“STANDING tall to the morals and principles, Sudarshanji was a rare personality to whom RSS will ever remember for his intellectual contributions to the organisation. His life and message is a guiding force to all swayamsevaks. He showed the right path for a social worker how to be with people even though there exists difference in ideology among each other. Sudarshanji is indeed a role model for Sangh swayamsevaks,” said RSS Sarkaryavah Shri Bhaiyaji Joshi in Mysore on September 26.
Shri Joshi was speaking at a condolence meeting organised by the RSS local unit to pay tribute to the fifth Sarsanghachalak of RSS Sudarshanji, who passed away recently. The meeting was part of Vaikunt Samaroh (a Hindu post-death ritual practiced after 12 days of death of a person) at Sudarshanji’s native. Sudarshanji’s family hails from Kuppahalli village of Mandya district, closer to Mysore. Senior Sangh Pracharak Shri K Suryanarayan Rao, Sudarshanji’s brother Shri KS Ramesh and Prant Sanghachalak Shri M Venkataram were also present at the meeting.
“Sudarshanji never compromised with Hindutva ideology. Growing beyond a portrayed image that RSS is anti-Islam or anti-Christian, and even being RSS Sarsanghachalak Sudarshanji closely associated with many friends/scholars from Islam-Christian communities. This shows that Sudarshanji and RSS always open for all who love the nation. On September 16, during Sudarshanji’s funeral ceremony around 1500 Muslim friends from different states arrived and expressed their condolences. Sudarshanji always used to say about the good and bad interpretations of religious literature, both in Islam and Christian religions. However, he was open for all intellectual dialogues among these communities. Sudarshanji’s this attitude shows that a social worker, though he may have any ideological difference with anyone, should be open for friendly dialogues. Don’t hate a person, even if you hate his ideology was Sudarshanji’s message,” Bhaiyaji added.
He further said, “As Sharirik Pramukh and as a Bauddhik Pramukh, Sudarshanji guided both physical and intellectual training in RSS. Sudarshanji was such a tall scholar, but for all common swayamsevaks he was reachable at ground zero. Even as an octogenarian Sudarshanji was training small kids of 6-8 years of age at RSS sanghasthan, meanwhile he was attending top level intellectual conferences with top scholars. Hence Sudarshanji was such a rare personality to set his life with utmost simplicity and discipline. His death resembles the death of a Yogi, as he died early in the morning during pranayam, even without any suffering, as per the Vedic saying Anaayaasena Maranam.”
Senior Pracharak Shri K Suryanarayan Rao remembered the valuable contribution of Sudarshanji on social harmony between different communities. Shri KS Ramesh, brother of Sudarshanji, remembered the early life of Sudarshanji, his family relationships, and said Sudarshanji was their family’s mentor. RSS top functionaries Shri Mai Cha Jayadev, Shri Na Krishnappa, Shri Mangesh Bhende, Shri Su Ramanna, Shri Kajampady Subramanya Bhat, Shri Chandrashekar Bhandary, Shri PR Krishnamurthy, Shri Jayakumar of Vijnan Bharati, Shri AS Nirmal Kumar of Janaseva Vidya Kendra were also present. Hundreds of RSS well wishers, villagers from Kuppahalli and Sudarshanji’s family members attended the ceremony.
Earlier, Sudarshanji’s ashes were immersed in river Kaveri at Sriranga Pattanam. RSS Mysore city Sewa Pramukh Shri Manjunath performed all religious rites under the guidance of famous priest Sri Bhanuprakash.
(Rajesh Padmar in Bengaluru)
