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[quote]Where Krishna meets Mohammed

Tulsaben Thakkar takes Prophet Mohammed's name as she recites from a Hindu text. She talks about qayamat while singing praises of Lord Krishna. It is a daily ritual for about 60 lakh followers of the Hindu Nijanand sect, now more popularly known as Pranami, founded 400 years ago in Jamnagar, Gujarat. Their love for Krishna also invokes the holy Prophet. The sect has followers in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Nepal.

A spectacular festival of Pranami followers unfolded from November 1 to 12, in a sleepy village near Jamnagar. Borders melted, religious boundaries blurred and centuries fell away as two lakh people assembled to participate in the '12,000 parayan' in which 12,000 chosen followers read out 37,516 lines each from the holy book called Shri Tartam Sagar in 12 days.

"The success of the parayan largely depends on the completion of the reading by devotees within the time frame. Thankfully, it was completed, reinforcing the strength of the sect," says holy man Amritraj Sharma. As the deadline approached, old and young devotees were seen bobbing their heads and reading aloud. Those who had finished their respective books before the last date helped others who were struggling. It's not common to find traditional Gujaratis mouthing typical Arabic words like momin, haqiqat and hukum. After all it was a faith carved out of an age when Aurangzeb ruled.

"Aurangzeb was killing Hindus and demolishing temples. Our founder Mahamati Prannathji went to Aurangzeb to explain our religion to him. (The faith was born just over two decades before this encounter.) He chose to speak in his language by referring to the value system of the Koran," says Sharma. 
 
 
The confluence of two religions in the Pranami sect has been described by Mahatma Gandhi, who was born in a Pranami family. In My Experiments With Truth, Gandhi says, "My family was Pranami. Even though we are Hindu by birth, in our temple, the priest used to read from the Muslim Koran and the Hindu Gita - moving from one to the other as if it mattered not which book was being read, as long as God was being worshipped."

In fact, it was his Pranami roots which made Gandhi choose a vegetarian menu. Apart from Gandhi, the other prominent member of the sect in recent times was the late union minister H K L Bhagat. The Ruparel industrial family is today one of the most influential part of the sect. At least 5,000 Pranami followers are present in Mumbai too. An exclusive Krishna Pranami temple in Bhuleshwar caters to these devotees who never worship idols. The holy book is worshipped there instead.

"My husband's ancestors were involved with the religion since the first temple in Jamnagar was built 375 years ago. We are still trustees of the temple," says Ira, daughter-in-law of the Ruparel clan. Her nonagenarian mother-in-law Laxmi, who takes part in the day-to-day functioning of the temple, quotes a couplet from the Tartam Sagar to emphasise the secular fabric of the sect.

Jo kachu kahyaa ved ne, sohee kahyaa kateb/ Dono bande ek saheb ke, par ladat paaye bina bhed. (What is said in the Vedas, is also said in the Kitaab (Koran) / Both people of one God, fight without knowing the truth.)[/quote]

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