Sanyasi Bhoomananda - we'll all miss him
Personally I never met this person before 1993. Niyati knew him as Sri Ratnakar Mishra of Tihidi, Chandabali and he was Kuni Nani's(Niyati's immediate elder sister's) father-in-law. The first time he came to us for some medical help he politely refused to take anything other than a glass of water. He was Swami Bhoomananda christened that way and was an inmate of the local Gurukul Ashram at Vedavyas in our town Rourkela. He was 80 then and I found him maintaining fairly good health for his age. I loved this old man of 80 who was quite tall, fair and handsome. He was hard of hearing and always took it positively as he was not able to hear others speaking ill of fellow humans.But as age advanced he was forced to seek our help for medical reasons and in the process became a very good friend of our daughter with disability Mama.
During the last 16 years he became close to Rabi, Payani and Anita too. We were not always able to offer him the medical help he sought from us, but I've not come across anyone who was a better well-wisher to our whole family during the last 10 years. He had his close circle of people in the Ashram. He respected his Gurudev who was much younger to him by age like any obedient disciple. Had a great deal of love for Rama Babu, Subhash Babu, Bhima Babu and the Principal of the Sanskrit College and their respective family members. He was also an ardent lover of Sanyasi Pranabanandjee. He also became a Sanyasi in due course of time and was christened Sanyasi Bhoomananda.
But at our place Mama stood out in his priorities and whenever he was visiting us Mama was the highest priority for him and he was always teaching her to recite "Oam".
He was an ardent lover of books both scripture and non-scripture, Contributed significantly to build a good library in the Ashram and also get the preachings and work of many great people published.
He had strong fascination for a colleague of mine Dr. Sanjoy Satpathy as the later was a very good short story writer and always wanted me to take him to the later for any illness. Quite often sickness prevailed, but on many occasions, sickness was just an alibi to start discussion on writing and social messages and so on.He developed pain in his back during the first week of January and on 15th January 2009, he fell down in the Ashram premises and was injured. He was shifted to his son Muralidhar Mishra's residence at Rajgangpur where he was treated by Dr. Patel and Dr. Dalvinder Singh. On 29th January he was taken to his eldest son Sri Prafulla Mishra's residence at Bhubaneswar. He was admitted to Ayush Hospital where incidentally Dr. Sanjoy is currently working. But some how despite the best care by Litu, Titu et al, he passed away at 1245 pm on 18th February in the presence of all his sons and daughters and many grand children. Mama missed him a lot when his photo was shown to her and she was informed that 'Jeje' has become God. We all miss him.
We met each other for the first time about 12-14 years back when we were staying in company's quarters in B-29 Sector-20. He had come with a student of Gurukula Ashram in Vedvyas to meet us and seek some medical help in the hospital where both Niyati & myself are working. He was Swami Bhoomananda then and later took full Sanyas and became Sanyasi Bhoomannanda. Earlier to that he was Sri Ratnakar Mishra from Chabishpada Sasana, Tihidi, Chandabali. Niyati knew him well as he was her elder sister Kuni Nani's father-in-law. This man was greatly influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and worked hard all his life to abide by the Gandhian philosophy. I'm not very much aware of his days in Tihidi though I've heard that he was a man who was easily distinguishable there. Simply with his six and half feet frame, tall & lanky figure and some meaningful contribution to society, it would have been quite easy. But the man was never happy despite almost all his children succeeding in life and chose to become an inmate of Gurukul Vaidic Ashram run by th Arya Samaj in Rourkela for the last 20 years.Always fond of maintaining a spartan life, he never wanted anything from us except for seeking some medical advice only when the local remedies failed to work. But with increasing age, the problems of old age also started to flow in and we had to intervene to restore his eye sight and some other age related problems and it was his eldest son who used to pay for it. But despite our recommendation he never used a lathi in his life of 96 years and maintained the upright posture. Always an addicted reader, he also loved to read books other than scripture. He was such an avid reader that he was asked to take charge of the library and publication wing of the Ashram till a year back. He used to get some 300-400 rupees from various sources every month but used to spend the most of it by distributing biscuits to the toddler of the Ashram. Though initially he refused to take anything at our place, he started loving Mama for her pure innocence and we were privileged to have hosted him for some days on a couple of occasions during the time of his sickness. I have direct knowledge of his simple life style and belief in the Gandhian gospel and he got Gandhi's Bhagwat Gita translated to Oriya and published it through the Ashram. It was a day of reckoning for him. That he got Gandhi's Gita translated to Oriya was considered by him to be his long cherished dream coming true.
Labels: "Gurukul Ashram", Bhumananda, Rourkela, Vedvyas
posted by Sadasiv Swain at
February 20, 2009
