Silent campaigner for love & religion

In Mumbai,he was advised to change Hindi for Marathi but Das wouldn’t budge. “The Thackerays are religious people,they’ll understand the message of love,” he insists.

Since February 2009,Das has travelled to Bhubaneswar,Raipur,Bhilwara,Baroda and Ahmedabad besides his regular haunts in Mumbai and his latest week-long stopover in Delhi.

“I was looking for a way to say what I wanted to but without getting into a lengthy discourse. The message is simple,so is the medium,” he says.

Das was a garment salesman in the 1990s when he had a “spiritual awakening”. “I left home and my travels took me to Chitrakoot and the Himalayas,to gurus,imams and pastors,and into the books and places of worship of the major religions of India. I realised that followers of different faiths won’t agree all the time. The solution is what my message is about — follow your religion,love everybody,” he says.

Though diminutive,Das makes a captivating figure; he is the only static person in the whirlpool of commuters and the only one grinning widely. Both are physically taxing,he says. The cops at the crossing say he stands close to six hours,though his normal day stretches 12 to 17 hours. “I have a routine: Rajghat from 6.30 am to 8.30 am,followed by Dilli Gate and ITO and visits to India Gate,” he says.

Das doesn’t accept money. In Mumbai,he lives in a cottage on Versova beach and is a familiar figure to the cops. A follower of Sant Morari Bapu,Das relies on his guru’s organisation for travel and lodging,but the placards are his own initiative. He has a stock of 40 2×3 ft white sunboards,with messages like “Life’s a struggle,Don’t lose hope”,but it is the one on religious unity that hits home.

Tourists pose for photographs,motorists shout “Achhi baat hai”,cyclists call him Baba and Maharaj. But it is the young crowd that involves him in discussions on religion,society and politics.

“I saw him on Friday but was too busy to stop,so I made it a point to say salaam on Saturday,” says Md Mustaque,25,who works at a firm that publishes books on Islam. “This man has whittled down the ultimate truth of all religions into two lines. Amazing,” says Subhash Kumar,who mans the traffic display system at ITO.

Das has met a few rowdy pedestrians but the overwhelming majority has greeted him well. His Delhi sojourn ends February 7. Gwalior and Junagarh are next.