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Part IV : Dr. Harisingh Gaur, the founder of Sagar University
I was a student, and the man who had founded the university,
Harisingh Gaur, was still the vice-chancellor. We became friends,
because I used to go for a morning walk on a lonely street early
in the morning before sunrise and he also used to go on the same
street, alone. We were the only persons, so naturally...it
started with saying "good morning" to each other. By
and by we started walking together. He started asking about me,
what subject I was studying, what I was doing, and slowly, slowly
the distance of age disappeared. He started inviting me for tea
after the walk. And he became interested in my ideology, because
whenever I saw that he was saying something which I could not
accept I simply rejected it and produced every possible argument
against it. He loved it.
He said, "You should not have joined philosophy."
He himself was a legal man, he was a world-famous law expert.
He said, "You should have gone into law because you, without
knowing law, argue with me and I can see that if we were in a
court you would win."
But I said to him, "It is just a mind game. I can argue for,
I can argue against; mind is ready for both."
He said, "Strange...that reminds me of one of the incidents
in my own life." upan05
He was a lawyer, a very great, famous, world famous authority
on law; but he was a very forgetful man, very absent minded. Once
it happened that in a privy council case in London he was fighting
the case for one Indian maharaja. It was a big case. He forgot - and
he argued for one hour against his own client. Even the judge
became worried. The opposite party advocate couldn't believe what
was happening: "Now what is he going to do?" - because
all the arguments that he had prepared, this man was making. The
whole thing was topsy-turvy, and the whole court couldn't believe
what was happening. And the man was such an authority that nobody
dared to interrupt him; even his own assistant tried many times
to pull his coat and tell him what he was doing. When he finished
then the assistant whispered in his ear, "What have you done?
You have completely destroyed the case. We are not against this
man - we are for him!"
This lawyer said to the judge, "My lord, these are the
arguments which can be given against my client - now I will
contradict them." And he started contradicting, and he won
the case.
Logic is a prostitute. You can argue for God, and the same argument
can be used against God. harmon05
Doctor Harisingh Gaur, one of the great legal experts of the
world, used to say to his students that, "If you have the
law in your favor, speak very silently, slowly, be mild, polite - because
the law is in your favor, don't be worried. But if the law is
not in your favor, then beat the table, speak loudly, with a strong
voice. Use words which create an atmosphere of certainty, absoluteness,
because the law is not in your favor. You have to create an atmosphere
as if the law is in your favor." dh0302
When I was a student in the university, I used to receive two
hundred rupees per month from someone, I knew not who. I had tried
every way to find out who the person was. On the first day of
each month, the money order was there but there was no name, no
address. Only when the person died...and he was no one other than
the founder of the university in which I was a student.
I went to his home. His wife said, "I am worried - not because
my husband has died; everybody has to die. My concern is, from
where am I going to get two hundred rupees to send you?"
I said, "My god, your husband has been sending it? I never
asked, and there was no need because I am getting a scholarship
from the university, free lodging, free boarding - everything
free."
The wife said, "I also asked him many times: Why do you go
on sending two hundred rupees to him? And he said, `He needs it.
He loves books but he has no money for books. And his need for
books is greater than his need for food."'
But he was a rare man. In his whole life, whatever he earned
he donated to create the university in his town.
India has almost one thousand universities. I have seen many.
His university is small; it is a small place. But his university
is the most beautiful - on a hilltop surrounded by great trees,
and below it such a big lake full of lotus flowers...the lake
is so big that you cannot see the other shore. And I came to know
that he had given everything to the university. Nobody was asking,
nobody was even expecting that in that small place there would
be a great university.
He was a world-known legal expert. He had offices in London,
in New Delhi, in Peking; he was continuously on the move.
I had asked him, "Why have you chosen this place?"
He said, "I have gone all over the world and I have never
seen such a beautiful small hill, with big trees, with such a
beautiful lake, with so many lotuses...." The whole lake
is covered with flowers and lotus leaves. In the early morning,
on all the lotus petals...dewdrops gather in the night...in
the morning you can see - that lake is the richest in the
world because each dewdrop shines like a diamond.
He had taken me around the place and he said, "It is not
a question of my town, it is a question of the beauty of this
place."
But I had never imagined that he would be sending me two hundred
rupees per month, unsigned. So I cannot even send him a thank
you note. mess110
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