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Som Deva
A Tribute to a Karma Yogi
Vijaya Sharma
What Do I write about a man called
Som Deva ? A most loving husband, caring father, a noble and
honest teacher, a thinker, a wanderer and a seeker with an
unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Like Swami Vivekananda he
used to say “Gyan Woh Jo Jana Na Jaye” – “Knowledge cannot be
fathomed”.
What do I write about a man who
loved birds and animals . Plants were his passion. He was a keen
reader of History and Geography. Though he was a simple
unassuming person, I was told he was a very strict teacher who
loved teaching and there used to be pin drop silence in his
class.
His excursions took him to many
known and unknown places. Once on his collection trip to Garhwal orests, he came across a sadhu sitting in front of a cave. He
took the sadhu’s permission to enter the cave. When he returned,
the sadhu asked him the purpose of his visit to the cave. My
husband told him that he was a botanist and that he collected
plants. Well the sadhu then enquired why should he collect
plants? My husband answered with another question- why was he
(the sadhu) sitting there? The sadhu laughed and asked my
husband to sit and talk to him, The sadhu was a judge from the
south when he left everything worldly in search of peace.
Once on his trip to Hemkund he
fell ill and had to use a mule for the journey. When he came to
“Hemkund Sahib” a Gurdwara, he did not have the energy to go
inside the Gurudwara like other people, but sat outside with his
shoes on. A ‘Ragi’ (singer of devotional songs of Sikhs) came to
him and asked him why he had not gone inside for the ‘Darshan’.
My husband replied if he had the energy to remove his shoes, he
would have gone to collect the flower he had come for. The Ragi
then asked the name and description of the flower. The ragi went
inside and came back with a flower. My husband couldn’t believe
his eyes when he saw the flower ‘Bhed Guda’ ‘Saussurea gossypiphora’
in his hand! It was as if ‘Hemkund Sahib’ had blessed him. |
