‘Service to Humanity’ – with this ardent vision and self-devotion, the foundation of Shri Sadguru Seva Sangh Trust (SSSST) was laid in the early 1950s and formalized in 1968 by the revered saint Param Pujya Shri Ranchhoddasji Maharaj (respectably addressed as “Gurudev” by his disciples).
Once, while doing sadhu-seva in Chitrakoot, Gurudev encountered an elderly blind man who tripped on a stone hitting an electric pole. Gurudev saw the blood oozing from his forehead and ran to help him when he realized that the man was suffering from cataract. Being from one of the rural and backward place, he was destined to live with a blindness that was curable. Gurudev was intensely touched by this incident and vowed to rescue them from a life of gloom.
To further his spiritual convictions, Gurudev along with his followers spearheaded the movement of voluntary service in the early 1950s by organizing free eye camps and large scale relief work for the grief stricken families during the natural calamities in Central India. These efforts gradually converged into establishing a formal institution “Shri Sadguru Seva Sangh Trust” (SSSST) in 1968 at Chitrakoot, Madhya Pradesh.
Being an ardent devotee of Gurudev, the reins of SSSST were entrusted to Shri Arvindbhai N. Mafatlal , a leading industrialist and a well known philanthropist in India, and was nominated as the Chairman of the Trust by Gurudev with a vision of providing ‘Food for the Hungry’, `Clothes for the Destitute’ and `Sight for the Blind’. Since then Shri Arvindbhai N. Mafatlal continued to be the visionary of SSSST and has been instrumental in the sustained and diversified growth that the Trust has so far achieved.
Over the years, the organization has grown up to a greater strength and presently ambits one of the largest Rural Eyecare Institutions which got recognized worldwide as the ‘Best Rural Eyecare Model’ in the region viz. Sadguru Netra Chikitsalaya and another comprehensive General Hospital viz. Jankikund Chikitsalaya, both the hospitals are situated at Chitrakoot. Other institutions of the Trust are also dedicatedly working towards social and rural development activities in the rural areas of Anandpur (District Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh), where two hospital units viz. Shri Sadguru Sankalp Netra Chikitsalaya and the Shri Sadguru Matritva Sadan are added to the existing General Hospital of Shri Sadguru Sankalp Chikitsalaya.
Be it Health Care, Education, Women Empowerment, Farming, Energy conservation, Dairy Development & Cattle Care or Employment to rural youth, the Trust has contributed towards an overall development of the society.