyclone (Amrutvijaydas, 2007).The decade from 2000 onwards saw several developments as well. In the first year, there were de-addiction campaigns by Swaminarayan Sanstha children; inauguration of the Pramukh Swami Hospital in Dabhoi; mobile dispensaries in Rajpipla, Dang, Vansda, and Devgadh Baria; the Pramukh Swami Prathamik Aarogya Kendra at Chansad; and the Swaminarayan School for Girls in Karamsad, Saurashtra. One of the most significant and elaborate projects include the earthquake relief operations in 2001 which involved immediate relief, reassurance, rehabilitation, and reconstruction, including infrastructure development. In the same year, Pramukh Swami Hospital and Research Centre was started at Atladra near Vadodara, and the Orissa flood relief operations at Jagatsinghpur and Krishnapada were undertaken. In 2002, mobile dispensaries were set up for Sankari, Vijaynagar, and Dharampur villages of Kathiawad, and the Pramukh Swami Vidya Mandir and Swaminarayan Sanstha Swaminarayan Chhatralaya, Sarangpur, were set up. Schools were also set up in Mount Abu and Silvassa, Atladra, Valsad, and Bakrol. Relief operations were carried our post-2004 tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, and Surat floods. Another Pramukh Swami Hospital was set up in Surat in 2005 followed by de-addiction campaigns in 2007 (Swayamprakashdas, 2008).
- 5.
In terms of educational initiatives, in 1984 an industrial training centre was established for students around Shirdi with the approval of the state government for employment training and livelihood skill development at subsidized rates. In 1990, the Saibaba English Medium School was established for students around rural areas in the Rahata District, and subsequently a girls’ school, Shri Saibaba (Marathi) Kanya Vidya Mandir, was established in 1993. In 2000, a junior college was also established.
- 6.
In terms of health, in 1964 the Sainath Hospital was established to provide medical services at low cost for patients below the poverty line. Later in 1980, the Shri Saibaba Hospital with superspecialty facilities was established, which provided services such as concessions for heart operations for patients of lower-income groups and a blood bank was also set up. Furthermore, Saibaba Sansthan also provided financial aid termed ‘Sai Prasad’ to low-income patients who needed expensive medical treatments. An upcoming project of Saibaba Sansthan is the Development of Integrated Socioeconomic, Health, Education, and Essential facilities approved by the National Committee for Promotion of Social and Economic Welfare, New Delhi, under Section 35 AC vide Notification No. S.O. 1473 (E) dated 17 June 2008. Under this project, beneficiaries belonging to economically weaker sections of society whose income is below Rs. 18000/- per annum receive freeship.
- 7.
In 1988, Brahmakumaris launched a ‘Million Minutes of Peace Appeal’ project which collided with the UN year of peace, and 1 billion minutes of peace in the form of prayer, meditation, and positive thoughts were gathered through members in 88 countries. In the same year, the project ‘Global Cooperation for a Better World’ was launched so as to seek an increased cooperation between nations, individuals, and communities, gathering the hopes and visions for a better world of people in 129 countries. These were then synthesized in ‘The Global Vision Statement’, which forms the heart of the UN Peace Messenger and the UNESCO-supported publication ‘Vision of a Better World’. In 1991, the J. Watumull Global Hospital and Research Centre was established in Mount Abu with the objective of offering spiritually oriented holistic healthcare services which subsequently developed branches and outreach programmes for vulnerable groups. In 1994, the project ‘Sharing Our Values for a Better World’ was launched, which adopted as its central focus the tenet in the preamble of the UN charter, that is, ‘to reaffirm the faith in the fundamental rights, dignity, and worth of human persons’. The project essentially aimed to raise awareness of core spiritual values and their development at both, individual and collective levels. Subsequently, sister concerns developed, such as Raja Yoga Meditation and Research Foundation, Academy for a Better World, and World Renewal Spiritual Trust.
- 8.
The first such service project was the Chinmaya education movement which was launched in 1967 as a small nursery in Kollengode, Kerala, contemporarily taking the form of eighty Chinmaya Vidyalayas (including one in Trinidad affiliated to CBSE or local boards), eight Chinmaya Institutes of Higher Learning, School of Inspired Leadership, and one Chinmaya International Residential School, Coimbatore. Apart from these, there are also Hari Har Schools in villages as a component of the rural development package to provide zero-cost academic and vocational training. The essential ingredient of this educational endeavour apart from ensuring equitable access, attainment, and equitable schooling opportunities is the Chinmaya Vision Programme—a ‘value-based programme incorporated in the schools and colleges of Chinmaya Mission’. The specified core components of the programme are integrated development, Indian (read Hindu) culture, patriotism, and universal outlook. The second aspect in the service arena is the Chinmaya Organization for Rural Development (CORD), which began its activities in 1982–1983 at the behest of a GOI-issued directive for selection of NGOs for family planning services and maternal health care. Although that proposal did not come through, with the help of USAID, in 1985, a rural primary healthcare and training centre was formed under the aegis of Chinmaya Tapovan Trust (the local trust to look after the admin affairs of Sidhbari Sandeepany), Sidhbari, Himachal Pradesh. In 2003, it was registered as the Chinmaya Organization for Rural Development (CORD) with multiple programme components. The CORD model has been replicated in Orissa and Tamil Nadu—in Orissa CORD Lathikata in District Sundergarh, CORD Deuladiha in Keonjhar District; and in Tamil Nadu, CORD Tamaraipakkam in Tiruvallur District and CORD Siruvani in Coimbatore District. Apart from the above, there are heath initiatives and residential institutions for vulnerable groups. Health initiatives include the Chinmaya Mission Hospital in Bangalore and the Aarogya Seva Project in villages of Maharashtra and Gujarat. In terms of residential institutions, in 1982, in Ellayapalle, Andhra Pradesh, the Chinmayaranyam Ellayapalle Ashram in Kerala was formed for underprivileged girls to provide them with formal education along with other welfare activities. Earlier, in the 1970s the idea of having a senior citizen’s wing was floated to Swami Chinmayananda by elderly devotees; hence, the Central Chinmaya Vanaprastha Sansthan (CCVS) was started as the senior citizen’s wing of Chinmaya Mission with headquarters in Allahabad. The entire connection was visualized between ageing and spiritual pursuits along with looking into issues of health, finance, and legalities. Currently, there are 200 subcentres in the country; one advocacy initiative has been the participation in the formation of the National Policy for Older Persons. Eight residential institutions run under the aegis of CCVS called Pitamaha Sadans. The focus is on providing elderly care and viewing spirituality as a tool for effective ageing. Furthermore, in terms of institutional developments, in 2007, the Chinmaya Vijaya Orphanage for girls was founded in Kaza near Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh.
- 9.
Sri Aurobindo International Centre for Education (SAICE) was founded in 1952 to realize the goals of spiritual education of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. The components that build into this spiritual education are the aspects of physical education, education of the vital, and psychic and mental education. The system is liberal and permits learning at one’s pace and any combination in terms of choice of subjects of study. There is an annihilation of the banking concept of education in favour of a pedagogy which is interactive.
- 10.
Sri Aurobindo International Institute for Integral Health and Research (SAIIIHR) aims to study and understand ‘health’ in all its dimensions, with a new and total awareness of the human being, help individuals to become aware and to develop the healing powers within for prevention and cure of illness, synthesize various modern and traditional systems of medicine, and promote a new approach to health based on yogic psychology and the spiritual dimension of health.
- 11.
What catapults Sri Aurobindo Society onto a global philosophico-spiritual platform is the project Auroville—an international township based on the ideals of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s vision of divine life upon the earth operationalized through human unity and harmony. Participation in the collective experiment post its foundation laid by Mirra Alfassa, alias the Mother (the then Executive President of Sri Aurobindo Society), is based on certain spiritual and material conditions (Alain, 2000). Inner discovery, freedom, disinterestedness, sense of commune, and forfeiting the proprietary sense of possession, work as the key modicum and instrument which connects matter to the inner consciousness, consecration towards the divine Mother, and thus paving the way for a transformation and supra-mental realization, are the main elements. Although the funding is a combination of indigenous and international, the management is by the members under the Auroville Foundation Act (propelled by certain developments in 1980 when the management of Auroville assets and undertakings was taken over by GOI temporarily and later vested in an autonomous institution—the Auroville Foundation). Most of the activities are self-driven by residents who arrive voluntarily and be a part of the Auroville endeavour which projects collective, harmonious, and sustainable living (Alan & Tim, 1998).
- 12.
The community of reference for SARVAM comprises of 1376 families belonging to Scheduled Caste and Vanniar (MBC) communities in two villages in Viluppuram District of Tamil Nadu—Poothurai and Perembai. The approach is that of adopting the village and engaging in multifaceted development in aspects of education, health, economic development, vocational training, organic farming, water harvesting, and other components of ecological sustainability.
- 13.
NARDEP is a natural resource development programme based on the ideal of spiritual ecology, eco theology (Kulkarni, 1998; Vasudeo, 1998), and Gandhian tenets to address the issue of environmental degradation in a paradigm of development writ by Western scientism and technology. Hence, the focus is to promote eco-friendly cost-effective technology which has moved into areas of biogas plant construction and tapping of renewable energy resources; cost-effective house construction technology (developed by Laurie Baker from Thiruvananthapuram with an emphasis on use of local material for construction purposes); water management; organic farming (including dissemination of technologies of farm yard manure, NARDEP compost, biogas slurry and vermin compost along with propagation of Azolla and blue-green algae as biofertilizers and biopesticides; and alternative medicinal therapies such as Siddha and Ayurveda. NARDEP collaborates across state bodies, semi-government organizations, autonomous organizations, and funding organizations. With a grant from CAPART, a Technology Resource Centre as a training centre has been established at Kalluvilai about 5Â km from Kanyakumari town. The Gramodaya model has been created to demonstrate the indigenous, cosmological, and inclusive posited vis-Ã -vis the Western, Cartesian, and exclusive. Furthermore, feminine values of sneha, prema, daya, and Bhakti (affection, agape, compassion, and devotion) are viewed as integral for ecological conservation along with roles of family and traditional jatis which are instrumental in maintaining the ecological balance.
- 14.
Education is one of the main service activities of the Kendra with objectives of access, attainment and cultural infiltration, and cadre generation. There are twenty-five formal education schools across the country abiding by the central board curriculum, including schools in Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Golaghat, and Bokuloni in Assam; Port Blair, Rangat, and Hutbay in Andaman; and Valliyur and Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu. They are a combination of residential and non-residential initiatives along with several balwadis as preschools attached. Rural development initiatives include self-help groups and livelihood efforts including training in alternative technologies and farm technologies as well as educational initiatives in the form of formal schools, preschools, or non-formal education centres. The specified objective is cultural infiltration along with livelihood and self-sustenance. Currently, rural development efforts afoot in select villages of Kanyakumari, Tirunelveli, Tuticorin, Virudhunagar, and Ramanathapuram in Tamil Nadu are also now extended up to Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala and Chandil in Bihar. The project Arunjyoti in Arunachal Pradesh has multifarious activities including education, rural development, and natural resources development, aiming at retaining the Arunachal people in the mainstream. The Vivekananda Kendra Pratishthan Va Seva Prakalp, Nasik, runs a hostel for tribal and rural children and engages in rural development work. The Utkal Seva Prakalpa project in Orissa was started in January 2007. It contains 24 Anandalayas, that is, non-formal education centres run by 18 shiksha vratis or youth workers in Utkal, Deoband, and Devagiri blocks of Keonjhar District. The non-formal education package comprises of hymns, patriotic songs, and play activities in a two-hour session attended by approximately 840 local youth across.
- 15.
In terms of educational services, the first school and branch ashram was opened in 1987 in Kodungallur, Kerala, followed by an industrial and vocational training centre in 1989, and the School of Applied Sciences in 1990, initially named Amma Institute of Computer Technology, was started in Kollam, Kerala. In 1995, teachers were sent to remote tribal villages in Northern Kerala by Amritanandamayi Mission and a School of Engineering was started in Coimbatore. Later, in 1996, the School of Business was started in the same campus, and in the Kochi Ashram premises the College of Pharmaceutical Sciences was started. In 1997, the School of Hearing and Speech Improvement was established in Thrissur. In 2003, the School of Engineering was started in Bangalore and Kollam. Later in the same year, the School of Science and Management in Mysore and School of Journalism in Coimbatore were started. In 2005, the teacher’s training college in Mysore was inaugurated.
- 16.
In terms of residential institutions for vulnerable groups, the first orphanage was taken over by Amritanandamayi Mission in 1989, which is now called Amrita Niketan. At present, it houses 500 mostly from tribal communities. They attend the Amrita Sanskrit Higher Secondary School close by, the records also say that more than 35% go on to pursue higher education, and all of these are fully sponsored by Amritanandamayi Mission. Apart from formal schooling, they are also taught traditional art forms, and during the holidays most of them stay back at the Amritapuri Ashram. In 1996, the project Amrita Kuteeram that aimed at building free houses for the poor was launched. In 1998, care home for the elderly, Anbu Illam, was opened in Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu. In 2003, the Amrita Kripa AIDS care home was started in Trivandrum. In 2005, two care homes for the elderly were started in Karnataka. In 2007, the Amrita Nilayam Working Women’s Hostel was established. In 2009, during Amma’s visit to Kenya, the Watoto Boma Children’s Home was inaugurated and managed by Amma devotees (the orphanage is on the banks of Athi river and has an occupancy of 108 children).
- 17.
In terms of hospice and healthcare services in 1995, the first hospice for cancer patients, Amrita Hospice, was started in Mumbai. In 1998, Amrita Institute for Medical Sciences (AIMS), a multispeciality hospital was inaugurated. In 2003, colleges of medicine, dentistry, and nursing were opened at AIMS, Kochi. In 2004, the Amrita Kripa Hospital was started in Wayanad, Kerala, and the Amritapuri Campus at Kollam got a biomedical research centre. In the same year, an Ayurvedic medical college, hospital, and research centre was inaugurated at Amritapuri, Kollam. In 2007, the Amrita Kripa Hospital in Mysore was inaugurated.
- 18.
In terms of disaster relief and rehabilitation operations, initiatives were undertaken in Gujarat, Chennai, Bihar, and Tsunami-affected regions, Kashmir–Pakistan border areas, and international disasters such as Hurricane Katrina.
- 19.
In terms of food services, Annadanam services are available at headquarters and most centres. Similar initiatives have also been launched in the USA and Spain. In the USA, it is called Mother’s kitchen where volunteers provide 73,000 meals per year for the homeless in 47 cities throughout North America. The Mother’s kitchen also supports social service groups in the USA using their in-house kitchen facilities.
- 20.
In terms of environmental initiatives and ecological conservation, Amritanandamayi Mission is engaged in promoting local participation in conservation efforts worldwide in its centres and branches, now called the Green Initiative. Furthermore, the Amrita Bharatam programme has been launched as a campaign for clean-green Indian cities and villages.
- 21.
In terms of livelihood development in the year 2006, the Amrita SREE Self-Reliance, Empowerment, and Education programme was launched. In the same year, the Amrita Nidhi pension project for physically and mentally disabled persons was also launched. Amrita SREE is a livelihood project of Amritanandamayi Mission, which focuses on aiding women through the development of self-help groups, operating on the premise that empowering women with equal economic opportunities is one of the most effective ways to reduce poverty. This is done by providing vocational education, start-up capital, marketing assistance, and access to microcredit loans from small-scale banks. Self-help groups are based on the formulas established by RBI and NABARD. Volunteer programme coordinators first identify each targeted community’s particular needs and existing skills and resources before launching a phase of vocational training. Courses are selected from the proposals that emerge from the targeted communities and offered at reputed vocational institutions. Finally, self-help groups are formed according to geographical proximity, each consisting of approximately twenty women. Men who are family members are also eligible to receive vocational training. Self-help groups operate autonomously, and Amritanandamayi Mission helps each group in coming up with a viable business plan and assists in packaging and marketing retail products. For economic and capital enhancement, each group is encouraged to open a bank account.
- 22.
Education encompasses five aspects—information, concepts, attitude, imagination, and freedom. There exists a combination of formal and informal endeavours—the first one being that of the commencement of the Sanskrit school, and later on Ved Vigyan Maha Vidya Peeth as a rural school in 1981. A local volunteer was appointed to look after the children and give them basic lessons in hygiene, teach them educational games, and serve them healthy food for lunch. This became a big attraction for children and their parents and continues till date. As the school has progressed, a formal educational structure has been established and the number of teachers and students has increased. Today, the school has become a model for ninety-two similar free schools in rural and tribal areas with students being first-generation learners.
- 23.
Apart from proliferation of Sri Sri Ayurveda as a sustainable system of medicine, the SK&P programme is also considered as a viable alternative for lifestyle diseases prevention and cure.
- 24.
The 5H programme is generally employed in terms of rural development—health, hygiene, homes, human values, and harmony in diversity. A model village—Punarjani—was created at Pathiyoor District of Kerala to demonstrate the rural sustainable development mandate.
- 25.
Women’s empowerment is generally geared towards economic empowerment and leadership training, some examples being the VISTA, India, and the peanut butter project, Murewa, Zimbabwe.
- 26.
Prison programmes include the SK&P training sessions with the prison inmates for stress relief, mitigating negativities, and contribution to rehab and corrections.
- 27.
Sustainable development initiatives encompass organic farming, the Sri Sri Mobile Agricultural Institute which brings agriculture-related knowledge right to the farmers’ doorstep, service projects for tree plantation (Bahrain, Haiti, and Sydney), indigenous species protection, and water conservation. One project of water conservation is the Meri Delhi Meri Yamuna (MDMY) project. Deepening Roots was created in 2005 by volunteers from the AOL headquarters to offer youth a unique, experience-based approach to sustainable agriculture and leadership. The five pedagogic elements of deepening roots are meditation, health and wellness, sustainable agriculture, empowerment, and community.
- 28.
Coleman (2004). Simon Coleman has talked about charismatic gifting and its significance for the sense of premium gained and well-being for followers of religious movements.
- 29.
Institutional philanthropy is like what Eikenberry (2007) has called ‘giving circles’—groups that entail individuals pooling resources and then giving them away. They highlight the trade-off between grass-roots independence and non-coercive collaborative action that enables a contribution to democratic governance and public good.
- 30.
Self-sustenance can be seen as having two connotations—income-generating activities at one level and the estimate of monetary value of social service activities provided (Stritt, 2008) at another level.
- 31.
In the vertical–horizontal approach, the vertical dimension has to do with relationship with God and horizontal dimension has to do with relationship with self, others, and environment. The self–other–context–spiritual (SOCS) circle contains a presentation of four life realities—self, other, context, and spiritual. The holistic model of spirituality considers spirituality as the centre of the person surrounded by psychological, spiritual, biological, and sociological aspects of the individual. The outer circle is synergetically the wholeness of the spirituality of the person in relation to all domains of existence (see Carroll, 2001).
- 32.
Integral yoga is compared to Advaita Yoga of the Gita and Vaishnava Bhakti to discern differences. It aims not at a departure out of the world and life into heaven or nirvana, but at a change of life and existence, not as something subordinate or incidental but as a distinct and central object. The object sought after is not an individual achievement or a divine realization for the sake of the individual, but something gained for the earth consciousness here, a cosmic, not solely a supra-cosmic achievement. The thing to be gained here also is the bringing in of a power of consciousness—the supra-mental—not yet organized or active directly in earth’s nature. The method is total and integral change of nature also called triple transformation—psychic, spiritual, and supra-mental (Sri Aurobindo Ashram Archives and Research Library, 1993). Sri Aurobindo was further influenced in his integral yoga by Krishna Chandra Bhattacharya—one of the contemporaries who was influenced by Kant and the Advaita Vedanta school. He was interested in Indian idealism and wrote extensively on Advaita Vedanta and the Samkhya Yoga philosophy. He emphasized four grades of thought—empirical; pure objective or contemplative; spiritual and subjective; and transcendental. From Brojendranath Seal, he derived the ideals of related art with morality, particularly a fusion of mysticism with rationality (Sanyal & Roy, 2007).
- 33.
Saibaba Sansthan has a systematic modus operandi of accepting funds under various heads for faith-based and social service activities. With lakhs of pilgrims visiting every day and the number almost doubling during festivals (the calendar of which has been reconstructed by Saibaba Sansthan as per Saibaba’s life history), Saibaba Sansthan receives donations in crores of rupees and probably is only next in line with the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam and the Padmanabha Swamy Temple. In fact, the localization of Saibaba Sansthan has transformed Shirdi into a cauldron of devotees arriving from all parts of the country—with a Mecca-like status being endowed on it. Apart from anonymous donations which are put in the Hundi as per Saibaba Sansthan’s guidelines, which in themselves amount to lakhs per month, faith-based donations which are not tax-exempted and yet serve to be salvation mechanisms are the Abhishek Fund (holy bath as per the Hindu ritual), Naivedya Fund (holy meal), Festival Fund, Kothi—Dhoop Deep—Fund (incense fund), and the Shri Sai Satyavrat—Satyanarayan—Fund (a Hindu prayer ritual attributed to the Lord Satyanarayana, a puranic deity and reconfigured in Shirdi as the Sai Satyanarayana Vrata Pooja). In terms of social service activities, the donations are tax-exempted under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act, 1961, and received under the heads of charitable/developmental donation, general fund, building fund, medical fund, Annadaan fund (food donation), education fund, and Nitya Prasadalaya Annadaan scheme. This sacred ash is believed to have curative properties and is made out of the ash produced from the fire lit in Dwarkamai Masjid, the residence of Saibaba for several decades. This is packed and sent to all devotees who make donations. Two chapters of the Sai Satcharitra (Chaps. 33 and 34) have been devoted exclusively to extolling the virtues of Udi through anecdotal references.
- 34.
Whereas Marxian socialism has a materialistic substratum, Vivekananda’s socialism has Advaita Vedanta as its base—realization of the man as essentially divine and manifestation of that divinity as a way to overcome alienation. Vedantic socialism proposes a climate of change through an arousal of spirituality and the practical interpretation endowed to the ‘Hindu’ concept of Vedanta. Traditional socialism according to Swami Vivekananda would retain the proletarianization of the masses—Vedantic socialism would naturally alleviate (Parameswaran, 1987).
- 35.
Sapp (2011) has analysed President Obama’s interfaith service challenge to US students to commit to year-long interfaith service projects that engage constituencies across campus, across faith traditions, and across the wider local community. While they were included in pre-challenge planning, university chaplains and religious life staff were omitted from the list of partners. This omission challenged college chaplains and campus ministers to articulate a theology of interfaith service that represented their enduring priorities to engagement across faith lines and in service to others.
- 36.
Faith active in love is also a concept explicated by Martin Luther who has discussed, in the context of Christianity, that love is the litmus test of faith. Love does not create faith, but love is an instrument of faith, and this instrument speaks the language of service.
- 37.
For French theorist Pierre Bourdieu, microstructural processes are sociostructural elements that configure individual embodied practices called the habitus. The concept of ‘habitus’ has its roots in the works of Durkheim and Weber. Bourdieu conceptualizes habitus as a durable, but not entirely inflexible system, of learned attitudes, perceptions, and behaviours. Habitus is acquired through socialization within families and groups and integrating past experiences. Viewed in the context of religious systems, it serves to link structure and agency (Flanagan, 2008, p. 237).
- 38.
The sect has its own practices of bottom-up inclusion and swaminarayanization—a Swaminarayan variant of Sanskritization where the ‘class’ distance is covered by providing for the basic needs of the lesser-endowed among its members. The ‘traditional caste’ distance has a nouveau package to say that all have the grace of Pramukh Swami. Differentials are solely on the basis of historical involvement. Generations of engagement with Swaminarayan faith automatically elevate the status within the sect, even if class–tradition caste–ethnicity gaps persist.
- 39.
The Akshar Purushottam theodicy reads as follows: Lord Swaminarayan is the sole doer (karta), has a form (sakar), and is the transcendental, supreme entity (sarvopari) who is ever present on earth (pragat). Gunatitanand Swami, who is Aksharbrahman personified, is the divine abode of Shriji Maharaj (another name for Lord Swaminarayan), and the Satpurush is the gateway to Akshardham.
- 40.
The Mother according to Sri Aurobindo is the embodiment of divine Sakti—she has a fourfold form—Mahakali, Mahalakshmi, Maheshwari, and Mahasaraswati. There were analogies drawn between her and the female goddesses in the Hindu pantheon. The entire spiritual sadhana was eventually consecrated towards her—Sri Aurobindo saw in her a form of a divine consort and more so a compatriot towards the mission of integral yoga.
- 41.
Communitarian notions of social citizenship are in contrast to a privatized, economic, and individualistic ‘civil society’ (McMillin, 2011).
- 42.
See Huff (2010) has looked at how one faith-based non-profit organization and its various Pentecostal and evangelical church partners in El Salvador are creating associational contexts within which local community development projects are identified and implemented. Corresponding analysis of interview data portrays how these same actors relied on diverse social logics—which are both religious and practical in nature—to make sense of and assess some of the key assumptions of a particular form of faith-based development.
References
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Pandya, S.P. (2019). Faith in Practice: The Tangibility of Social Service. In: Faith Movements and Social Transformation. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2823-7_5
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