The tireless karmayogi- Swami Japananda

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THE TIRELESS KARMAYOGI - Swami Japananda

Welcome to the extremely backward regions of Karnataka border... Pavagada, Tumkur District..The burning priority for the survival and progress for the locals was health care - long term health care: Cure from Leprosy, TB, Polio, Poor Eye sight etc.
Leprosy in rural India means not just a disease of the body of one individual; it is an affliction casting its dark shadow on entire families and societies. Lepers are the worst outcastes, the cursed, and usually the poorest. The prevalence rate in Pavagada Taluk which was 8.42 per 10,000 in 1992 has come to below 1 by 2005. 

After he was entrusted with the drought relief project 1986, in Pavagada, Swami carried on with the same passion to bring new life to thousands of worn out souls. He grasped the pulse of the people and deeply empathized with them. They, in turn, placed their complete faith in him, looking upon him as their saviour. He must stay with them and carry on the relief works on a permanent basis, they pleaded.
Leprosy, TB, Polio, Blindness etc were rampant in the place. Swamji started Sri Ramakrishna Sevashrama whose supreme goal was the service of God in man. This was in 1991-92.

Within a year or two of the founding of the Ashrama, were born the Swami Vivekananda Integrated Rural Health Centresvirhc, and its branch Sri Sharadadevi Blindness Control Project. Soon the scope of the Centres activities expanded vastly, and it grew into a major institution, firmly rooted in the hearts of the masses. It won the acclaim of discerning philanthropists from within the country and abroad who extended their helping hand. The state and central governments have conferred recognition and assistance in many ways, and increasingly sought the Centres cooperation in their own ventures.

The services being rendered by the svirhc are focused under these heads: Eradication of (1) Leprosy, (2) Tuberculosis, and (3) Blindness, and general medical service. Its achievements have been extraordinary in each of the three divisions. This has spurred several governmental and non-governmental organizations to participate and share the profits of its experience. 

The hub of all the activities of the Centre is its own hospital complex in Pavagada. The hospital is connected to many world class hospitals across the country via satellite, where in the resident doctors can consult and get guidance from specialists who are sitting elsewhere in the globe. They get assisted by specialists via video conferencing during the operations the resident doctors do on the patients in the hospital. 

The services of this hospital now a household name in these backward districts bordering Andhra Pradesh reach out to nearly a thousand villages. Collaborating with the Karnataka health ministry, it has been in the forefront of projects for leprosy, TB and blindness eradication in the Pavagada taluk and the surrounding villages. Till date (May 2006), 3379 leprosy and 6431 tuberculosis patients, and 4202 visually affected have been cured by svirhc. 79 of the leprosy-cured have benefited from the exclusive reconstructive surgery facility offered by it. The rural hospital has so far treated 1,70,430 outpatients and 5810 inpatients. And the task of visiting every house in every hamlet for identifying leprosy and TB infected goes on, under Swami Japanandajis inspired leadership, on a war footing.

You can read more about him here. 

Don't miss reading this link http://www.vivekaseva.org/aboutus.html

And you should visit his hospital and ashram once in your lifetime and see the kind of service Swami Japananda is doing. I have done it and I am telling you out of my first hand experience. You should and you will be amazed. 

INCREDIBLE BHARATHIYA