Choose to stay precious, even after death

We all will meet the same end one day. But those who chose to give back even after death are heroes rare to find!

 Outside the house, the hearse van was waiting, and inside the courtyard lay the body of the deceased husband. Both were waiting for a resolution made years ago, to be fulfilled. On the other hand, the immature voices of children were rising in rebellion against their mother - "We won't allow any mishandling of our father’s dead body. This way is wrong. We will complete the funeral rites." Suddenly, the wife's inner emotions broke the silence with just one sentence, and silence descended upon everyone present - "My husband has taken the oath of organ donation, and I will not allow anyone to interfere in this matter." The committee of the DadhichiDehdaanSamiti's joint secretary, Dr. Vishal Chaddha, who went to fulfill the duty on behalf of the committee, tells that in such emotional moments, a wife stood against her own children to fulfill the resolution made with her husband. This sentiment is not just material but spiritual, and there are many such memories associated with this Dadhichi family. This true incident belongs to ShriSampurnJeetKaur and her late husband, Dr. Sahab.

Honorable BalasahebDeoras with Raja Vijay Bhushan Singh  

 The decision to donate one's body is a unique journey of life even after death, and those who sign up others to take this oath are themselves also participants in this journey. In order to give this noble task an organized structure, the DadhichiDehdaan/AngadaanSamiti was formed on October 11, 1997, inspired by Maharishi Dadhichi. The first body donation pledge was filled by the successful pracharak of the RashtriyaSwayamsevakSangh, late NanajiDeshmukh himself. The committee operates in approximately 9 districts, including Delhi NCR and Bulandshaher. The tireless efforts of nearly 300 volunteers have resulted into such an impact that in the last 13 years, even after the death of nearly 1300 people, they are alive in someone else's body through the organs they donated. Among these, the entire bodies of 375 people and more than 925 eye donations have been made. More than 18,000 pledge forms have been filled by the volunteers of the committee. Not only this, but also taking inspiration from the work of the DadhichiDehdaanSamiti, 46 other independent committees are working in this field throughout the country, whose leadership is being provided by the Sansthapak, sanranshak of the DadhichiDehdaanSamiti and karyakariadhyaksh of the Vishva Hindu Parishad, ShriAlokji.

 Where did the idea of ‘Dehdaan’ come from? Alokji explains that once, while seeing the skeleton of Professor Dr. Hukam Singh Virk (former Head of Anatomy) at the Government Medical College in Amritsar, he learned that Dr. Virk had donated his body after death, saying, "I have taught my students on other people's bodies all my life, and I want my college students to continue their studies on my body after my death." In all medical fields - Ayurvedic, Homeopathic, and Allopathic - where four to five students should study on one body, forty to fifty students are studying due to scarcity of bodies. Taking cue from this, Alokji started thinking about body ‘Dehdaan’ and in 1995, he and his seven friends registered their wills for body donation. In 1997, the DadhichiDehdanSamiti was formed. The upadhyakshaa of the committee, Shrimati.ManjuPrabhaji, explains that there were many difficulties in the beginning to get people to donate their bodies. Sometimes they did not have transportation, drivers, or family members had to be counselled to understand, sometimes they did not pick up the phone at colleges to receive the body, while sometimes the colleges did not have a tub to keep the body. After about three to four years of tireless efforts, the situation is now such that the arrangement for body donation is in place 24x7 in any government medical college in Delhi.

Balasaheb in National Tribal Sports Festival

 The pledge to donate one's body awakens your spiritual consciousness to the fact that you are not just a body, but a soul, and this body is merely a means for the journey in this world. On the other hand, it also inspires one to keep this body healthy, strong, and sturdy, as only a healthy body can be useful for the welfare of people. What could be more satisfying for a person counting his/her last breath than the fact that even their lifeless body will provide new hope, new light, and a new life in someone's dull, gloomy, and tired existence. Writing or saying these things may be easy, but organizing this task in a scheduled manner is just as difficult.

Despite of knowing these difficulties, when a Swayamsevak family in Noida came to know that even after all efforts from doctors their seven day old newborn could not be saved, they decided to give a purpose to the baby's brief life and made him the youngest donor of the DadhichiDehdaanSamiti.

The chairman of the committee, Harsh Deep Malhotraji, says that on November 10, 2017, in the program of the DadhichiDehdaanSamiti held at RashtrapatiBhavan, the chief guest, President His Excellency Mr. Ram NathKovind, invited the father of the newborn baby, Mr. Suraj Gupta, to his side and congratulated all the families who fulfilled the pledge to donate their bodies.

Throughout the year, there are many programs where all members of the Dadhichi family who have filled out pledge forms are honored, and gratitude is expressed towards all those families whose pledges have been fulfilled, as well as listening to the experiences shared by those who have received a new life through donation also inspires others.

When KiranChopraji, the director of Punjab Kesari, heard about the experience of Mrs. PreetiUnhale, who was living a normal life after a heart transplant, she also filled out a pledge form for organ donation in the same program.

 It is not necessary that all donations have to be made after death, there are some donations such as blood donation, hair donation, etc. that we can easily do. Seeing the tradition of body donation in families, our new generation is also inspired to donate. School students Meera, Shreya and Angel have made hair donations for women affected by chemotherapy, as an effort to promote the virtue of  service and sacrifice among youth. The chairman of the committee, Harsh Deepji, says that for a willing family to donate, they just have to make a call to the Samiti and from then on, all arrangements and coordination are done selflessly by around 300 volunteers until the commitment is fulfilled. This is the reason why both the donor and the recipient become part of the Dadhichi family, and inspire the society towards body donation and organ donation. The committee is working towards raising awareness for body donation in the society through the story of Maharishi Dadhichi and the Naimisharanya pilgrimage.