Acharya Tulsi
The Indian government has fixed a new goal - of adult education. The Government's resolution is to make at least 10 crores of people literate in one year. The numbers of illiterate women is higher than that of men. Forget about reading books etc; there are such women who cannot read or sign their own name. These women fall prey to cheating and conspiracies very often, it is imperative to make such women literate. Therefore it is necessary for old women to be literate. It is a matter of prestige for our religious community that our male and female members are fully literate. Matushri Vadana learned to write her name at the age of 60 years. Older women must get inspired from her. When an elderly lady member can become literate, why cannot others do it? They have to keep in mind the world and their guru's vision. Their primary goal must be to keep the world in sight and women's issues at hand during their literacy process.
Mission to Make the Society Literate
When a movement is on at the national level to propagate literacy, why is the terapanthi society lagging behind in this? People in the society at large must take cognizance and strive to improve the situation on the literacy front. When one member from every single family takes up the cause of literacy, soon the entire middle class will become literate. Even today, in Mewar, many of our brothers and sisters are illiterate. Some of them cannot even read and write their own name. We have in our midst, many activists from Mewar. They must take stock of the situation and address this. A wide movement can be initiated in this field. When you make every adult literate, you can proudly say there is no illiterate in the Terapanthi society. Sisters say that there is nothing to do, no new initiative to pursue. But if we think in deep then is this not a new initiative and task? Today if a movement is started to make every woman literate, our sisters will have a strong motive, initiative to pursue and work sphere to expand. This is not an easy task, albeit it is an important one.
Advantages of Female Education
It was before independence. Mahatma Gandhi was imparting education to an old lady to make her literate. Many popular leaders like Nehru, Jinnah, Patel visited him regularly to seek suggestions on movement. Despite these visits, he performed these duties with regularity. A man asked him "Will freedom be gained through this?" He retorted immediately, "Yes, freedom is possible only through the awakening of the consciousness and that can only be enabled through literacy." Our Acharya (Teacher) used to say that in making a fellow sister literate and self-righteous, an entire family is rendered literate and self-righteous. Each person must pledge not to remain illiterate and not let others remain illiterate.
Sadhvi Pramuka Ladan was illiterate in her Grihastavaas. She became a widow at young age. She approached me and asked me to teach her. I was only a seven-year-old boy at that time, immature and naive. I accepted the challenge and I used to visit her everyday at her in-laws house to teach. In due course, she became literate.
Hard Work Pays Off
We can find many persons in society who do not have any significant task to pursue. Such persons can engage in this activity, this would prove beneficial to society and their time will be optimally utilized. There are illiterate people who show no interest in acquiring literacy. They can be inspired to become literate. Continual motivation, inspiring enthusiasm and hard work-This way, the literacy campaign will be successful and the activists' efforts will pay off, we strongly believe in that. Some elders ask what benefit they will gain by studying at this late age. Big benefits, I tell them. They acquire tact and the ability to understand others' expressions. Before gaining literacy, they do not possess the ability to understand others clearly. This is the benefit of making elderly people literate. The activists have the only task of making elderly people literate.
Terapanthi committee is a disciplined fold, managed by one center. Their activists are engaged in this activity effortlessly due to this reason. I understand that its activists are actively engaged to achieve this objective promptly as per worldly demands.
