By: Ramesh Kallidai
“Hindu values and belief systems are not understood properly and often distorted by the media,” he emphasised. “There is a widening information gap between the community and the media.”
But unlike some who may just moan and do nothing, Swamiji is a man of action.
He is creating a project called the Hindu Institute of Information and Communications (HINCOM) to bridge the information gap.
“HINCOM has been set up because there has been negligence in regard to the relationship between the Hindu Community and media. As a result of lack of communication, many things have been passing through the media without adequate response or correction from our community,” he said.
Swamiji feels that developing a close and friendly relationship with the media is the key to this problem. “We only respond when something goes wrong,” he maintained. “If we cultivate a continued relationship with the media, misunderstandings can be corrected before they are broadcast or printed with incorrect information.”
HINCOM will have a two-pronged strategy. It will help communicate timely and correct information to the media, and also utilise the media to communicate Hindu values to the wider community.
Swamiji hopes to create a resource centre through HINCOM where any individual or organisation can get timely information on Hindu culture, civilisation, literature, science, arts, history, news and views. HINCOM will also create a news network service with regional correspondents in various regions of the UK. The service will feed a weekly news bulletin to media, government, community organisations and other interested persons.
“But one organisation cannot take this project through to fruition,” Swamiji pointed out. “We require support and participation from other organisations in the UK. We also need respectable individuals with integrity and talent for analytical thinking and visionary zeal to join our core team.”
Swamiji has called a meeting on Sunday, 11th May in London to discuss how talented individuals and Hindu organisations can participate in this project and take it forward.
For a project that can transform the dynamics of our community, Swamji seemed quite nonchalant about the whole thing.
“You seem quite cool about such a huge project,” I quipped. “Don’t you feel stressed-out about what support you may receive from the community?”
In retrospect, I thought this was no way I should have spoken to a Swamiji. After all a sannyasi is a sannyasi, and one doesn’t usually describe Swamijis as ‘cool’ or ask him if he is ‘stressed-out’ - almost as if he was some long lost bruv’ from my college days. Fortunately, the Swamiji did not bat an eyelid at my lack of social etiquette and continued as if I had just commented on the weather.
“I look at the practical value of it. What is there to be stressed about?” he laughed. “We want to serve the community and provide them with something they need. If we lose our cool, we will also lose our balance of mind and vision. As Lord Krishna says in the Gita, one should not look at the fruit of our action but leave the results to God. Of course, this should not make us inactive. Krishna explains that yoga is the skilfulness of action in everything we do – yogah karmasu kaushalam. Therefore we should put our full heart in our efforts without worrying about the results and without becoming inactive. This is real stress management!”
I beamed in satisfaction. With such spiritual insight and compassionate vision, surely the HINCOM project was in good hands.