Union Minister of Ports, Shipping & Waterways visited the auspicious “Matua Dharma Maha Mela” at the Shreedham Thakurnagar, Thakurbari, in West Bengal.
The reason behind the event:
- Mela is being organised to celebrate the 212th Birth Anniversary of Shri Shri Harichand Thakur ji.
- Mela showcases the vibrant culture of Matua Community. It is organised by the All India Matua Mahasangha.
Matua Mahasangha:
- Matua Mahasangha is a religious reformation movement that originated, around 1860 AD, in modern-day Bangladesh, with a considerable number of adherents both in Bangladesh and in West Bengal of India.
- Matua is a sect of depressed class AVARNA Hindus who are Namasudras, a Scheduled Caste group.
- The movement was launched as a reformation by the followers of Harichand Thakur.
Harichand Thakur:
- He worked among the untouchable people of Bengal Presidency. He formed the Matua sect of Hindus.
- He belongs to a Namashudra (or avarna) peasant family from Bangladesh.
- After experiencing atma darshan or self-revelation, he began to preach his own religious realization which is only based on Bhakti. According to his doctrine, all traditional rituals, except devotion to God, faith in mankind, and love for living beings, are meaningless and distortions from the real aim of attaining God.
- He organized downtrodden peoples of his own community under the banner of his new religious doctrine (known as Matua religion) and established Matua Mahasangha. They started considering him as God (Param Brahma) Harichand and as an avatar (incarnation) of Vishnu or Krishna. Thus, he became known as Sri Sri Harichand Thakur.
- His newly founded Matua religion is based on only three basic principles - Truth, Love, and Sanity.
He gave twelve instructions to his followers.
These twelve instructions are:
- Always speak the truth
- Treat the woman as your mother-being; Respect the woman
- Always respect your parents
- Treat your neighbors and all earthly living beings with love, pity, and kindness
- Never discriminate on racial grounds
- Bring all the six passions of the mind under your control. These six passions of mind are - Lust, Anger, Greed, Infatuation, Pride, and Jealousy.
- Remain liberal to all other religions and creeds
- Become honest in mind and activities and avoid saintly dress to adorn yourself with
- Perform your duties devotedly and utter the sacred Haribol and pray to God simultaneously
- Build a temple of pure thoughts in your heart and soul and a temple of Shree Hariparameshwar at your dwelling place
- Pray daily to God with devotion and sanctity
- Sacrifice yourself to the cause of God.