SERVICE TO HUMANITY
Community Support Programs
Respect everyone, love everyone, and serve everyone.
Sant Baljit Singh Ji
Service to Humanity Programs
Each Vishav Manav Ruhani Kendra retreat center operates on a charitable basis, embodying service to humanity by offering free food, accommodation, and medical services, to people in need. Our retreat centers also actively undertake charitable activities in the community through social service programs. With love and respect, we are dedicated to serving humanity.
Cleanliness Campaign 2023
The annual Swachhta Hi Seva (cleanliness is service) campaign was launched in 2017 by the India Government as a nation-wide fortnight-long sanitation drive. The Swachhta Hi Seva 2023 campaign took place between September 15 – October 2, 2023 with the theme ‘Garbage Free India’.
The Prime Minister of India called upon people across the nation to participate in Swachhta Hi Seva 2023 as a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi’s 154th birth anniversary on October 1, 2023. The Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, the largest hospital in the region, invited Vishav Manav Ruhani Kendra (VMRK) to join the cleanliness campaign. PGIMER knows VMRK very well from our past support to this institution and they know VMRK is always ready to help. These blog posts summarize a few of our charitable activities with PGIMER: Chandigarh – Caring for medical staff and patients (PGIMER) and Ventilators donated to PGIMER.
VMRK sent a team of more than 120 volunteers to join the drive that was planned to start at 10 am. By 9 am, VMRK volunteers began gathering at the PGIMER campus with all the cleaning utilities and two tractor-trolleys to collect garbage.
PGIMER’s administrative staff teamed up with the VMRK volunteers to form three groups. Each group was assigned to a different location on the PGIMER premises: Gol Market, New OPD area, and outside Nehru Hospital. After an hour, the teams had collected three trolleys of garbage which were then disposed of at PGIMER’s garbage collection center. The PGIMER Director inspected all the three locations and extended his appreciation and warm thanks to all who participated.
On October 2, the newspaper Dainik Jagran reported on PGIMER’s event and acknowledged VMRK’s participation.
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PGI and Volunteers of Vishav Manav Ruhani Kendra participate in cleanliness campaign
Chandigarh: PGI organised a cleanliness drive as a part of Swachhata Divas, along with Vishav Manav Ruhani Kendra volunteers to kickstart the cleanliness campaign. VMRK Volunteers inspired by organisation’s head Sant Baljit Singh Ji, considering ‘cleanliness a service’, carried out the cleanliness work on Sunday at 10:00 am in the PGI, Chandigarh premises.
Cleaning Campaigns 2021
Mini Kumbh Mela clean up on Yamuna River
The Kumbh Mela is a major pilgrimage festival that is celebrated every twelve years. The venue is rotated between the four holy pilgrimage destinations: Haridwar, Nashik, Allahabad, and Ujjain. Each Kumbh Mela is attended by millions of devotees around the world. The 2021 Kumbh Mela was held in Haridwar.
A mini Kumbh Mela was held on the bank of the Yamuna River in Vrindavan, Mathura in Uttar Pradesh from February 16 – March 25, 2021. After the festival, the Nagam Nigam Mathura Vrindavan (Municipal Corporation of Mathura and Vrindavan) organized a cleaning campaign along the bank of the Yamuna River.
It is customary for charitable organizations to participate in these cleaning campaigns. Vishav Manav Ruhani Kendra sent 50 volunteers to assist in the cleaning campaign. Our volunteers took part in the cleaning drive from 7am to 4.30 pm on 3 days: February 13, 20 and 25. No other charitable organizations were given permission to participate in the cleaning campaign.
Survey of Cleanliness 2021
Vishav Manav Ruhani Kendra participated under the South Zone, Delhi government’s drive Swachh Survekshan 2021 (Survey of Cleanliness 2021). We donated and distributed 500 summer caps with the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) logo to its sanitation workers.
Cleaning Campaigns (pre Covid-19)
Every year, five to six hundred thousand people from all over India come to Maheshwar, Madhya Pradesh, to celebrate Mahashivratri on the bank of the Narmada River. After the event, local authorities request assistance to clean the river’s bank. Vishav Manav Ruhani Kendra sends a team of about 150 of our volunteers from Madhya Pradesh to join the local authorities in this cleaning campaign.
We also participate in the government’s project to clean the Narmada River. Similarly, we also help in such cleaning campaigns in Punjab.
Support for underprivileged students
Vishav Manav Ruhani Kendra collaborates with schools to provide basic educational necessities. In 2019, we supported 307 schools in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Chandigarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan.
Basic needs
Vishav Manav Ruhani Kendra organizes charitable social service programs that distribute basic needs to families in low-income neighborhood areas. These programs are inspired by the teachings of Sant Baljit Singh Ji that motivate our volunteers to see and serve God in everyone.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, we continue to organize charitable programs that strictly adhere to the guidelines issued by the local, state and central authorities.
Free Well Being Programs
On Sunday, Vishav Manav Ruhani Kendra centers offer free programs featuring inspirational discourses with meditation sessions. The local communities attend these programs from 9am to 11am.
These programs are guided by unity in diversity, service to humanity, compassion for all, a natural lifestyle, and devotion to omnipresent God pervading all. These are the cornerstones of Sant Baljit Singh Ji’s teachings. Practising these cornerstone teachings can be helpful for one to achieve peace, improve one’s general well being, and foster a better mental and emotional balance. Sant Baljit Singh Ji’s teachings are many fold, they are spiritual to guide the development of soul, and may help one overcome problems that confront humanity in today’s environment.
Vishav Manav Ruhani Kendra offers free lodging and wholesome vegetarian food to anyone who attends a retreat at our centers. Retreatants focus on the spiritual teachings alongside opportunities to participate in various charitable and service oriented activities, spend time in nature, and learn new skills such as wholesome vegetarian cooking, planting vegetables, landscaping, housekeeping, sewing, making savory snacks and sweets, and woodworking.
