Mahabharath

 

Jayakumar was born to Lakshmi and Srinivasan at Kumbakonam. He grew up at Hyderabad and his B. Tech in chemical engineering took him to IIT, Chennai. Destiny travelled with Jayakumar to the USA, and he completed his master's and a Ph.D. in Purdue University, Indiana. The chemical engineer was with Lyondell for some years. He had been into research earlier. Work took him to Chicago and Houston. His long stay in the USA gave Jayakumar the chance to meet His Holiness Swami Dayananda Saraswathi in 1996. It was a turning point for the 1964 born engineer. He jumped into action, purchased a huge number of books and cassettes immediately.

“My dicky got filled up with them and I began to listen to those cassettes every day while commuting in my car. The recorded speeches helped me to understand Indian culture and Sanatana Dharma. I understood the purport of the Vedas through the Upanishads. The Upanishads are known as Vedanta. They help us understand our goals in life - Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha. I moved over to Houston and used to visit the Hindu Temples regularly. The Hindu Temples in the USA are meeting point for the Indian diaspora."

"Festivals, ceremonies, poojas happen in these centers which promote our culture and tradition. Heritage classes used to take place on Sundays, and I was pleasantly surprised to know that the books of Swami Dayananda Saraswathi (Founder - Arsha Vidya Gurukulam) were being used. I began to teach in Houston. These classes took place in the homes of friends. I used to teach Sanskrit and Bhagavad Gita to kids and elders too. My weekends were quite busy for classes were back-to-back. On one occasion Swamiji came from his ashram for a camp. 2006 was a turning point and there was no looking back thereafter,” smiled Jayakumar. 

 

The aspiring Indian founded the 'Arsha Vidya Satsangha' in Houston at Texas. He worked with several Hindu organizations in the USA, and they included RSS, Hare Krishna, Jain, Chinmaya and a few others. Jayakumar used to conduct events with them. Raj Vedham and Jayakumar got together in 2012. Jayakumar began to be associated with Raj Vedham and both did much through IHAR (Indian History and Research). Once again guidance came from Swami Dayananda Saraswathi, and both met the eminent Dr. R. Nagaswamy at a public event in Houston. They met Prof. Bharat Gupta of Delhi and were impressed with him.

 

IHAR did events in Texas and built a team of scholars to undertake the study of 6 history textbooks. “We looked at the books line by line and picked out a number of misrepresentations and some points which reeked of bias. The publisher was shown the introductory chapters to Hinduism and other religions. The bias and misinformation were pointed out. Thereafter the publisher withdrew the book itself. IHAR continued in Hyderabad, Telangana. Many of us who were non history were introduced effectively to 80 teachers who were to create the school study material for the SCERT (like NCERT but at the State level). They took up most of our recommendations and ensured that it became part of the books. For example, one of the chapters stated that thousands had perished because of famines during the British rule. IHAR people pointed out that millions had perished. This change was incorporated,” stated Jayakumar. 

Jayakumar returned to India and is now domiciled in Coimbatore. He has now founded the Arsha Vidya Kendram. With Sunitha Ramiah (Mysore) and Srinivasan (Kovilpatti). The Bharatveer has been teaching Sanskrit and Vedanta for some time now. He had done a course in Arsha Vidya Gurukulam for 2 years in India. Jayakumar has been doing online classes since 2018. He has done Vedanta, Bhagavad Gita courses online. Sloka classes are being done too. The one-year course for college students is more of a discussion. They talk about life, identity, what it means to be an Indian, Hindu etc., For example the eating habits are discussed in 2 classes. The Sanskrit exams are conducted by Samskrita Bharati. The classes are made up of lectures, exercises, homework, and exams.

“Quite a few students have been learning with me. Our agency is non-profit, and we do not charge fees. The first Sanskrit batch had 20 students and the second one had 20. The current Gita batch has 40 students. Usually, students drop out, but none have. We recently did a graduation ceremony online. The students were very receptive. They prepared short videos which contained skits. Now our students will become the teachers. In a few years we will have more than 10 teachers," added the Sanskrit teacher. 

 

The Bharatveer has had marvelous teammates and students. The students had raised resources during the recent times to handle the corona crisis. The money thus collected was sent to the Ram Janmabhoomi Trust and materials were sent to temples which were shut. Some of the priests were given supplementary income. They contributed money to Seva Bharathi for Annadanam (free distribution of food) irrespective of caste or creed. The kids in Mysore who learn under Sunitha did an enumeration in their area and gave packed material to the needy homes. Bharatveer Jayakumar calls them as warriors. This karma yogi and his friends are the heroes of our times.

 

Bharatveer Jayakumar is toiling day and night in the interest of Sanatana Dharma and our great country Bharat. It is time to identify such noble souls and work along with them to rebuild Mahabharat.