Darshan – Pune’s iconic technological marvel – the only one of its kind in the country

It is amazing that in Pune we have a technological marvel, which has cost Rs.17 crores and has taken 10 years to build, with a lot of effort from brilliant minds. It is located in the heart of the city, over a space of 10,000 sqft., on lines similar to that of the Akshardham in Delhi, yet better than that in many ways. For those who have seen or not seen Akshardham, they must be aware that Akshardham is located over a vast area of land and tells you the story about one of the greatest saints in India, using wax models, and sound & light technology, in a walk-through show. The wax models compete with Madame Tussauds in London - only there they make lifelike models of celebrities, usually film stars from Hollywood and Bollywood.

This marvel in Pune is called Darshan Museum and is located at Sadhu Vaswani Mission and open to all who believe in God, irrespective of caste, creed and religion, and the entry is free, though it takes Rs.6 lakhs a month to run and maintain it. It is better than Akshardham not only technologically, but also in many other ways, of which three most important factors are that it does not use any public land, Akshardham has a ticket of Rs.250, while the entry for Darshan Museum  is free, and thirdly, even for those living in Delhi, Akshardham is on the outskirts of Delhi, while Darshan Museum is in the heart of the city, built within the existing premises of the mission. Moreover, Darshan has all the attractiveness of Akshardham, yet it is built only in 10,000 sqft instead of acres of land. This is a technologically difficult feat to achieve.

That it is a museum is a misnomer. It is actually a 100 minute wonderful walk through show, which takes you into a different era and makes you travel all over the world, as if you are actually in cities like Berlin and London, in the days when Sadhu T.L. Vaswani, founder of the Sadhu Vaswani Mission, was invited to give awe-inspiring talks. He was invited to World Congress of Religions, where he gave a speech, which is considered as amazing as Swami Vivekananda’s speech at the same forum.

Sadhu T.L. Vaswani came to Pune in February 1949, and settled here and gave the city the most iconic Sadhu Vaswani Mission, which has quietly given the city good schools, colleges, and four hospitals, where even today the poor people are treated with whatever little money they have. Today, they are still performing over 70,000 eye operations, complex heart surgeries, and giving away thousands of artificial limbs to the needy, every year.

Sadhu T.L. Vaswani was a true Punekar, a true Indian and a true spiritual guide, not only for us Indians, but also for the entire world. Unfortunately, he never publicized himself and therefore few people in Pune know what a great spiritual leader he was. In fact, although I studied in his school, and had actually seen him as a 10 year old, I did not know much about him. But, when I saw the Darshan Museum, I was amazed, both at the man himself and the technology used, to bring him to life all over again.

I immediately told Dada J.P. Vaswani, the present spiritual head of the mission, that this can become one of the best tourist destinations in Pune, and a minor entry fee should be charged to recover the Rs.6 lakhs per month cost of running and maintenance of the Darshan show. His reply amazed me. He said, “I want it free for all humanity to come and see”. It’s a must see for not just all Punekars, but also foreign tourists.