Train to Banaras - Begumpura Express

 

Train to Banaras - Begumpura Express

Train to Pakistan of Khuswant Singh is a famous narration on the partition of India. Of late, yet another train – Train to Banaras – Begumpura Express from Jalandhar to Varanasi, steals the headlines

At Jalandhar Railway Station on February 2

in the vernacular media of North India every year successively in the month of January/February as a curtain raiser to the celebrations of the Gurpurab of Guru Ravidass, a social revolutionary of medieval times. I thought of sharing some bits and pieces of this annual event which has become a great motivator and prompter of the followers of the great Guru not only in India but beyond to seek and appropriate their social empowerment.

The train was started by Sachkhand Dera Ballan of Jalandhar, the great dera of the Doaba region of Punjab, under the stewardship of the then head of the Dera Sant Garib Dass more than two decades ago. It was widely welcomed and caught the imagination of the followers of Guru Ravidass who tended to go to Varanas to pay obeisance at the Seer Goverdhanpur Holy Site, the birth place of Guru Ravidass at Kanshi on the Aagman Diwas (birthday) of the great Guru.  The site was searched, explored and identified by Baba Banta Singh Ghera of Ad-dharam Mission and his associates including the great Sants of Dera Sachkhand Ballan namely; Sant Sarwn Dass, Sant Hari Dass, Sant Garib Dass and their successors; Sant Niranjan Dass, the current Gadinasheen (Head) of the Dera and Shaheed Sant Ramanand who was assassinated in 2009 at Vienna (Austria) by some fundamentalist Sikhs among others. The site was formally taken over by a Trust created by Dera Sachkhand Ballan for building a befitting memorial of Guru Ravidass.  The plot of land at the premises which was registered in the name of a couple prominent residents of Bootan Mandi, a nerve centre of dalit consciousness in Jalandhar,  some times in 1968-69 with the funds collected from the leather traders of the area spearheaded by Guru Ravidass Youth Club of which I happened to be the then General Secretary as a young student before I migrated Delhi in the pursuit of career to earn my bread and butter, was duly transferred to the Trust with the efforts of Manohar Lal Mahey, the then Secretary of the Trust and the then Mayor of Jalandhar, Surinder Mahey, both my fellow BootanMandians. The revered Sants of the Dera and the Trust, under the directions of Sant Ramanand, a visionary Sant, involved the bigwigs including President K.R. Narayanan, Babu Kanshi Ram, Behn Mayawati among others and also the well to do followers of Guru Ravidass abroad namely, Swaran Banger, Hans Raj Banga,

both of the UK, among others and did his every best to make the site at Sere Goverdhanpur a site of excellence as a tribute to Guru Ravidass. As a natural corollary to all this the Begumpura Express, the famous train has become an important event in the calendar of Dera Sachkhand Ballan and the teeming millions. I understand more such trains have been added from other cities of Punjab to cater to growing demand of the ardent followers of the Guru. It is a matter of gratification to note that the trains are booked on payment on first come-first served basis on payment. The sundry expenses on the train arrangements are borne by the Dera and voluntary donations. Thoughtfully, the Gadinasheen Sant of the Dera leads the Faithfulls in the train every successive year. The train stops at all big stations on the way where the followers of the Guru flock to the station to welcome the elegantly decked up train with cooked langars (food) and other eatables amidst Kirtan of Gurvani (recital and singing of hymns). The Train – Begumpura Express has, thus, become a much acclaimed and saught after event in the celebration of the Guru Ravidass Jyanti. It was gratifying to note that this year the Begumpura Express was flagged off by the Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann with all solemnity and

At Jalandhar Railway Station on February 2.

reverence. With these activities, Seer Govardhanpur in Kashi has become a holy place of pilgrimage for millions of devotees. All political dispensations, both the ruling and opposition, fall on each other to show up on the Gurpurab and meet the Sant Maharaj of Dera Schkhand Balan with a view to woo the dalit vote banks. Let it be but, to my mind, the Dera has yet to optimized the situation skillfully to make the ruling dispensations to do more to empower the weaker sections of the society and get their due share in the corridors of power. The initiatives like the Train to Banaras tended to generate much needed awareness and made the society stand up for their rights. We need to think of and take such more initiatives for the great good of the community. The Begumpura Express is a blessing of Guru Ravidass as Kaler Kanth said in the folk lore:

ਕਾਂਸ਼ੀ ਨੂੰ ਗੱਡੀ ਜਾਣੀ ਆਂ; ਕੋਈ ਜਾਉ ਨਸੀਬਾਂ ਵਾਲਾ।