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Propagating harmony
IT MAY sound strange, but true. In this era of communal violence, and at a time there is no space for those who advocate religious harmony, a professor of Ramanathapuram is doing a yeoman service to promote amity among Hindus and Muslims.
Abdul Salam, popularly known as `Gita Salam', has been conducting discourses in Bhagavath Gita for the past two years.
``The virtues, glory, essential character, truth, mystery and worship of God as well as the topics of action and knowledge have been discussed in Bhagavath Gita in such a way that it has no parallel'', he says.
Son of M.Maideen Pitchai, of Thiruppuvanam in Sivagangai district, this 56-year-old professor has done a dissertation on `Purananooru'. He works as selection grade lecturer in Tamil at the Sethupathi Government Arts College.
He conducts discourses at the Kothandaramarswamy Temple every Thursday, and at other temples. The Rama Baktha Sabha organises these lectures. He is also secretary of the Ramanathapuram Tamil Sangam and vice-president of the Kamban Kazagham.
However, he has not lost his Islamic moorings. ``I never fail to visit mosque five times every day to offer prayer''.
``Devotees should believe that everything belongs to God, that they too are God's, whatever acts are performed by them are also His. Hence they should make a `complete surrender' to God because He knows their sorrows and sufferings, and redeem them,'' he says.
By P S Suresh Kumar
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