When Sri Sri Ravi Shankar launched Volunteer for a Better India, many people asked, “So what is it for? It’s a good idea broadly, sure, but what is it specifically about?” This question dwelt in their minds, and there were some very sincere attempts at finding out answers through discussions. But everybody had their own ideas and thoughts. While all this was going on, somebody put a bunch of people together and revived a dry river! That made it clear that there are those who discuss what VBI is over the dinner table and then, there are those who decide what it is.
A few months ago, Sri Sri started saying in public discourses that there were 12 crore voters who had not been registered for voting and that something had to be done about it. This thought got stuck into Dr. Vinod Kumar, a young teacher at the ashram. While he was mulling over this, one day, Sri Sri took him by the hands, looked into his eyes and told him, “You are here for a big reason. Live your life for the country. Go and shake colleges. Do something big.” Vinod left the ashram to fulfil his Master’s word.
With full faith in his heart, he set out to accomplish what his Guru had planned for him.
He began from Kurnool district in Andhra Pradesh (A state in India) and started going and approaching colleges, sharing this information with them. Everybody agreed that something had to be done. He then developed a 1 day training program for the students. The students from the first few programs launched such an intense voter registration drive, that it caught the Collector’s attention, who then invited Vinod to his office. Vinod was a little late in arriving due to a session he was teaching, but was surprised to find the Collector still waiting for him, with the media. The Collector showered praise on the young teacher and asked him to share what he was doing.
Vinod explained with directness and simplicity, “We all want to make India better. Someone wants to clean a slum, someone else wants to plant trees and so on. But we do it when it suits us, at different times. If we do it together, we’ll make a bigger difference. VBI is just a platform for that. It is whatever YOU want it to be. I’m on a mission to register the maximum number of new voters.” When asked about the challenges he had been facing, he shared, “I waste half a day everyday waiting outside the Principals’ office in every college”. Impressed with VBI and Vinod, the Collector immediately offered to call all the principals at one place in a few days, which would help ease out Vinods’ daily struggle.
Meanwhile, Vinod took out all the data he needed from the Collector’s office – the number of unregistered voters in all the constituencies, the contacts of tahsildars and the colleges in those constituencies. There were 400+ colleges and 6 days to cover them until registration closed. Out of all these colleges, 44 principals showed up. The Collector introduced Vinod, who plainly asked the principals, “The future of the country is in the hands of the youth and the youth are in your hands. Can you give them to me for a day? I will train them and turn them into inspired role models.” After this, his phone kept ringing.
He made a plan, marking out the colleges where he would conduct the trainings each day. The host college had to invite colleges from neighbouring constituencies as well as the tahsildars. The sessions were an eye opener for everybody, instilling pride about being Indian as well as awakening a deep sense of responsibility towards the country. This went on for a week and created a massive wave in the whole region.
Vinod taught the 6 hour programs in the day, and then travelled hundreds of kilometres to the next place in the evening. A small detail that Vinod does not mention while telling this story is that during this time, while visiting a college, he slipped on the stairs and fractured his upper back. The doctor had advised him bed rest! But that did not stop him from marching enthusiastically towards his goal, towards volunteering for a better India. A month later, he received a letter from the Collector’s office stating that the 3000+ students that he trained had gone on to register 37000+ new voters aged 18-19 years.
Wow. Now that’s truly a huge number. It all fell in place, with hard work and grace! Hats off Vinod!
Why is it that we hear such awesomely inspiring stories so rarely? Why is it that we are merely the readers of such stories? Why can’t we be the creators? Is the country’s well being only Vinods’ responsibility? Isn’t each one of us equally accountable? Don’t we all want to be a part of the Masters’ vision of a Better India?
You can fill the happiness survey by clicking on this link http://www.ivoteforabetterindia.in/main/happiness_survey and understand how happy you are with the current situation of your nation!
Just have the faith and take the plunge. Volunteer for a Better India, Today!
Know that we have a master who is here only to bless us and provide us with all we need! He is someone who will not just teach us a meditation technique and go away, He will take us all the way to accomplish all our goals in life.
Love you Gurudev.
JGD
Nothing less than inspiring..feels great to hear about such amazing work done ..thanks to Sri Sri the Guru to promote such important initiatives.. surely VFBI will go a long long way ahead and get many people to join it and work for a better India..jgd
Its surely an inspiration for the other countries too..to work for their respective countries..jgd