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he said: “If married people develop love of God, they will not be attached to the<br />
world. Hiranand is married. What if he is? He will not be much attached to the<br />
world.”<br />
Hiranand had completed his education in Calcutta in 1883 and gone back to<br />
Sindh. But in April 1886, when Sri Ramakrishna fell seriously ill --- he died on 15<br />
August, 1886 --- Hiranand specially visited Calcutta to see the Master.<br />
Ramakrishna was delighted to see him. He called in Narendra and said: “I want<br />
to hear you two talk.” At the end of their spiritual discussion Narendra sang for<br />
Hiranand the song: “Blest indeed is the wearer of the loin-cloth.”<br />
One day during that last visit, Hiranand was massaging the Master’s feet and the<br />
latter said: “Suppose you don’t go to Sindh. Suppose you give up the job. Why<br />
don’t you live here?” Hiranand explained: “But there is nobody else to do my<br />
work.” Hiranand invited Ramakrishna to visit Sindh. Ramakrishna was pleased<br />
but he said that he was too ill --- and Sindh too far --- for that. However,<br />
Ramakrishna reminded Hiranand to send him some Sindhi pajamas for easy<br />
wear, since his dhoti tended to slip away.<br />
The two brothers, Navalrai and Hiranand, put new life into Sindh. They started<br />
the Union Academy in Hyderabad, which later became famous after its<br />
founders’ names as N.H. Academy. They started the first girls’ school and got<br />
two Ghose sisters from Lucknow to teach there. Hiranand took his two<br />
daughters to Bankipore in Bihar for education under Shrimati Aghor Kamini<br />
Prakash Roy, mother of Dr. B.C. Roy, who rose to be Chief Minister of West<br />
Bengal. Special attention was paid to the teaching of Sanskrit. One of their<br />
Sanskrit students was Roopchand Bilaram who rose to be the only Indian<br />
Judicial Commissioner of Sindh.<br />
They started a Leper Home in Karachi and an orphanage in Shikarpur. Their<br />
campaign against child marriage even got them in a scrape. One Hundomal, a<br />
student of N. H. Academy, told his uncle, who was an official, that he would<br />
respectfully refuse to marry at that age even if his father asked him. On the basis<br />
of this, a complaint was filed with the Director of Public Instruction of Bombay<br />
that Hiranand was fostering disrespect for parents! And the DPI duly asked<br />
Hiranand for his expla- nation. Hiranand had to rush to Bombay. And only a<br />
word from the Sindh officials saved him from censure!<br />
Their campaign against drinking, gambling, and abusive language also made its<br />
mark on the Sindhi society. Unfortunately the two brothers died very young ---<br />
within months of each other, in 1893. But they had infused new hope in society --<br />
- and provided it with models to multiply. When Keshub Chandra Sen was<br />
requested to visit Sindh, he said that Sindh, which had a Navalrai, did not need<br />
The Sindh Story; Copyright © www.panhwar.com<br />
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