There are so many Hindu holy festivals fell in holy Shravan month like, Rakshabandhan, Nag Panchami, Shitla Satam and Janmastmi that see devotees celebrating by attending temples, listening to religious discourses, observing fasts, carrying out rituals and by donating their hard earned monies to temples, Gurus, Babas, Bapus etc to get blessing for a peaceful and happy life.
But one question arises! What is true meaning of all these festivals? One should get rid of ego, arrogance and animosity towards others and by forgiveness establish healthy relationship between brothers and sisters, parents, relatives and friends. And if any rift occurs in relationship due to misunderstanding than to forgive and start again.
In this holy month my friend’s older brother Shri Ramanbhai Patel who lived in Canada died in Mumbai at the age of 94 so me and my wife Bhavna went to his place to convey our message of sympathy. When I asked my friend when the funeral was he said there is no funeral so I was wondering what happened. I was then informed that his brother’s final wish was to donate his body for medical research and I was speechless.
I knew Late Ramanbhai when I was growing back home in Karamsad town, Gujarat. He went to Bombay to seek better life for him and his family, got a job at Air India and fulfilled all his family responsibilities and gave very good education to his children and siblings most of whom now live abroad. For the last 14 years he had a health issues but in spite of that he lived very colourful, happy and cheerful life.
Amongst all his best donation of his life time was donating his body to Seth G.S. Medical College, Parel, Mumbai to help in medical education and research.
The main purpose of my letter is to create an awareness especially among our Indian community importance organ donations in which are lacking and we can learn from Late Ramanbhai's life.
Suresh and Bhavna Patel
Markham, Canada
