Vazirsingh’s Weblog

Baldev Singh was born in 1913 in a small town of Himachal Pradesh in North India. He was orphaned at an early age, and he was brought up by his uncle. He studied hard and became a mechanical engineer from Dayalbagh,Agra.

My earliest memories are of him taking me and my brother to a garden near our house. I remember the delicious treat of Imarati and milk which he used to invariably give us. He was the love and kindness personified. I do not recall a single time when he scolded or disciplined us. I miss this kind old man so much, that I dream of him  constantly and sometimes my eyes well up and the heart bursts with emotion. Years later he suffered debilitating strokes which impaired his faculties. It started with loss of sense of smell, eventually leading to dementia, and finally an invalid’s lingering death. There was no dignity in the way he died, but the dignity his life possesed still inpires and fires my imagination.

I know that he could have made a fortune as he was industrious, but he expended his energies in lifting up the underprivileged from his village. He was responsible for settling and helping countless people. He also saved aside enough for his progeny which they squandered, so not much remains of his legacy. But I treasure the wealth of character which I see as my actual inheritance.

 

Whenever I go through a rough patch, I realise that my struggles pale in comparison to my grandfathers. I will be honoured if I achieve 20% of his life’s achievements and I hope that I retain a small fraction of his humility. He is my role model, the only hero I need to inpire me whever I have a crisis of any kind.

 

Babaji, if these words could reach you, " I love you. and I am proud that I was born in your bloodline. May your soul be free from the cycle of birth and death forever". I wish I had the wisdom to have expressed this 20 years ago in your lifetime.

I ask myself the meaning of humility.

It is a virtue extolled by all spiritual leaders and religions. As school children we learn this at a very early age in our religion or moral science class. However as we grow, the relentless rat race to get ahead teaches us the practicality of self-promotion. Truth assumes varies hues.We see white lies as a new addition to our dictionary.

Life teaches us at a early age that truth can only get you to some place, while the same truth embellished can take you much further in the material world. The “power of spin” is equated with leadership. Out goes ethical behavior or morality, they being impractical in the world today.

The result is erosion or unlearning of all teaching drilled into us as children.

A humble person is equated with a wimp, or worse a fool.

When I first read Dostoevsky as a 18 year old, I was profoundly influenced by Prince Myshkin “The idiot”. His morality shone through like a shining star in this dark and murky world. Admittedly a creation of the author’s imagination, this character taught me the meaning of humility. It accomplished what the combined efforts of all other forms of learning could not.

It humbled me and made me aware of how pride and ego corrupts the soul.I have since revisited the book and I gain a lot of moral energy from the same.I wish he had attainable qualities. But then it is looking for an ideal which lives in a different world. However even a bit of his quality will help.

Dostoevsky has other great literature too, which have been significant for me. Brothers Karamzov, Crime and Punishment and several short stories vie with each other for mention.

The Prince is however royalty. May he live forever in the thoughts of human beings and touch their lives the way he touched mine.