Though it requires him to stand all the time to manage a huge throng of shoes, he continues it out of his love for community and his belief, “Cleanliness is next to godliness.” He single handedly clears the mess of footwear and keeps shoes in an order at Shirdi Sai Mandir, Sri Mahalakshmi Temple, Shakti Mandir, Shiv Mandir and Sanatana Mandir on both usual days and special occasions. Nate Natesan took the mission to all temples in Atlanta following the online launch of Swacch Devalaya in Georgia in 2014. He started from satsanghs at public places once a week and went on to do the same at Hanuman Mandir nearby his home, two evenings a week in 2010. Since then he has been arranging devotees’ shoes on the floor and on racks to keep temple premises and entrance clean. People’s lack of self-discipline and no concern for cleanliness motivated Nate Natesan to set an example of leadership in bringing the change.
However, the present Swacch Devalaya in Georgia was ideated in 2006 during his visit to the Chinmaya Mission Balavihar where he found a mess of visitors’ shoes scattered here and there to his utter surprise. Nate Natesan’s generous act of arranging people’s shoes at temples in Atlanta had been a nameless pursuit of volunteerism until he launched Swacch Devalaya on Facebook in June 2014. Swacch Devalaya in Atlanta surfaced long before Swacch Bharat in India. He believes that the purity of soul begins with self-discipline and that no work is small or insignificant if it does good to the community. He has worked in several MNCs in Mumbai, Pune, New Jersey and Atlanta. He traveled with a degree in Mathematics from Bombay University in Mumbai to New Jersey, and did MBA in finance at Rutgers University NJ. One of the few great humans of Atlanta and the founder of Swacch Devalaya, Nate Natesan is a business analyst.
Since 2006, he has been putting visitors’ shoes and sandals orderly on racks in order to keep temple premises clean and raise awareness about civic sense among the people. Nate Natesan, an Atlanta-based Indian American, is living Mahatma Gandhi’s words “Be the change you want to see in the world” by keeping temples clean and instilling self-discipline among devotees through his reform movement Swacch Devalaya in Georgia. O dear, move alone.” We at Indian Eagle take pleasure in publishing and sharing the inspiring story of Nate Natesan as part of our continued effort to promote good work by Indian Americans, through our community portal, Travel Beats. Nate Natesan, the one-man army of Swacch Devalaya in the US state of Georgia, reminds us of Rabindranath Tagore’s motivational song, “If no one responds to your call, move alone.