How a Truant turned into a Prolific Student
Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar was by far the most learned Indian politician, at least of his time. He was the first Indian to get a Doctorate in Economics from the London School of Economics as well as a Doctorate from Columbia University. In addition, he also got the degree of Barrister-at-Law from Grey's Inn, London. He had an insatiable hunger for learning. On his trips abroad, he would bring back thousands of second hand books with him. His personal library at Bombay, Rajgirh, had more than 50,000 books. Yet, at one time during his childhood, he wanted to abandon his studies and run away from home to work as an ordinary mill worker. As destiny would have it, this fateful plan did not fructify.
Father of Dr. BR Ambedkar, Ramji Sakpal, was a Subedar in Indian Army. The last and fourteenth child of Ramji & Bhimabai, born on 14th April 1891 at Mhow, was named Bhim Rao Ambavadekar. (Surname name changed to Ambedkar later)
The family belonged to the untouchable caste of Mahars known for their valor. Forefathers of Bhim served in the Army of East India Company from the very commencement of its operations in India. One interpretation of the word Mahar is "Maha-Ari" (The great enemy) which signifies the combative spirit and fierce temperament of the community.
After retirement from the Army, Ramji Sakpal settled at Satara. Soon, he shifted to Koregaon, where he got a job as a cashier, while keeping his family in Satara. At the age of six, Bhim lost his mother. His aunt started living with the family to take care of young Bhim, his elder brother and two sons of his eldest sister, who had also died.
Bhim and his elder brother started their schooling at Satara. At school, they suffered untold humiliations due to the stigma attached to their caste. They would be made to sit in the corner of the classroom on a gunny bag which they had to take back home every day because the school peon would not touch it. When thirsty, they could not just go to tap quench their thirst like other children because they were not allowed to touch the tap. When thirsty, school peon would pour water into their upturned mouths from atop, making sure that the water pot would not touch their unholy bodies! Nobody else in the school would perform even this mundane act for the boys. Later, Ambedkar described the agony of those days in his essay "No Peon, no water". Once when Bhim was found stealthily drinking water from a public tap he was roundly thrashed.
However, not everyone in the school was unkind to Bhim. He was a pet student of one Brahmin teacher by the name Mahadev Ambedkar. Sir Mahadev would even share his lunch with him. He liked Bhim so much that in school records he changed the surname of the boy from Ambavadekar to Ambedkar.
Early in his school days, Bhim was carefree, fearless and hardly serious about his studies. His interest was in gardening, tending to cattle and rearing goats.
In 1901, Ramji Sakpal invited his two sons and a grandson to spend their summer vacation with him at Koregaon. From Satara, they had to travel by train up to Masur from where Koregaon was 10 miles away. This was a very exciting proposition for the young boys as they had never travelled by train before. Great preparations, including stitching of new clothes, were made for the vacation. When the train reached Masur, the boys were perplexed to discover that their father had not come to pick them up. (Later it was found that their letter had not reached their father in time). They decided to hire a cart for reaching Koregaon but when the cart owners realized they were Mahars, they refused to give them a ride. At last, with the intervention of Station Master, one Cart owner agreed to lend his cart on the condition that they will have to pay double the fare and also drive the cart by themselves. Cart owner will walk behind the cart. Left with no choice, they agreed to the terms. On the way, when they wanted to partake food, brought from home for the journey, no one was ready to give them water. Bhim knew that he was untouchable and had to follow a certain code of conduct but never before he had to face such inhuman treatment and humiliations. It made him think about Untouchability. Ambedkar writes in his biography, "Waiting for a Visa": "This incident has a very important place in my life. I was a boy of nine when it happened. But it has left an indelible impression on my mind."
When Bhim was about ten years old, his father decided to marry a second time. Bhim did not like the idea of another woman taking his mother's place and wearing her jewellery. He rebelled and secretly hatched a plan to run away from home and work as a mill hand in Bombay where, he knew, many lads from Satara had been working. To buy train fare he planned to steal the money from the pouch of his aunt who would sleep on the floor with him. For three successive nights, he tried to get hold of the pouch, tucked to the waist of the aunt, but could not succeed. When he got hold of the pouch on the fourth night, to his great dismay, he discovered that the pouch had only half an "Anna" in it, far from enough to buy fare. Dejected, he spent the whole night contemplating his next move.
Next day he concluded that there is no use in trying to escape from school. Now he decided that he will become independent by studying hard and getting a good job. From that day he gave up his truant habits and dedicated himself to studies. This self-motivation proved to be a life-changing event not only for the boy but also for the nation.
In 1904, the family moved from Satara to Bombay. Bhim and his brother were admitted to Elphinstone School. They faced caste prejudice in the new school as well. They were not allowed to take Sanskrit as a second language because the Brahmin Sanskrit teacher would not teach the language of Vedas to Shudras. Much against their wishes, they had to take Persian as their second language. Later, Bhim studied Sanskrit to gain firsthand knowledge of Vedas and Hindu scriptures. He described Sanskrit as a treasure house of literature & grammar and much superior to Persian.
In School one of the teachers kept pestering Bhim to leave the school because, in his opinion, it was useless for an untouchable to get educated. Exasperated by the constant harangues of the teacher, one day Bhim angrily asked the teacher to mind his own business.
When the brothers reached secondary school, the meagre pension of Ramji Sakpal was not enough to pay the fees for both of them. Bhim's elder brother, Anandrao, had to leave school so that his more promising younger sibling could continue his education. Bhim acquired a very keen interest in reading books other than those prescribed by the school curriculum. This broadened his horizon & knowledge but affected his school performance. Bhim's father would reluctantly give him money to buy these books, sometimes borrowing money from his married daughters and at times even pawning their jewellery.
Bhim passed matriculation in 1907. Though he could score only 282 marks out of 750, this was a great achievement for an untouchable. A rare matriculate from amongst them was also a matter of pride for the Mahar community. His father arranged a facilitation function for Bhim. Arjun Keluskar, Marathi author and a teacher at Wilson High School, was also invited for the function. He presented Bhim with a biography of Buddha on the occasion.
Soon after matriculation, at the age of 15, Bhim got married. His wife Ramabai was just nine years old then. The venue of marriage was an open shed of Byculla market of Bombay with stone platforms serving as benches and tables. The marriage took place during the night and before dawn, the place was cleared for vendors to resume their business.
After marriage when Bhim joined college, shortage of money once again threatened to disrupt his education. But once again lady luck smiled when a liberal, generous & royal benefactor came forward to his rescue.
More
Run free trains for stranded migrant workers please
Dr. BR Ambedkar – Messiah of untouchables
How spiritual awakening makes a person into a better human
Well, this question is always raised on spirituality that how it can transform a person into a better human being. The battle between logic vs. spirituality and science vs. awakening is still going on for many decades but the outcome is still not accepted by both sides. However, those who experience and gain something or everything from spirituality will always stand aside from it and those who never came across of it will always deny the results of spiritual awakening. In fact, they raise a question on its existence. Somehow they forget or may neglect the fact that it has a history of over 5000 years or more.
Spirituality is the soul of Indian culture, which was developed to make everything in a better state for the entire mankind. But in the influence of western culture and development of our logical overview, we have completely neglected our ancestor's sacraments. Anyways the time is changing and proving the importance of spirituality in our life.
So the basic question is how spiritual awakening can transform a person into a better human being? And this can be elaborated in a very simple yet effective and proven manner. Awakening is nothing but self-realization. Realization is nothing but developing a vision to see the truth as it is. And the truth is nothing but the fact, which has a clear statement about a certain dimension. Thus awakening is the development of a state of mind, which can see the truth and can accept the fact without the involvement of judgment and clarification. Awakening gives a person a certain kind of vision through which he can clearly understand the situation, people and things along with the circle of life. It means an awakening ensure that a person no matter what the condition is, but he will be ready to accept and face the situation. Even in the worst condition or the most profound situation, a person will not be affected by the ego, greed, lust or jealousy. He will be ever conscious of what is happening and why it is happening. Therefore he never loses his temperament, his wise thought process, his calmness and his basic human element.
Through awakening, a person comes out of the circle of past and future and start living in every present moment. He never regrets his past and he never gets worried for the future as he understands the fact that he cannot change what has happened and even cannot alter what is going to happen. So is that mean an awaken person becomes a dumb or do nothing? The answer is NO. It doesn't mean he accepts means he becomes effortless, but he certainly ensures that the things which are out of his control are useless to think or act upon, so he breaks the circle and lives in a present moment. Because life is not in the past or future, it is residing in each present moment. And those who live in present tend to live more joyful than anyone else in the world.
Awakening also gives immense calmness on excessive thoughts. As we have evolved a thoughtful minded being, our mind is also grown like a supercomputer. But this computer never gets on sleep mode until fully shut down. It has become unstoppable. Henceforth these excessive thoughts make us engaged all the time even in decision making, day to day living, loving, suffering and experiencing with all irrelevant fear, anxiety, depression, worry, daydreaming and negative thinking. Unnecessary thoughts are always harmful to us as those things which only exist in our mind, are precisely putting impact on our health and our life. In such life, a person leaves behind the basic fundamental of his life that is living without any fear or worry. And to live without any fear or worry, one needs to be surrender. He should be surrender to himself only, as he has hidden all the powers in the universe as long as he evolved them one by one with the help of spirituality.
Spirituality is a gift to the whole of mankind. It's a precious endowment. Spirituality is purely a human science, contributed to making a person, a better human being.
surprised to find no comments on this article. is it that, there's nothing further to add, because everything about self-knowledge has been said?
unlikely.
a nice presentation on pursuit of self-realization. more than that, about living in the present. everyone is not going to go through all the 'ashramas' of life and attain "moksha".
but all of us are trying to have less of worries, stress and unhappiness and more peace, mental and physical health and happiness. towards that goal, this article gives some tips to change your gear and try to negotiate the ascent peacefully and carefully concentrating on the road immediately before you or more aptly on the "present".