“The government might not give you a justifiable price for your produce. Even if you are furious, why throw all fruit of your labour on the road and waste it? Give them to the poor instead.”
The words of Balagangadharanatha, the Adichunchanagiri mutt seer, who passed away on Sunday evening, were reminisced by Yaluvahalli N Ramesh, farmer leader and treasurer of the Vokkaligara Sangha.
Speaking to Deccan Herald on Sunday evening, Ramesh added that the wise words of the seer led him to stop throwing his produce on the streets in anger at being denied a good price. “I also followed his advice to distribute the tomatoes and grapes among the poor, packing them in plastic covers.”
Ramesh had invited the seer to Chikkaballapur for the first time in 1982. “I was then the president of the Vokkaliga Youth Forum. A mass wedding involving 25 couples was organised here. It was on this occasion that Swamiji decided to establish a mutt branch and education institutes here,” he added. “He declared this in front of all who had gathered for the wedding ceremony.”
The next six years saw the establishment and growth of the Adichunchanagiri shakha (branch) mutt on the outskirts of Chikkaballapur City. “He also started the Sri Jagadguru Chandrashekaranatha Swamiji Institute of Technology (SJCIT), as well as other education institutes in both taluk headquarters and rural areas of the district,” said Ramesh.
“The seer had a major hand in Chikkaballapur getting the status of a district, separate from Kolar. He also repeatedly urged the government to implement a permanent irrigation project in Chikkaballapur district, since it is an arid district. On the occasion of his birth anniversary in 2011, Swamiji wrote to then Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa requesting the same,” he added.
“The seer was mostly neck-deep in work of some nature of other. Yet he tried to work for the benefit of the people to best of his capacity in whatever little free time he had. The welfare of the people was priority to him.
“The residents all over the district found him to be a divine, providential person, who brought in changes in education and other development work. His death has obviously
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