Sat Maharaj, the secretary general of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS), has been described as the most powerful Hindu outside of India. These and other words of tribute for Maharaj came on Sunday when he celebrated his 80th birthday at the Vishnu Boys Hindu College at Caroni, where the SDMS staged the first in a series of activities to pay tribute to Maharaj. Local Government Minister Chandresh Sharma said no one had emerged in the last 30-40 years to create a visionary impact in Hinduism. "Today small little T&T influences the world when it comes to Hindu thinking," Sharma said, adding that Maharaj's fearlessness and vision had put him in a powerful position.
"Governments fear this man in this country, it's a good sign." He said Hindus were proud to wear their raksha and kurta wherever they went, and that they had come to pay tribute to Maharaj by doing community work. "He doesn't need any gifts or money, he needs you to go back into your community and do some work....Don't ride his back too much anymore." Rudranath Indarsingh, the Minister in the Ministry of Labour Small and Micro Enterprise Development shared similar sentiments. He said growing up in Caroni Village, Maharaj was a "tower of strength who contributed tremendously to the diversity of the country."
The minister said Maharaj had given a voice not only to Hindus, but a wide cross-section of the community, and had reshaped the socio-economic and political thinking of this country. Through his conviction and advocacy, Maharaj had the nation's highest award renamed, Indarsingh said.
Maharaj cut a birthday cake with his grandsons Ajay Maharaj and Satyadev Maharaj, and his two sons Vindra Maharaj and Vijay Maharaj. The man of the hour highlighted the need for individuals to become mentally independent. "No one can imprison your mind...develop your mind and you are free like a bird."
He recalled the transformation in the Hindu and Indo-Trinidadian community that took place under the SDMS. He said the SDMS went into the Debe/Penal catchment area, what was then the most illiterate section of the community, and opened 18 schools to meet the needs of the children when their parents did not want them to walk four miles to the nearest primary school. He said tertiary education was now heading south.
"Today most of the doctors inhabiting Mt Hope are coming from areas like that and they living behind me, renting house.
For this reason the Prime Minister declared that a southern campus of the university would be placed at the entrance to Debe. The girls do not have to come up here but the university will go there." He said the slogan of the SDMS has been the secular and the sacred, and it was for this reason every SDMS school had a pundit who has Bachelor of Education degree. Pundits, he said, were now some of the most respected and educated people. "When I was growing up the pundit was a grass cutter." Maharaj said Hindus worked hard for their education. "Now the cry is you can justify discrimination in the police service because all you become all the doctors and lawyers. They not telling you that it takes seven years to become a doctor and five years to became a lawyer, and it's by choice. "It's a quite different proposition from the police service," he concluded.