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 Bounsi (Banka):  Anandi Das (34) a tea stall vendor and a native of Bounsi, a sleepy block  in Banka district along with many have started dreaming soon after the visit of president of India, Pranav Mukerjee.  Mukerjes visited Shyama Charan Ved Vidhyapith, also known as Gurudham, an old center of spirituality at historical  Bounsi  block on April 3.

“ The president’s visit once highlighted the significance of Bounsi before the world which otherwise famous for Lord  Madhusudan temple. But we are proud that we had the privilege to witness the presence of the president of India here. Besides, this event could help the development of this areas in terms of tourism,” Das pointed out.

Residents of Bounsi are also very much hopeful to BJP’s Godda MP, Nishi Kant Dubey who managed Mukerjee’s visit to Gurudham. After completing Jharkhand trip, Mukerjee went to  the half-excavated ruins of Vikramshila Buddha Mahavihara and from there he reached Gurudham.

“The President of India wanted to visited Gurudham once where his parents used to visit.  His parents Kamda Kinkar Mukherjee and Rajlakshmi was the disciples of noted spiritual guru, Bhupendra Nath Sanyal, the founder of Gurudham” Dubey told @news5pm .  Interestingly,  family members of Dubey, and his ancestors were attached with Gurudham and Sanyal Mahashay.

The story of Mukherjee’s parents and this Gurudham is very interesting, claimed Dubey. “Kamda Babu was a great freedom fighter and he was subsequently nabbed by the British after he managed liberated  over 50 villages during the freedom movement. The British  awarded him death sentence. Since the family had connection with Gurudham, Rajlakshmi Devi rushed to Sanyal Mahashay for saving the life her husband. Sanyal Mahashay assured her that nobody could harm to her husband and soon India get Independence and Kamda Babu was released from jail,” Dubey recalled many such legends about Sanyal Mahashay which became famous here.

Significantly, for keeping Vedas alive, Sanyal Mahashay decided to establish a school, Gurukul, the oldest education pattern in the country, where Vedas could be taught and put foundation of Shama Charan Ved Vidhayapit in the name of his Gurur, the noted legendary Yogiraj Shama Charan Lahiri Mahashay in 1939 which was completed in 1943.

Gurudham presently operates one High school and Sanskrit college. “Gurudev (Sanyal Mahashay) was very much interested to spread Sanskrit so he established the college,” said Anurag Sharma, a devotee at Gurudham. Learning of Veds are started right from class 1 in the school, he said. Presently 21 students called Batukas, under taking Brahmacharja (following strict norms in daily routine) learning Veds in the school. According to the sources from Gurudham, students from different parts of the country come here for taking education. “Pass out students mostly prefers the holly jobs like priests or join as teachers in religious institutions,” the source said.

Students at Gurudham in Bounsi

Mukherjee during his brief visit here on April 3, offered his best tribute to the Guru of his parents and spent times with the devotes and the students here. Narrating the importance of the place before the gathering, Mukerjee said that once this center used to spread the basic concept of spiritualism in the world besides it also promoted several freedom fighters.  “Since long I had the desire to visit the place located near Mandar Hill and finally due to the approach of Nishi Kant Dubey, I finally reached here,” he told those who assembled at Gurudham.

“This place has immense  tourism potentiality. Besides, Gurudham and Mandar Hill, the hill as mentioned  in Puran, Lord Vishnu once defeated the notorious giant Madhukaitava in a battle which continued more than ten thousand year. Lord Vishnu finally put the Mandar Hill  over the monster’s body. There is also a story in Mahabharata that the hill was used by Gods and the Asuras  in ocean churning. Fourteen ‘Ratna’ including ‘Bis’ (poison) came out from the churning incident. For the sake of the universe, Lord Shiva drunk it and hence he became also known as ‘Neelkanth’. Besides, Mandar is also known for the 12 th Tirthankar, Lord Basupujja of the Jains. Large number of tourists including the Jain pilgrims visit the place all over the year. Hope this visit of the president of India would help to accelerate the tourism  related activities in this areas soon,” said many local residents here.