Cremation completes that cycle of life and death. Raju Bhai of Udaipur helps selflessly in the procedure of cremation to the relatives of deceased person by providing them everything used in this most important Hindu ritual known as Antim Sanskar or Antyeshti. Raju Bhai named his service “ Shradhanjali”, which means paying a tribute to the departed soul. Shradhanjali is very uncommon service running successfully since 2006 when Raju Bhai started it by taking the blessings of his spiritual guru Acharya Shree Bharat Sagar, though Raju Bhai’s family and friends were completely unconvinced of what he has decided to do but today after a successful journey of 4 years they are proud of Shradhanjali. He serves all 24 hrs a day and 7 days a week keeping every necessary thing, almost 185 different items required at the time of death funeral in different castes and communities of Hindu religion. Raju Bhai’s van is always ready for providing funeral items for 6 deceased males and females. Besides funeral items he can also arrange for food, a priest to perform last ritual, a barber, Moksha Rath and a band. Holding a prestigious position of the president of Jain Samaj Navyuvak Mandal, He also owns a business of clothes for wedding ceremonies, fancy dress competition and stage plays. Raju Bhai says “My business is related to wedding which is the happiest moment of anybody’s life, so I have seen that People will celebrate your joy with you but no one comes and stands along at the time of grief. This inspired me to start this service, Shradhanjali, to be with people when they need someone’s support” Being a “ one man army”, Raju bhai is so much occupied with Shradhanjali service that he hardly gets time for his wedding business. Though Raju Bhai’s service is not 100% free of cost but he doesn’t make out any profit from what he provides. He charges the same rate of items he bought for including fuel charges. Not a single cent extra. In exceptional cases, he don’t charge anything, like once a poor family was migrated to Udaipur, the father who was keeping all money was pick pocketed, he died due to this shock, and there was no one to help the family. When Raju bhai was informed he immediately came to the scene took them to crematory and did the funeral rituals, as the family was penniless Raju bhai arranged money from donations, a place to live and a good job for the eldest son. This world is full of sorrow, pain, grief and distress. We meet selfish people every day, we hear and see how one man is killing hundreds of innocent people but luckily this world also has exceptional people like Raju Bhai to throw away hatred and keep lighting the flame of humanity.

Udaipurtimes.com honor Raju Bhai’s noble attempt to serve humanity. He is an ordinary man with some extra ordinary qualities. Contact Raju Bhai on +91-9829042177,  9828550143,  9352658623 Raju Bhai was interviewed by UT co-author Aditya Joshi