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Agra: Indian Army
chief General V.K. Singh Sunday opened the first Rashtra Mandir,
dedicated to freedom fighters and social workers, at the
Mankameshwar temple complex here.
The Rashtra Mandir is a unique temple in the name of people like
Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Annie Besant and Bhagat Singh.
Mahant Har Har Puri, who is the brain behind the shrine, told
IANS: "Nationalism today has to be the foundation of religion.
Those who sacrificed their lives preaching sermons and values to
ensure freedom with dignity for us have to be revered like gods
and it is our duty to inculcate these values in our younger
generation."
The temple was opened in the presence of Gandhians from America,
Britain and Japan.
"The idea is people who visit the temple should return convinced
that violence does not pay, and there are more important things in
this world to fight for than petty politics," said Yogesh Puri, a
key organiser.
The temple is designed simply with portraits of freedom fighters
put up in the backdrop of the national flag. In the centre is a
huge statue of Mahatma Gandhi with his famous three monkeys.
"The moment you see all the great men together, your head
automatically bows down in reverence and awe," commented culture
critic Mahesh Dhakar.
Agra is the right place to have a temple of this kind, as a large
number of domestic and foreign tourists visit the city daily.
"They should go back with intellectual inputs, of the seminal
ideas that have stood the test of time and will continue to remain
beacons of hope for a strife-torn humanity," said Har Har Puri.
The inspiring portraits of Chandra Shekar Azad, Bhagat Singh,
Ashfaq Ullah Khan, Tilak, Malviya, Mother Teresa, leave a deep
imprint on visitors to the temple, which is walking distance from
Agra Fort, right in the heart of the city.
"Just as we revere and worship our ancestors during the pitr paksh,
we must also do the same with these great men and women who have
done so much for humanity. We look at them with respect as gods;
their ideas will fuel our actions," said Vijay Kumar Handa of the
Gandhi Hindustani Sahitya Sabha, Delhi.
Handa told IANS: "Very soon 100 Japanese kids will take to
spinning on the charkha as a daily ritual. We are getting messages
from China and other countries. Fed up with violence and senseless
brutalities often resulting from mindless pursuit of materialism,
more and more young people were seeing reason in what Gandhi said,
did or wrote."
"The momentum is now with the people and it is all the more
necessary to educate people and guide them through propagation of
Gandhian values," the chief of the centuries old Mankameshwar
Matth told IANS.
General V.K. Singh had visited the Mankameshwar temple last year
and conducted some special puja. The idea of a Rashtra Mandir had
excited him and he promised to open the temple when it was
completed.
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