Swami Sant Dass Public School

Swami Sant Dass Ji

Name of that almighty. He always cautioned the public at large through his illuminating discourses. He used to make the people alert by saying

"One could cross the ocean of the world only through the name of that divine"

His venerable Guru Yogiraj Swami Preetam Dass Ji was an ideal saint living at Vasu Astana in district fulfilled by virtue of his divine grace. Once an old man, Sh. Ganesh Dass, one of his followers, came to him to be granted with more than one grand son. The story is that this family had remained confined to one issue for the last three generations.

But now this old man wished a progressive change. Kind-hearted Swami Ji smilingly granted him a boon but on a certain condition.

The condition was that his third grand son will be donated to the ashram. Perhaps Swami Ji had realized through his far-sightedness that the divine spirit was to oblige this family in due course. The boon bore the desired fruit when Swami Sant Dass Ji graced the womb of Mata Hardevi Bai on the sacred day of Magh Purnima in 1910 A.D., the child was brought up at home till the age of 5 years.

It was the sacred day of the birth anniversary of Lord Sri Chandra in 1915 A.D., when the child was brought in the ashram and was placed at the feet of Swami Preetam Dass Ji with due regards by his father Shri. Kewal Ram Popli and his mother Smt.Hardevi Bai. The early education of the child was started in the ashram under the watchful care of his mentor Shri. Swami Preetam Dass Ji. The child learnt the traditions of the ashram very sharply. Next he was sent to village Rodu in the same district (Jhang) where he studied the different religious books of Sanskrit like Bhagwat in a Sanskrit Vidyalaya. For his further studies of Shri. Guru Granth Sahib in detail, he was sent to Amritsar

At the feet of Giani Amir Singh Ji where he studied Guru Granth Sahib with great interest.

After completion of his education of Gurbani, he came back to his ashram at Vasu Astana at the holy feet of Swami Preetam Dass Ji. Now he started serving the followers of the ashram. Whatever duty was assigned to him by his Guru Ji, He accepted it happily and tried to perform with great dedication. Need not to say that he had great reverence for his guru Ji. As a worthy disciple, he always tried his level best to maintain the traditions of the ashram

All these made his guru Ji happy with him to shower his blessings on him. His guru Ji considered him to be a worthy successor. So while passing away from this world in 1944, he installed him in his Gaddi as his successor.

Revered Swami Ji after being installed in Gaddi, started to serve the society in different forms. He always tried to maintain the holy tradition of the ashram such as holding daily sat-sang in the ashram in the mornings as well in the evening. Here i must mention that Swami Ji had such a melodious voice that when he sang the sacred songs from Gurubani, the listeners felt enchanted with ecstasy. He also maintained the tradition of providing food (Langer)

To the needy. As a Vaidya he served the people tirelessly day and night. On the whole, he performed the task satisfactorily assigned to him by his guru Ji. He proved to be a competent successor of his venerable Guru Ji who led his followers from impurity to purity, from hatred to constant love, from ignorance to wisdom. From darkness to light and from sorrow to delight.

The period of partition in 1947 came which put him into a severe test when Hindus and Muslims turned enemies overnight. Communal hatred resulted in bloodbath of Lakhs of people including both the communications on either side of the border. Revered Swami Ji, at this critical time, provided shelter to near about 2000 Hindus (followers of the ashram) in the ashram at Vasu Astana and succeeded in bringing them to India. It is also to be mentioned that all this could be possible with the help of the local Zamindar of that area, Mr. Noor Mohammad, who was under the influence of Swami Ji and who lad them all to Amritsar with full safety from sectarian quarrels.

Reaching India, Swami Ji preferred to grace the Lucy soil of Jalandhar by his benign arrival, while the other followers, who came along with Swami Ji, scattered in different parts of the country. In the beginning Swami Ji, along with the saints, who came with him ,settled at a small mosque in Mohalla Karar khan. Swami Ji converted this mosque into an ashram in which he made the august Parkash (opening) of the holy Granth (Shri. Guru Granth sahib) within a few days. The constant path (reading) of Gurubani was started. He established the sacred traditions of the ashram which were being well maintained in the ashram from where he had migrated, such as to hold daily sat Sangs, to perform Kirtan and Katha in the mornings as well as in the evening. His melodious voice while performing Kirtan and his illuminating discourses on became his devotees. One new thing that he added in the holy traditions of the ashram was to provide spiritual education to the youngsters of the surrounding area. The people sent their wards with great pleasure at the feet of Shri. Swami Ji. This new tradition awarded Swami Ji with the fruit very soon when eleven year old ‘Inderjit Singh’ came to his notice. The saintly and far-sighted vision of Shri. Swami Ji cognized the promising child. The great personality, perhaps, had noticed the sharp brain of the child and had realized that this child could prove to be his worthy successor. It is must to note that this child had studied different holy books such as Sarquatavali, Vicharmala etc at a very early age. That is why Swami Ji was very pleased with him. So he asked

His father s. Amir Singh Ji to donate this child to ashram. At that moment the father of the child refused plainly which was quite natural as no father wants to deprive his child of his affections. But how could it be possible, that the word of an ideal saint was to go ineffective. Time came when circumstances of the family of s. Amir singh Ji compelled him to donate the child at the feet of Shri. Swami Ji on June 12,1956. The child was named as ‘Ishwar Dass’.

As mentioned above, so many followers of Swami Ji migrated along with him from Pakistan, scattered in different parts of the country. One of the family of his revered guru Swami Preetam Dass Ji settled in Gujarat at Anand. In 1955, my father Shri. Brij Lal Ji and my mother Shri.Mati Kaushalaya Devi (from the above Juneja family) both came to Shri. Swami Ji for a boon to be blessed with a son as they were having no issue since their marriage. Swami Ji perhaps remembered his own story and the same condition he imposed on this couple while granting them a boon to be blessed with sons that the third son will not be their own but will be of the ashram. The couple accepted this condition in all humility and it was the grace of Swami Ji that the couple got their desire fulfilled very soon. It was in 1965 when Swami Ji sent his worthy disciple Shri. Swami Ishwar Dass Ji to Gujarat to bring me when i was in the age of four.

A sweet and rare combination of a mother’s love, a father’s care, a master’s guidance and benign blessings could be found in the behavior of Swami Ji towards both of his disciples. He had a great interest in providing the worldly as well as spiritual education to his disciples. For the purpose of providing higher education in Sanskrit and Vedic literature to his worthy disciple Swami Ishwar Dass Ji, he sent him to Haridwar, where he did Sahitya Darshan Shastri from Varanasi University. At the cost of his education, he never allowed him, to come to him in order to help him in any type of situation concerning the ashram. With the grace of Shri. Swami Ji, Swami Ishwar Dass Shastri got higher education staying at Udaseen Panchayati Naya Akhara, in Haridwar. Swami Ji always got delighted when he saw his worthy disciple attracting the large audiences with his illuminating discourses comprising of comparative study of Gurubani and Vedas.

It was in 1967, when Shri. Swami Ji, on the request of his number of devotees and on the suggestions of the holy saints in contact with him since his childhood, felt the necessity of establishing a memory of his revered guru Swami Preetam Dass Ji in the form of a big Udaseen ashram. As a result Swami Ji stared the construction of Dera Preetam Bhawan with his set planning. It is interesting to note that because of Swami Ji’s full dedication and constant efforts, this huge building came up in a very short span of time. It was the day of Punya Tithi of his revered guru Swami Swami Preetam Dass Ji on November 30,1968, when the building of Preetam Bhawan, Udaseen Aswhram, Gopal Nagar was inaugurated.

Besides this, Swami Ji, with the purpose of service of mankind, constructed a building in 1970 named Shri. such Niwas in the same locality to be used as Jani Ghar by the public at large Swami Ji had a great interest in having the collection of rare books of different religious written by prominent authors. He also wanted these books to be studied by number of person. In this way he wanted to provide religious education to the public. To fulfill the above said purpose, he established a library in the same year i.e. 1970 which was named ’guru Sangat Library’

This saintly personality really wanted to serve the humanity in each and every sphere. He felt that a sound mind can dwell only in a sound body. He himself had been serving mankind before partition in Vasu Astana and after migrating to India in Jalandhar by giving Ayurvedic medicines to the poor needy persons. In order to maintain this glorious tradition, he established an outdoor hospital, consisting allopathic and homeopathic wings with the name of guru sangat mission hospital in September, 1974, on the auspicious day of birth anniversary of Lord Sri Chandra.

Now, Swami Ji was quite satisfied with the service being rendered to the mankind from the ashram. He was also satisfied with the service of his worthy disciple whom his farsighted vision had cognized very earlier. Now he wanted this disciple to come forward as his successor. It is interesting to note that till that time Shri. shastri Ji had established himself in the society as a good speaker who could attract large audiences by his illuminating discourses on Gurubani as well as on Vedic literature. Revered Swami Ji had made up his mind to keep himself free from the duties assigned to him by passing the same over to Shri. Shastri Ji in a traditional ceremony. Without disclosing this to anyone, he invited the prominent Udaseen saints from the different corners of the country for the above purpose. He also invited the closely related followers of the ashram. The people came to know about what he was going to do when he, in a large gathering, installed Swami Ishwar Dass Shastri in his Gaddi in a traditional way and thus declared him to be his successor on December 4,1974.

What a kind-hearted saint he was! He could never tolerate the mankind in sorrow. I remember here one incident of his life happened in 1976. He had gone to masonries as per his annual routine. I was also with him at that time. There he heard about the floods in the state of Haryana. Leaving all his programmes there to Jalandhar from where he along with a number of his followers, rushed to district Rohtak to provide food, medical aid and other facilities to the flood-affected people there he served the people with great dedication by approaching those typical areas in boats where it was very difficult to reach such was his spirit of service to the mankind.

Swami Ji’s selfless services made the Udaseen Ashram a garden bearing fragrant flowers and delicious fruits to be relished by all without any distinction between the high and the low. Anybody could approach him at any time for help, and guidance.

He served as a source of inspiration to all in spite of the advice of doctor to take care of his health he never bothered for his aliment while performing his moral duties to the humanity.

It was the night of March 30 of 1983, at 3 a.m. when it was the time for the sun to rise, but here the sun of Preetam Bhawan, Udaseen ashram was going to set. Swami Ji had, perhaps, realized it earlier. That was the reason he didn’t have a sleep on that destined night even for a moment. He came out of his room, took bath and asking the Pathee doing path to recite loudly, called his dearest Swami Ishwar Dass Ji. Addressing his last words to him, he said “Ishwar! Sangat Pangat Da Dhyan Rakhana” (i.e. look after the followers both in the sat sang and the languor). Instruction so to satisfy the public in both the ways, physically as well as spiritually, this divine personality, uttering the word ‘om’ loudly, left this world for his own divine home.

This sad news spread over the city with in a few minutes. Gloom pervaded all around the ashram. A large gathering comprising of men and women surrounded the dead body of Shri. Swami Ji with great sorrow. Each and every body was feeling as some one of his own had passed away from him. His demise had really shaken the whole city. In such a situation his disciple and successor, Swami Ishwar Dass Ji shastri, having tears in his eyes, came forward to console all the people by saying. ‘ though Swami Ji has left all of us. His divine discourses given from time and his blessings will always continue to guide us.’

Since that day Swami Ishwar Dass Ji, having the last words said by his worthy preceptor in his mind, is serving the humanity. He has not only maintained the glorious tradition set up by Shri. Swami Ji but has made improvement in these. He has not confined himself to the people of the city but he is providing his services to the followers of Shri. Swami Ji in the different states of the country by his visits from time to time. He has the credit of establishing the memories of Shri. Swami Ji in the different parts of the country such as in Rajasthan at mount Abu, in Utter Pradesh at Haridwar and in the capital of the country at Delhi. Each and every body connected with the ashram desired that there must be some establishment in the name of Shri. Swami Ji in Jalandhar staying where he had served the mankind for nearly four decades. The lack of an educational institution had also been striking the minds of the well wishers of the ashram. So Swami Sant Dass Public School was established on march 30, 1986. Though initially it was started on a small ground but it was with the benign grace of Swami Ji that the institution established itself in the city with its good name and fame, at J. P. Nagar. This institution is coming up very speedily and it is hoped it will have its good reputation in the field of academics and co-curricular activities and sports. Swami Ishwar Dass Ji shastri has also proposals for establishing similar institutions