Dada Chellaram Tekchand Mansukhani

Dada Chellaramji was born on 3rd May 1904 in Hyderabad Sind, where he spent his boyhood, attended the Inland College, and in due course of time admitted to the Bar. In his perspective, the young practitioner saw the disabilities and infirmities, from which mankind suffered. He seemed to be destined by the stars, to bring his physical vigour and his legal acumen, to the crusade for the deliverance of the suffering of mankind, and he throughout his life remained a staunch friend and trusted counsellor to one and all. Certainly, he was no average man. An ascetic by temperament, and intensely religious, dominated by the spirit of selflessness, he completely effaced himself and considered himself to be a humble servant of God. He remembered the fundamental truth, that men are born equal, and are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

He found that the desire to control the lives, the liveries and the goals of the poor of happiness, by the rich, was a million-dollar question. His search always was how to arrest this vicious movement of the rich. The answer to this question to him appeared to be that he should fill the human heart with the milk of human kindness. He told all that being the Servants of the Lord, we should teach in speech and in living what He taught, and we should be true to His teachings Viz. Love thy neighbour.

We are God's children. He told us that God has asked to address him as Our Father and to pray that His Will, will be done on earth, as is in Heaven. Dadaji said that the root cause of misery was that we had refused to believe that all are children of God and he went on to say that in the Roman Empire, there was absolutism in the religious field, but the religious concept was that a slave who tried to mingle in the religious processions had committed a Sacrilege and must be put to death, and therefore the religious freedom adorned only the sacraments. He said that for myriads of men, the words that we all are children of God were like the sound of running water in the burning desert.

During the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, Dadaji along with his family came to Delhi. Got himself employed in a government job. Settled his family and started concentrating on his main task of spreading the Divine Name. He founded this sacred institution in 1950 in Bombay and had its branches in Bombay, Calcutta and Pune with headquarters in Delhi. After retiring from his service at the age of 55 years he decided to spend the last phase of his life in the Himalayas. He established an Ashram at Saproon in Shimla Hills where he spent the last five years of his precious life. During this period, he undertook kirtan yatras for seven months and spent five months in the Ashram. In the fifth and final kirtan yatra in 1964, he suffered a heart attack on 5th March while doing kirtan in Agra and was brought to Delhi on 7th March when he breathed his last on his way from New Delhi station to Nij Thanw.

In this world of sorrow and agony came Dadaji and he was indeed a unique personality. He sought no material reward. He sought no publicity, no fame, no reputation. He was great because he asked no thanks. He was great because he was a son of God who lived as a BROTHER to all and devoted his mind and heart to the service of others. He was great because his whole personality was articulate with a call for mercy for Mankind. He was great because, like all leaders, he was abused and slandered which only stimulated him to better strive with greater fervour, God’s Mercy for others. He was great because he had faith, the vision and the courage, to sustain all contests. Through storms and calms over the sunken reefs, floating across every treacherous edifice, braving all dangers, he held to his cause of establishing the House of the Lord for all those who kneel and pray. When history forgets many who now fill the public eye, he will be a great outstanding figure, from whose life others will gather hope and courage, to seek the blessings of the Lord. Dadaji met many men, who have passed away, and with them have passed away the causes which they contended. But Dadaji was determined, to submerge entirely his personality in the cause, which was his life's ambition. In the service, rendered to mankind, Dadaji has been true to his ideals. With his departure from this mortal earth, the cause he lived for is not dead but it lives on through the activities which are being carried out at Nij Thanw, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Ashram (Saproon). Dadaji has done great work because he has not endowed NIJ THANW with false foundations, with money, wrongfully extorted from an over-patient public or from those who had amassed them by questionable means. He has established NIJ THANW and Ashram at Saproon for the worship of God and the gratitude of hundreds of thousands of human beings will accredit their liberty to pray there irrespective of caste and creed, to his undying devotion.