Bharatula Hari Narayana Sarma - Symbol of Communal Harmony

Meet Hari Narayana, a dedicated priest at Hazaratdargah dargah

Bharatula Hari Narayana Sarma (60) is a dedicated priest (Muzavar) and trusted guide in a 400-year-old Sufi temple here. Everyone respects him for his commitment to communal harmony.

“If Hari is there, everything is taken care of,” says Altaf Raza, general secretary of the State Muslim Welfare Association.

Hari, with his pristine habits and thoughts, has won the hearts of all, especially the Muslim fraternity, and with dedication he spreads the concept of universal brotherhood among devotees who throng the Hazarat Syed Hussein Shahkhadhri Dargah, near Prakasam barrage here to seek the blessings of ‘Baba’.That Hari keeps the keys of the dargah brings to fore the trust and sincerity he commands from its custodians.“I do not know Urdu, and I didn’t learn verses by heart. But, I follow all rules and regulations for the upkeep of the dargah,” says the ‘priest’, who came to the dargah long ago.

In fact, Hari uses his fluency in Telugu to quell the doubts of Hindu devotees.

Well! How Hari got associated with the dargah? “I was working for a shamiyana company, which downed shutters after its owner’s death. I joined a grocery shop that supplied provisions to the dargah in a pushcart. I used to sleep on it [the push cart] in the nights near Brahmin Street,” he recollects.

“Moved by my plight, Muttavalli Syed Anwar [custodian of the dargah] asked me to sleep in the dargah, and thus I started my long association with this Sufi temple,” says Hari.

Gradually, Hari began to learn the traditions of Islam. He also conducts ‘Fateha’ and listens to the grievances (‘dua mangna’) of devotees. He ties the holi thread (‘taweez’) to the new vehicles which are lined up before hitting the road.

The above is an article appeared in news paper 'The Hindu' of 22.2.2015. As it concern communal harmony, I thougght of reproducing the same.