Often, he started feeding them with tea or buns, parotas or bread but he wanted to do something more.
He asked God for his help and brought 3 to 4 people in the garage of 6×3 ft. in his own house where his father used to park a motorbike.
He started cleaning and feeding such patients. He used to give them bath, cut their nails and shave their head full of lice …. But his family members and neighbor’s called him insane for bringing such people to his house. They thought, he’s mad and doing such a thing because he was jobless. Moreover, they mistaken him and thought that he would send pictures of such people to foreigners and make money. They discouraged him so much so that he was pressurized to move out of his house and look for a rented place. Society rejected him and offended him but it was not an end …. But just a start!
He hired a rented house and no doubt his first donor was “Bro SR. Manohar” donated Rs 10,000 and he used this money to pay the advance rent.
There were 13 inmates at that time and it was in the place named Kavalbyrasandra in Bengaluru.
Today, Raja is the director of “Home of Hope”, a mission run by him to serve destitute people in the busy city of Bengaluru and all over Karnataka and the neighboring states. He’s the founder of the mission – “New Ark Mission of India – Home of Hope” and went ahead and registered it as a trust in 1998.
Today, Raja’s Ashram or “Auto Raja” Ashram as it is popularly known is a home to nearly 800 people where he and his team rescues people from the streets, feed them and look after their health. We also keep them engaged and give them some job.
These people are poor, helpless and in worst conditions lying on the streets just like garbage. Diseases afflict them – Leprosy, blindness, deaf and dumb, kidney and liver ailments, cancers and tumors and moreover mentally challenged and depressed and rejected from family and society.
A major challenge is to feed, entertain, engage and rehabilitate such people. Compassion for others and an unshakeable faith in God are just the two things Raja invests in, to drive him to do his job.
Today, he is known as Mother Teresa of Karnataka.