Thakur, like Vibhishan of Ramayan, speaks without fear or favour, and I am sure I will make many Thekedaar (saviours, movers, and shakers) of Ram and religion uneasy with my thoughts.
Do we have Pracharaks, Kathakaar, discourser, presenters, Temple owners and thekedaar of religion amongst us who can bring ram GYAN PRATHISTA (invoking knowledge of Ram to their hearts) to make the chant of “ram aayenge..’’ a reality and not only a song, and a slogan of cheerleaders?
This is after we had some visiting Ayodhya with reports of the opening or conducting prayers there or just vising Tirath Places for their personal self-satisfaction and self -actualisation. This article was in response to a disciple of Ayodhya based Guruji, conducting parvachan from Ayodhya.

I blessed him for having his Guruji from that Janmabhoomi of Prabhu Ram and being there. But there are many shortfalls that I see from the saviours of Ram, who need to change themselves before expecting people to change. This is after many Brahmins in the adopted countries of New Zealand and Australia are seen as too money-faced, only using religion as a means to enrich themselves, with little, if any community wellbeing interest and input or care to their jujmaan (clients) or their children.
Also, the unusually and unreasonably high reported charges associated with deaths and figures quoted of $3,000 -$5,000 will make the lives of the dead, Murda into danger –do we have people making money from death through grieving vulnerable people? Do these Pundits go anywhere near the teachings of Ram, His karuna and Compassion they preach us about? And can they claim to have the “clean” personal character of Ram?
One of my gripes and complaints remain that while we have been able to invoke life and Ram in a lifeless stone statue, unfortunately we are somehow unable to bring life and lessons of Shri Ram Ji in the hearts of many of our living Hindus in either NZ, Australia, or Fiji.

We seem to fail to learn and follow the lessons of Ram, and especially his biggest character trait and quality of KARUNA, Compassion; Mercy; Gentleness, kind and understanding to people, accepting them without caring their status or class, and acting humanely and kindly towards all being, be it a cursed and disowned mistreated lady of stone, Ahilya, a lowly caste Bhllni Shabri, to leader of a Jungli tribe, Nishad Raj, to a vulture bird, Jatatyu, to a lowly tasked Kewat or monkeys and other creatures, and showing His friendship, kindness and compassion to all around HIM. I know some who, dressed in Shawls of Ram are very distant from even the character of even shadows of Shri Ram, abusing his name for their personal ego, financial gain, or glory.

One of major issue in Australia, New Zealand and even Fiji is depression, mental sickness and feeling very low, resulting in multiple, unexplained suicides. One solution to this is being nice, gentle, understanding to the victims, and allowing them to speak without fear of being ridiculed.

Many in our communities have a habit of making fun of these people, calling them “zhakki” or mad, and ridiculing them. This in many instances translates to suicides. Many are gossipers like Manthra of Ramayan, tend to be gossipers and talkers speaking ill of those depressed. What have we really learnt from Ram, except that beautiful song..Ram Aayenge..Ram Aayenge…?

We have abundance of elder abuse, family harm, violence, people disowning their parents, many brotherly disputes about property and long list of court cases in Fiji and elsewhere, Hindus fail to learn from Ram’s brotherly love and respect for His half-brother Bharat, to honour his father’s wishes.

In the footsteps of Ram in honouring his forebears and past generation, a group of caring people (including yours Truly Thakur) initiated and started FIJI GIRMIT FOUNDATION NZ some 13 years ago, to bring awareness of our stolen Girmit history and knowledge of the past generations to us. This is exactly what Lord Ram had taught us: respect for His heritage, legacies and lessons left by Ram’s Purwaj (ancestors) and a great list of honourable people. How many of us remember the names of our Girmitiyas, our grandparents and even know our “Gotr”?

FIJI GIRMIT FOUNDATION NZ still wishes to link with established Mandalis, Mandirs, Pundits and Pracharaks, Temple owners to work and celebrate the traits and character of our Purwaj, our forebears that Lord Ram did in his life to the Girmit movement. Very soon FIJI SENIORS FEDERATION NZ would try to unite our faith-based established organisations into a united body, such as FIJI FEDERATION OF FAITH-BASED ORGANISATIONS NZ.

I think we will need this paradigm shift to tackle many of our problems and our devotion, AND PERHAPS THE LESSONS, TEACHINGS AND DIRECTIONS SHOWN BY RAM may be the answer to many present -day problems.

Please remain blessed and when those in Ayodhya and many others who have been to the soils of Ajodhya Tirth return to New Zealand, we can see some change and willingness to work for the better wellbeing of the community, a change to shed their ego and ways that Ram taught and followed all his life. Hope they shed their ego, love for money and concentrate on goodwill and wellbeing of the community, which only some handful of people in Hindu religion tend to do. And they may not be religious but are spiritual and have gained the GYAN PRATHISTA of Ram in their hearts, while many religious people still need to do this.
Only then we will know whether “Ram Aayenge.” and slogan and Tsunami of Ram has been a reality or still remains the imagined goodness that we crave for, and merely remains a chant, and cry for religious cheerleaders and Pracharaks making rounds of Ayodhya. – Thakur Ranjit Singh
[About the Author: Thakur Ranjit Singh is a Third generation Fiji Indian Hindu, a journalist, a media commentator, and blogger at FIJI PUNDIT, based in Auckland, New Zealand]
E-mail: thakurjifj@gmail.com]