Tale of two men, two religions and one secular identity

This is not an apocryphal story of a seamless blending of religions in India dating back centuries.  Mohammed Yaseen found himself next to an ascetic in a hospital when he was just a teen and narrated stories about the Quran in exchange for the teachings of the Ramayana. More than five decades later, Yaseen gives discourses on Hindu scriptures but continues to be a devout Muslim.

That first lesson in tolerance and togetherness has strengthened into a deep belief in the goodness of all religions for Yaseen, now 60, who dresses in saffron robes, sports a sandalwood mark on his forehead and delivers sermons on the Ramcharitmanas (the epic story of Hindu god Ram) and the Bhagvad Gita (the philosophical teachings of Hinduism) across temples in India\’s sprawling Uttar Pradesh state.

But Yaseen is also true to his Islamic identity and fulfils the requirement of offering prayers five times a day.

The resident of Pipraich village in eastern Gorakhpur district said disarmingly: \”I believe there\’s a lot to learn from the holy scriptures, particularly the Ramcharitmanas and the Gita that guide our behaviour towards individual, family and society.\”

It wasn\’t easy of course.

Initially ostracised by his family and relatives for studying Hindu religious texts, Yaseen is today respected by Hindus and Muslims alike for his efforts to bring the two communities together.

His affinity for Hindu religious texts followed an emotional period after the death of his father in a road accident, when he was 17. That\’s when the turning point came.

\”I fell ill and was admitted to a hospital, where I met a sadhu who was in a bed next to mine. He used to share teachings of the Ramayana with me and asked me to tell him about the Quran. Though the sadhu was much older than me, we became friends.

\”The day before I was to be discharged from the hospital, he suggested I should listen to a discourse on Ramcharitmanas that would help me a lot in diverting my attention from my problems.\”

Acting on the advice, Yaseen went to listen to a discourse at a temple on the outskirts of his village. It was  a life- transforming moment.

\”I cannot put into words what I felt after listening to the discourse. It was something that provided me complete peace of mind. Later, I decided to participate in the discourse on a regular basis and started studying Hindu scriptures,\” said Yaseen, who has a family business selling clothes.

Today Yaseen\’s son looks after the family business while he passes most of his time in delivering religious lectures in temples of various districts in Uttar Pradesh as he has been doing for four decades.

\”On a number of occasions, I have to take a break from the discourse when it\’s time to offer namaaz. That I can\’t skip under any circumstances,\” he said.

Yaseen has become popular among both Hindus and Muslims of his village as both the communities believe he could bridge differences between them.

\”Though he is Mohammed Yaseen, we call him Sant Yaseen Bharti. A saint like him, in a true sense, is working to promote communal harmony,\” said Banshraj Mishra, who runs a utensils shop in the village.

Yaseen\’s story of the amalgamation of cultures in India\’s multireligious and multicultural society is unusual but by no means unique.

Not far away, also in Uttar Pradesh, is A. Jalalpuri, a Muslim academic who for 30 years wanted to translate the Bhagvad Gita into Urdu. While he has achieved that with 40 \’shlokas\’ or verses so far, he has now set the bar even higher by aiming for a lyrical translation of the Hindu scripture.

Jalalpuri, a resident of Ambedkar Nagar district, some 200 km from Lucknow, has for the last five years been translating the Bhagvad Gita into Urdu in a manner that it can be recited like a song.

\”Though translation of the Gita into Urdu is not that difficult, translating the holy scripture in a way that it can be recited like a song is a tough task,\” Jalalpuri said.

\”It\’s quite challenging for me, but I am quite sure I would succeed in my project. I am eagerly waiting for the day when I would translate the entire Gita lyrically in Urdu,\” added the vice principal of the government-run Narendra Dev Inter College (NDIC) in Ambedkar Nagar.

While most dread retirement, this lecturer in English is looking forward to it.

\”I am happy that soon I would be able to completely dedicate myself to the project, as I am going to retire next year. People have several post-retirement plans, but I have only one, which is to complete the translation at the earliest,\” he added.

Asked what prompted him to undertake an Urdu translation of the Gita, Jalalpuri said: \”It was in 1979 that I enrolled for a PhD in Urdu from Faizabad University. As I always wanted to stand apart, I wanted to choose such a topic that would be unique.\”

\”So I chose \’Poetic translation of the Gita in Urdu\’ as a topic. However,after some days of starting the research, I found that there was hardly  any  reference material available on the same. I consulted my teachers, but they also could not be of much help and asked me to visit a number of old libraries in the country,\” he said.

After facing a lot of problems, Jalalpuri ultimately decided to leave the research.

\”However, the problems could not dampen my spirit to work on the project and finally, a few years ago I thought with the translation I can contribute towards promoting communal harmony.\”

Terming the holy scriptures as human heritage, Jalalpuri feels people should come forward to disseminate the teachings of the Quran, the Ramayana, the Bhagvad Gita and the Upanishads irrespective of their religions.

\”Holy scriptures guide human beings, their behaviour towards the individual, family and society. Taking this into account, people from different religions should not hesitate in joining hands for spreading the message of the holy scriptures,\” said Jalalpuri.

Yaseen and Jalalpuri - a tale of two men adding strength to India\’s plural fibre. India is home to the world\’s eight main religions and the country follows a secular constitution where everyone is free to practise his or her own faith without state interference.  And each faith has drawn from other faiths and there are millions of Indians who visit shrines other than that of the faiths they have been born to and there are instances across the country of temples, mosques, churches, gurdwaras and shrines of other denominations co-existing, often side by side.

Of India\’s 1.2 billion population, Muslims are the largest minority at 14 percent followed by Christians at 2.3 percent, Sikhs at 1.9 percent, Buddhists at 0.8 percent, Jains at 0.4 percent and others including Parsis at 0.6