During the Hyderabad visit of Acharya Vinoba Bhave in the year 1951-52, some philanthropists, social workers and well wishers of the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad met together and formed “SARVODAYA VICHAR PRACHAR TRUST”.
To further its service activities, the Trust was allotted a valuable piece of land by the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation in the Tilak Park, Sultan Bazar, Hyderabad. On this land, the foundation stone for the “Gandhi Gyan Mandir” building was laid by Frontier Gandhi, Shri Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan on 27th December 1969. Shri Tokarshi Lalji Kapadia along with Sarvashri P.L. Bhandari, Rama Krishna Dhoot, Satyanarayan Gupta, Birdichand Chaudhari, Kamalnarayan Agarwal and many other influential people had gone house to house and collected contributions for the construction of the building. The business community of the twin cities had donated liberally for this noble cause.
M/s Balaji Shivnarayan and Co. had contributed major amount for the construction of the main hall in Gandhi Gyan Mandir. The building was inaugurated by Dr. Sriman Narayan the then chairman of Gandhi Smarak Nidhi, Delhi on 2nd October 1974, the auspicious day of Gandhi Jayanti.
A sub-committee was formed with the name of “Gandhi Gyan Mandir Sahayogi Sangh” to organize the programs at Gandhi Gyan Mandir, with Sri Satyanarayan Gupta, as Chairman and Shri Surendra Luniya as Honorary Secretary.
Activities at Gandhi Gyan Mandir:
To uphold the deteriorating moral values in the society and to protect the Indian culture are the main objectives of Gandhi Gyan Mandir.
To publish books on the themes of Gandhian philosophy is one of the main objectives of the Trust.
An art gallery depicting the rare photographs of Mahatma Gandhi is arranged as Gandhi Museum in the first floor. Film shows on Gandhiji and Vinoba Bhave are arranged periodically. There is Gandhi Book House with spiritual, Yoga and Gandhian literature. Seminars, conferences and lectures on Gandhian and Indian Philosophy for overall spiritual development of all are regularly arranged.
A double storied building has been constructed in the All India Industrial Exhibition grounds, Goshamahal, Hyderabad by the Trust and named as “Gandhi Darshan”. The hall is decorated with photographs highlighting the important events of Gandhiji’s life. The Trust was organizing the programs in Gandhi Darshan in the beginning. Sri C.V. Chary is the present organizer for it.
The office of A.P. Gandhi Smarak Nidhi is in the first floor of the Gandhi Gyan Mandir. Nature cure center and Yoga Kendra have also been well established in the Gandhi Gyan Mandir. Thousands of people, young & aged, men and women have been trained in Yoga Kendra and nature cure center of Gandhi Gyan Mandir. Here hundreds of people attend everyday. A number of branch units have been established and they are independently training people in Yoga education. Shri Tokarshi Lalji Kapadia and Sri Satyanarayan Gupta had served a lot in many ways in developing this Yoga center. At present Sri Kamal Narayan Agarwal as chairman, Sri Surendra Luniya as Hony. Secretary and Dr. Praveen Kapadia as Director, Yoga are looking after to organize the programs of Gandhi Gyan Mandir Yoga Kendra.
“Sarvodaya Vichar Prachar Trust” has published the books on Gandhiji and Vinobaji. Navajeevan Trust, Ahmedabad has published Gandhiji’s auto biography in Telugu through Sarvodaya Vichar Prachar Trust. Sri Vemuri Radha Krishna Murthy has translated the book into Telugu. Telugu University, Hyderabad has awarded this book as one of the best translation books. Till now 100,000 copies have been sold out without any special advertisement.
Gandhi Gyan Mandir has developed into a center for publicizing and spreading the principles of Gandhiji upholding and spreading the moral values providing training in Yoga education. Here more than 500 people practice Yoga every day. They are also been educated in ancient Indian culture including truth, non-violence and love and universal brotherhood. The center is popularly known as Gandhi Gyan Mandir and is rendering a real service to suffering humanity.
The present Trust Board of the “Sarvodaya Vichar Prachar Trust”
Chairman :
Shri Kamalnarayan Agarwal
Managing Trustee :
Shri Surendra Luniya
Trustees:
Shri Puranmal Agarwal
Shri Gulzarilal Kedia
Shri Vinay Agarwal
Shri Kirti Kumar Tokarshi Kapadia
Shri Sushil Kapadia