Our historyहमारा इतिहास
Seventy years on one piece of land.
Before there was a Trust, there was a promise: that this land in Hansi would be used for religion and charity, and for nothing else. Everything since 1952 has been the keeping of that promise.
Timeline
How the Bhawan came to be.
Drawn from the Trust’s registered Deed and family records. Dates before 1968 are approximate.
Land held for a sacred purpose
Shri K.L. Garg, son of Lala Jugal Kishore, along with other religious and charitably minded people of Hansi, comes into possession of a parcel of land on the western side of the Sanatan Dharma Kanya Mahavidyalaya. From the beginning it is held with one object: to establish an institution for religious and charitable purposes.
A Gita Bhawan rises
Through their own effort, and with the help of friends, relations and associates, the founders develop the land and raise the first structures on it — among them the Gita Bhawan from which the Trust takes its name. Worship, recitation and gatherings begin here long before any paperwork exists.
The Trust Deed is registered
So that there could never be a dispute about the Trust’s objects, the founders execute and register a formal Deed of Trust. Five trustees sign it: Shri Kanhaiya Lal Garg and Smt. Shanta Garg of Calcutta; Dr. Madan Gopal Singha, Manager of the Sanatan Dharma Kanya Mahavidyalaya; Lala Moti Ram Gharaiya, merchant of Hansi; and Swami Ganeshanand ji of Hisar. The name is fixed as “Hansi Gita Bhawan Trust” and its five objects are set down in writing.
From Bhawan to campus
Guided by those objects, the estate grows into what visitors see today: the temple of Bhagwan Shri Krishna and Maa Saraswati, gardens, a yoga centre, a guest house for visiting devotees and sadhus, and shops on the estate that give livelihoods to local families and keep the Trust self-supporting.
The fourth generation
Shri Nikhilessh Garg, son of Late Shri Devendra Kumar Garg, serves as Chairman — continuing a line of custodianship that runs from Lala Jugal Kishore through the founder to the present day. The daily aarti, the satsangs and the annual kathas continue as they always have.
The founding trustees, 1968
Five signatures.
A merchant couple from Calcutta, the manager of a girls’ college, a merchant of Hansi and a swami of Hisar — a cross-section of the community the Trust was made to serve.
- Shri Kanhaiya Lal GargSon of Lala Jugal Kishore · Calcutta
- Smt. Shanta GargWife of Shri Kanhaiya Lal Garg · Calcutta
- Dr. Madan Gopal SinghaManager, Sanatan Dharma Kanya Mahavidyalaya, Hansi
- Lala Moti Ram GharaiyaSon of Late Amar Singh ji · Hansi
- Swami Ganeshanand jiBlue Priyag Giri Shivala, Hisar
The founder
Shri K.L. Garg
Kanhaiya Lal Garg — K.L. Garg, as he was known — was a merchant of Calcutta whose family roots lay in Hansi. He never let go of the town. He put his own means and effort into the land and its first buildings, brought friends and relations along with him, and insisted on a registered Deed so that the Trust would outlive its founders and belong to its purpose rather than to any person.
The Deed shows his priorities plainly: worship first; then prayer and the recitation of the Gita; then the spreading of dharma’s ideals among the public; then care for the learned and the renounced; and finally libraries, study rooms and lectures. That order is still the order of our work.
