In the great adventure of life, God and man are comrades. It was a Sufi dervish who said, “You must meet God every day. And if you cannot meet Him, go and meet someone who has met Him and who lives in constant communion with Him. The two are not separate from each other!”
One such man of God was born on the 25th of November 1879, in Hyderabad-Sind. He was called by many names. The name by which he was known across the length and breadth of India was Sadhu Vaswani. In his characteristic humility, he said, "I am not a sadhu (holy man). I do but aspire to be a servant of the sadhus, the rishis, and saints."
Tributes were paid to him by men and women of light and leading in East and West.
“By what name may we call you, Beloved of our hearts?” we asked him once. “May we call you a sadhu, a guru, a yogi, a rishi? Or may we call you Sache Padshah, for you are, verily, the uncrowned King of our hearts?”
In answer, he said, “Call me by this simple name - Dada. For I am your brother on the pathways of life.”
The word “Dada” means “elder brother”. He was, verily, a brother of all men, all races, all religions, all nations, a brother of the bereft and bereaved, a brother, too, of birds and animals, trees and flowers, rivers and rocks, stars and streams - a brother of all creation.
One of the noblest lessons he taught us was that the animals are our younger brothers and sisters in the one Family of Creation. “Kill them not!” he said. “Believe me, meat-eating will one day be condemned as murder.”
25th November, Sadhu Vaswani's birthday, is observed as International Meatless Day and Animal Rights' Day. Every year, on this day, millions of people all over the world, pledge to abjure food of violence, in sacred memory of the saint to whom every living creature was holy.
Sadhu Vaswani continues to be with us in spirit!
(Dada J.P. Vaswani is humanitarian, philosopher, educator, acclaimed writer, powerful orator, messiah of ahimsa, and non-sectarian spiritual leader.)
