By Er. Rajesh Pathak
With the aim of joining the mission of Chhatrapati Shivaji for national liberation against the Mughals, Maharaja Chhatrasal Judev Bundela of Bundelkhand came to him, expressing his desire.
“This mission is to bring swarajya to the entire country, and how long it will continue, nobody knows” — Shivaji knew this well. He also knew that any effort confined to a particular region and centred around a personality could not be long-lasting. Only a collective effort initiated from different regions of the nation at large could make it successful.
Shivaji’s answer to Chhatrasal was: “What I am doing here, you should do in your own territory while living there. This will take the purpose more swiftly to its ultimate end.”
From a broader perspective, the country extends from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, and this entire country belongs to me as an individual. However, when it comes to acting in its interest, the place where one lives alone becomes one’s country. The people among whom one spends one’s life constitute one’s community. Their problems are one’s own problems to be resolved. Their joys and sorrows become one’s own joys and sorrows. Where citizens live with these shared sentiments, social life there becomes richer and more vibrant. This is what Shivaji wanted to convey to Chhatrasal in the real sense.
Learning the lesson of the time, Chhatrasal then journeyed back to his kingdom. He had now fully understood Shivaji’s greater goal. He had also come to realize Shivaji’s broader national vision and his farsighted approach to materializing it, as well as how he himself had to act henceforth.
(The writer is a Civil Engineer and a freelancer from Bhopal and can be reached at M-9826337011.)
