RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Calls are be­ing made for the late Sat­narayan Ma­haraj, long-serv­ing Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al of the Sanatan Dhar­ma Ma­ha Sab­ha to be giv­en a state fu­ner­al. They came hours af­ter the Hin­du leader died on Sat­ur­day morn­ing at Med­ical As­so­ciates in St Joseph, eight days af­ter he suf­fered a stroke.

Among those mak­ing the call was the spir­i­tu­al head of the Satya Anand Ashram of Aranguez, Pun­dit Satyanand Ma­haraj, as he ex­pressed con­do­lences to Ma­haraj’s fam­i­ly and mem­bers of the Ma­ha Sab­ha. He said Ma­haraj’s achieve­ment as Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al of the largest Hin­du or­gan­i­sa­tion in T&T will be his crown­ing glo­ry.

“Hav­ing had the op­por­tu­ni­ty to work from 1997 to 2017 with Mr Ma­haraj, I can say he has con­tributed great­ly to my growth and de­vel­op­ment as he did to many oth­ers. To know Sat Ma­haraj was to like, re­spect and fear him in the same breath,” the pun­dit said.

“Ma­haraj over­saw the trans­for­ma­tion of the Ma­ha Sab­ha and held his teach­ers and pun­dits to the high­est stan­dards of per­for­mance. There was no doubt that he spent all his time pro­tect­ing the Hin­du com­mu­ni­ty from what he per­ceived as State-spon­sored at­tempts to de­stroy Hin­du cul­ture.”

Com­ment­ing on the con­tro­ver­sy which of­ten sur­round­ed Ma­haraj, the pun­dit said: “Mr Ma­haraj was not per­fect nor did he claim per­fec­tion but saw him­self as the gate­keep­er of Hin­duism.”

He said a state fu­ner­al was in or­der be­cause “by lift­ing the Hin­du com­mu­ni­ty, Ma­haraj lift­ed the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty.”

Al­so mak­ing a call for a state fu­ner­al was op­po­si­tion ac­tivist De­vant Ma­haraj, who said: “The fam­i­ly may or may not ac­cept the of­fer but the State should make the of­fer none the less.”

He added: “Giv­en the im­mense con­tri­bu­tion, Sat Ma­haraj has made to the de­vel­op­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go in cul­ture, ed­u­ca­tion, re­li­gion, me­dia, and over­all na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment his pass­ing is de­serv­ing of na­tion­al recog­ni­tion.

“Pre­sid­ing over 43 pri­ma­ry schools, 5 sec­ondary schools, 24 pre-schools, over 3,000 teach­ers, 200 pun­dits, 150 tem­ples and a ra­dio/tv sta­tion Sat’s fu­ner­al will be mas­sive with or with­out State sup­port but the State will be pet­ty if it does not find an ap­pro­pri­ate man­ner that marks the pass­ing of this great na­tion­al icon.”

Ma­haraj’s pass­ing was an­nounced ear­ly yes­ter­day in a state­ment by Ra­dio and TV Jaagri­ti.

“We are ex­treme­ly grate­ful to every­one for their ded­i­ca­tion of prayers and of­fer­ings of sup­port in vary­ing forms and fash­ion,” the state­ment said.

“As per Hin­du tra­di­tions, Sri Sat­narayan Ma­haraj was un­der the pro­tec­tion of Tu­lai Leaves and he al­so drank holy wa­ter from the most revered Triveni Riv­er. In his dy­ing mo­ments, he clasped a copy of the Hanu­man Chal­isa which he al­ways kept in his pos­ses­sion when he was alive.”

His pass­ing was de­scribed in the state­ment as “en­tire­ly free of any pain and suf­fer­ing and was a smooth tran­si­tion from this mor­tal world.”

Ma­haraj was a devo­tee of Lord Hanu­man which in Hin­duism is the god of strength, which matched his life of fight­ing for the Hin­du and East In­di­an com­mu­ni­ties.

Up to late yes­ter­day, there was no word on fu­ner­al arrange­ments for the late Ma­ha Sab­ha Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al. How­ev­er, through­out the day trib­utes poured in­clud­ing from Pres­i­dent Paula-Mae Weekes, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, Op­po­si­tion Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and lead­ers of var­i­ous re­li­gious de­nom­i­na­tions.

Ro­man Catholic priest Ms­gr. Chris­t­ian Pereira said he “had the op­por­tu­ni­ty to re­act and re­late with him both as Epis­co­pal Vic­ar for Ed­u­ca­tion and as a mem­ber of the IRO.” He said Ma­haraj had of­ten worked along­side the RC com­mu­ni­ty to en­sure that the rights of de­nom­i­na­tion­al school boards were pro­tect­ed.

Pereira added: “He in­vest­ed heav­i­ly on prepar­ing school lead­ers and we thank him for his com­mit­ment to what is best for the na­tion. Of­ten mis­un­der­stood and ma­ligned he re­lent­less­ly pur­sued his com­mit­ment to what he be­lieved to be best for the na­tion.

“We cer­tain­ly need many more lead­ers of his cal­i­bre and trust that his pass­ing will be an awak­en­ing for all our peo­ple who seek the best in­ter­est of the na­tion to cul­ti­vate that zeal and en­thu­si­asm for what is no­ble and best in our re­spec­tive tra­di­tions.”

Head of the Is­lam­ic Front Umar Ab­du­lah al­so ex­tend­ed con­do­lences.

“We have lost an­oth­er of our pa­tri­ots, an­oth­er son of the soil, one who chose his way of life to be in ser­vice to the peo­ple of this great na­tion. Some of us may not have agreed with his opin­ions, some of us may not have con­nect­ed with his per­son­al­i­ty, but we can all agree that he stood as a man for the growth and de­vel­op­ment of our na­tion­al cul­ture that is Trinidad and To­ba­go,” Ab­dul­lah said.

He added: “We know him to be out­spo­ken and an up­hold­er of the truth. Whilst he stood firm and held on to his be­liefs, he man­aged to main­tain a unique and mighty per­son­al­i­ty; a re­spect­ed leader amongst his peers in the re­li­gious so­ci­ety of our coun­try, an ho­n­ourable man with huge as­pi­ra­tions.”