Summary of the address of Parampujya
Sarsanghchalak Dr. Mohanrao Bhagwat on the occasion of Sri Vijaya Dashmi – 2014
on Friday 3rd October.
We have gathered here once again
after a year on this auspicious and holy occasion of Vijaya Dashami. This year
the environment is quite different and everyone can feel it. . The grand success of our scientists in
sending our 'Mangal Yaan' into the orbit of Mars, that also in the maiden
attempt, has tremendously generated respect for us and has added to our self
confidence. We express our hearty congratulations to all our scientists and
their entire team for their success in the 'Magnal-Abhiyaan'. We heartily congratulate
all the athletes who made the nation proud by winning medals in Asiad games
going on in South Korea. This year also happens to be the millennium year of
victorious saga of life of the great Rajrajendra Chol. The 50th anniversary of
Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay's great philosophy of 'Ekatma Manav-darshan' i.e.
'Integral Humanism' is yet another proud reference of this year. . We have also
made the world realise that the common citizen of Bharat takes part in the
process of future building of her/his nation through execution of her/his
democratic responsibilities with maturity and enthusiasm as equal, if not more,
to the prosperous and well educated
citizens of so called developed countries. This realization about Bharatiya
people among countries across the world has substantially increased respect for
our patience, enthusiasm and our self confidence, as expressed by some of them.
The enthusiasm and resolve exhibited by the Bharatiya Diaspora across the world
towards Bharat is a welcome omen for the proud and prosperous Bharat.
But we must also realize that all
this is only a small step in the direction of our goal of making Bharat the
'Vishwa-Guru' of the world, a model nation that runs on the principles of
happiness, peace and harmony. We have to do a lot and have to cover quite a
long distance to reach our goal. One can understand this easily after reviewing
the prevailing situation within Bharat and across the world.
Humanity can live a happy,
peaceful and beautiful life only when we understand and follow the principles
of loving and respectfully accepting the plurality inherent in nature; move
with a sense of coordination, cooperation, empathy and dialogue and; adopt the
path of non-violence and constitutional middle path instead of practicing
unilateral fanaticism and violence in our practices in matters related to
ideological and religious conduct. This truth has been intellectually preached,
quite sufficiently for that matter, since the beginning of known world history.
Everyone knows this at the thinking level. But these noble thoughts though
preached regularly in discourses and advice has no backing of practice. What we
observe is nothing less than arrogance, egoism, selfishness and utter rigidity
when it comes to individual or national behaviour. It is not therefore
surprising that despite a substantial progress on the fronts of human
knowledge, science, technology, facilities and comforts and despite making all
efforts and experiments in the direction of reducing unhappiness, pain and
grief, over past two thousand years, humanity is still facing the same problems
time and again. Rather this so called 'progress' has added new problems which
we are unable to handle.
Today we see that even when the
issue of ecology is being discussed in details for past many decades, yet we
find that with each passing day the ecological destruction is approaching much
faster and closer to us. Because of this environmental destruction, the world
is facing newer and deadlier natural calamities consistently. But except for
some changes in their vocabulary or some half hearted attempts at symptomatic
treatment, no meaningful change is visible in the policies of nations and large
multinational companies. What we are witnessing today is simply the same old,
single minded materialistic, consumerist and a self centred ideology at work in
overt or covert forms.
It is this self centred
collective greed that gives rise to exploitation, suppression, violence and
fanaticism. Precisely, operating on the basis of such selfish interests by the
western countries is responsible for a new incarnation of terror and
fundamentalism that has emerged today in West Asia in the form of ISIS
terrorising the whole world. There is no doubt that most countries and
religious groups of the world are thinking of standing united and fighting
against this menace and they may do so; but, unless the momentum of that
vicious cycle of terror is uprooted, it is not possible to rescue the world
from the cyclic waves of terror which keeps on emerging in a new shape every
time due to the acts and tendencies of self centeredness and selfish greed
since centuries.
Those who want to undertake this
effort will have to first completely eradicate the selfishness, fear and
absolute materialistic fundamentalism from their own hearts and adopt an
integrated and holistic view that looks for happiness of one and all. Those
forces which focus only at achieving the economic interests of their own groups
in the name of globalization; want to expand their own empires in the name of
establishing peace or; compelling all other countries to remain weak and
helpless in the name of non-proliferation of weapons, can never and shall never
let the dream of a happy and beautiful world become a reality.
In the history of past one
thousand years, Bharat has been the only example which has made genuine efforts
in this direction through the path of truth and non-violence. Right from times
immemorial to this moment, the unbroken current of national thinking that has
prevailed in the vast region between the Himalayas and its extensions on one
side and the sea on the other, has been known as Hindutva. Its special
characteristic is that despite the natural plurality of languages, geography,
faiths and sects, castes and sub castes, food habits, traditions etc., it
assimilates and accepts all of them with full respect and takes them along in
the direction of welfare of the entire world. It offers complete freedom in
matters of one's search for truth in life, experience and its inference. Neither
any questions are raised against one's faith being different, nor campaigns are
run to destroy other idols of worship, nor there is a tradition of raising
disputes over the validity or respectability of other's faith on the basis of
systems restricted by the dictates of a book. Full freedom of unrestricted
debates on opinions about faith and beliefs intellectually, at the same time
respect and acceptance of each other’s faith, harmony and cooperation is the
hall mark speciality of Hindu Culture. With Bharat's deep faith in the mantra
of 'Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam' (i.e. entire world is one family), a wide range of
her Rishis, Munis, Bhikshus, Shramanas, Saints, scholars and experts travelled
across the world from Mexico to Siberia in olden eras. Without attempting to
conquer any empire or without destroying way of life of any society, prayer
systems or national and cultural identity, they shared with them the Bharatiya
ethos of love, affection and universal welfare. Even today the Bharatiya
Diaspora and our spiritual leaders are loved and respected for carrying forward
the same tradition. This explains why
communities and thinkers across the world see a positive hope for themselves
and the world in the future of Bharat.
A poet has described Bharatiya
spirit in beautiful words which translate into English like this:
To
the hungry babies of this world, I've fed blood from my heart,
Not
others' lands, I'm determined to conquer innumerable hearts !
(^^eSaus lhus dk
ygq fiykdj
ikys gSa nqfu;k ds {kqf/kr yky
HkwHkkx ugha
'kr 'kr ekuo ds ân; thrus dk fu’p;A**)
Our
ancient Rishi-Munis too have given voice to this very goal of Bharat’s timeless
existence in these words:
,rÃs’k çlwrL; ldk’kknxztUeu%A
Loa Loa pfj=a f’k{ksju~ i`fFkO;ka loZ ekuok%AA
(Chldren of this land should
teach(the way of life) the Humanity by their own living examples.)
Hence, on this auspicious day of
Vijaya Dashami, a new horizon of victory is clear to us -- as our goal of
developing Bharat into the guide and torch bearer of the whole world. We have
to develop India consistent with the present times and conditions, which can
stand on its own as an all capable, beautiful and prosperous nation in every
manner; a nation that looks at the entire world with a holistic, selfless,
integral and impartial vision. Bharat of
our vision is one which accepts all pluralities of the universe and is capable
of presenting itself as an example of integration. We have to build a Bharat
where prosperity comes hand in hand with ethics and rationality; where
compassion, service, welfare and fearlessness are constituents of invincible
strength; whose path of development should promote universal welfare. This is
the Bharat that we have to build. Bharat of our vision whose Diaspora across
the world grandly exemplify Bharat's gentleness, strong character and
universality to their host populations, a strong Bharat which will be a natural
assurance of safety and security to every such person who claims links with its
land, ancestors and culture.
With similar expectations in mind,
few months ago, the people of Bharat brought about a drastic change in the
government. This change of government is not even six months old. But positive
signs are emanating from time to time which give hope about emergence of Bharat
on the international horizon and it appears that the people's desire of a life,
secure and progressing in all its aspects, will soon start reflecting in the
governance. In a very short period, some policy initiatives taken by the
central government in national interest on the fronts of economy, national
security, international relations and many other areas have raised good hopes.
The government should now ensure that these policies maintain their momentum in
a determined and well organized manner. We need to wait for some more time,
with a sense of hope and faith.
Recently, floods have incurred heavy losses of
life and property in many parts of the country, especially in Jammu and
Kashmir. We pray to the All Mighty for peace to the souls of those fellow
citizens who lost their lives in these floods and express our sympathy and support
to their family members. The swiftness, efficiency and open heartedness with
which the Central government provided relief and help to the affected people
deserves appreciation. As always, this time too, the Swayamsewaks of RSS and
workers of Sewa Bharati joined hands with numerous other organizations to
provide timely relief to the affected people. They have also taken up future
action plans in this direction. Such moments, when Indian society rises above
all differences and comes forward to offer every possible support to fellow
countrymen, reflect collective sensitivity and national integration of
Bharatiya society.
However, the present overall
ground situation of the country appears quite difficult and complex. Leaving
everything related to the nation's future in the hands of government is not
going to prove very effective. All prevailing policy systems across the world
have proven themselves as incomplete and half baked visions. The system in our
country too has been suffering from the same problem since our independence.
Our society still remains afflicted by the decay of many of our vital social
values like honesty, social harmony, entrepreneurship, idealism, cultured
conduct and other similar collective qualities which are necessary for a nation
to be strong. Many internal and foreign forces are still active in Bharat,
whose only aim is to exploit the system for their petty gains. Their focus
is of playing games by exploiting and
aggravating these aberrations and creating clashes. It is therefore, expected that everyone
involved in the government machinery should remain vigilant and efficient. They
will have to evolve a suitable development path which suits our current
situation and adopt best ones out of various development models prevalent today. They will also have to tackle the mistakes
caused by the lack of an integral view and will have to evolve new alternative
policies. The new policy makers should
also take best advantage of the vision and experience of great Bharatiya
leaders right from the tradition of Swamy Vivekananda, Yogi Arvind, Swamy
Ramtirth, Gurudev Ravindra Nath Thakur and Lokmanya Tilak to Mahatma Gandhi,
Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Swatantrya Veer Savarkar, Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar,
Acharya Vinoba Bhave, Second Sarsanghachalak of RSS Shri ‘Guruji’ aka Madhav
Sadashiv Golvalkar, Dr. Ram Manohar
Lohia, Jayprakash Narayan and Pt. Deendayal Upadhyay. It is high time that
Bharat should now evolve a new and suitable development model that incorporates
the vision of such leaders in fields like education, culture, economics,
sociology and security; which emerges
from deep, integral, original and practical thinking process of such stalwarts.
We must remember that the final test of the efficacy of these policies will be
their impact on the life of the last person standing, a Bharatiya on the last
step of the ladder. We must remember that the self reliance should be a
necessary component of national prosperity and security. We must remember that
Bharat has been the top leader of the world for centuries because of our
richness in thinking about life from different viewpoints. In that sense,
Bharat still holds the capability of world's welfare. This thinking process has
now to be adapted to the new situations prevailing in the present day world.
With faith and hope the society
awaits the government to shape the nation as envisaged by our Constitution.
The evolution of nations in the world history
shows that without active cooperation and participation of people, mere
political power cannot bring about the desired change in the society. Therefore
those individuals and organizations who are engaged in giving direction to the
society and solving its various problems, must remain active and vigilant. In a
democratic system, the governments gain tremendously from their activism,
awareness and maturity in the interest of the nation and it also protects the nation
from possibility of detracting in the game of power politics.
It is therefore necessary that
all such individuals and organisations should rise above their and
organizational interests and keep themselves busy in educating people and
solving their problems. In a democratic system, it is necessary that these
players, the government and administration should keep their dialogue alive;
and the government be informed whether
the fruits of its policies are reaching the last Bharatiya in the queue or not.
The complexity and seriousness of
the situation of the nation reflects this need in the development process of
the nation. There is a serious upsurge in the jehadi activities in the southern
parts of Bharat, especially in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. No effective policy
imperatives, efforts are visible in curbing such activities. No visible
reduction in smuggling of rare earth minerals from the southern coast has come
to notice. In states like West Bengal and Assam, the population imbalance has
been caused by illegal migration of a particular community from across the
national borders. Near surrender before these fanatic elements and appeasement
policy adopted by the ruling parties in these states, have put the life of
local Hindu communities, the law and order situation as well as the national
security under serious threat in the region.
The nation has yet to see the impact of the joint plan of the Central
and State governments in putting an effective check on the activities of Jehadi
and Naxal extremists and those forces which are helping and promoting them.
These extremist groups have presented a serious threat to the internal national
security.
But the society too has to play
an important role in meeting this challenge. The society needs to be aware
towards tackling this problem. Those individuals who are engaged in various
kind of smuggling on the borders also belong to the same society. Those people
who provide shelter and employment to the illegal migrants (infiltrators) from
other side are none other than the very citizens of our country. The social
situations causing exploitation of poor and lack of development finally help
the Naxals in recruiting poor youths as their cannon fodder. Though an alert, transparent, sensitive and a
rule abiding administration is necessary for ending exploitation and ensuring
development, equally important is the role of society in eradicating
exploitation of the poor through active cooperation, striving in a democratic
way to end their exploitation and by running various types of help and support
activities in order to take these fruits of development to the deprived people.
We feel it necessary to put a ban on meat exports, beef in particular and cow smuggling
in immediate future.
It is necessary that policies of
the government should take the nation towards self reliance and should
encourage entrepreneurship among the people, but it is equally important for
the people to encourage consumption of Swadeshi products. Our tendency of
buying daily need goods, even buying foreign made statues of our Gods and
Goddesses, simply because they are cheaper in price, needs to be
abandoned. We need a vigilant
government, a strong defence policy and brave and efficient defence force to
ensure the security of our nation, but we equally need a society of people who
are patriotic, vigilant and of a high moral character. The discourse in the
society should be such that the morale of the armed forces and the government
is enhanced. It is the duty of the society to provide sufficient number of capable
youths as soldiers and officers to our armed forces. The society must keep
vigilant eyes and ears on the activities going on around them to ensure safety
of the nation.
But
are we sure about the actual situation in our society? Can we say for sure that
the atmosphere in our family life is suitable for giving right kind of training
to our children and adolescents? Do the
parents in our family provide the right kind of example to encourage positive
values among the children? The increasing consumption of narcotic drugs among
our young generation simply reflects the falling levels of mutual affection,
communication and values among the family members. We have been a society which
has been guided by principles like
^^ekr`or~ ijnkjs"kq] ijæO;s"kq
yks"Bor~A
vkReor~ loZHkwrs"kq**
(Viewing
every other woman as mother, others wealth as mere dust and every other
creature as one’s own self.) The erosion of these values is now clearly
reflecting through increase in crime, atrocities on women and misconduct and
also lack of restraint on the part of our young generation across the country.
In order to put a check on these unfortunate tendencies, we surely need a
strong and effective enforcement of law. But there is an equal need to put
forth our own examples of good conduct and cultured behaviour.
Everyone is aware of the role of
government in such an environment. The education departments have to see that
the education they impart is available to all, instilling values and cultural
components, empowering the students to stand up with self respect and courage
in the struggle of life. It is the responsibility of the government to keep
check on tendency of visual and print media to offer such programs and
advertisements which degrade morality in society. But society need not await for the government
actions in this regard. Our own family too is a micro society. Family as a
fundamental unit of society is still a part of our life. We cannot run courses
in different subjects in family, but our families can surely provide training
in fields like adding human values to a family member's life; discretion in
do’s and don’ts, importance of courage and patience which strengthens a person
in the struggle of life. In our own family it is entirely up to us to preserve
the traditional values and mould the conduct of elders in the family and create
a dialogue, consistent with the traditions, among family members. It is the
need of every household today.
There are few more fields in
which we don't need to wait for the government's role and can take lead on our
own, like putting an end to poverty and social discrimination. Luckily we have had a tradition of thinking
and action on both of these fronts. There are many voluntary groups which are
active in fields like education, health, increasing environmental awareness and
self reliance. There are many areas like occupational training, water
conservation, organic farming, cow protection and promotion, and rural
development etc. in which many people are already working enthusiastically. Our
Swayamsewaks too are engaged in many such activities. But considering the vast
expanse of our society, there is still a huge potential for expanding these
activities. Depending upon our own taste and capability, we can join any of
such activities or can even start a new project independently. At least, we can start with our own family
members to help some needy brothers and sisters in our neighbourhood or among
our domestic helps.
There is an urgent need to take
up eradication of social discrimination in our society in a bigger and faster
way. No government or administrative machinery has the powers to remove feeling
of discrimination from people's mind. It will end only with the efforts and
initiative of society itself. This can start only by direct action at the level
of our mind, our family and friends. To do this, we will have to remove all
such habits, misbelieves, traditions and practices which encourage such
discrimination. We will have to drive out even the smallest of the remnants of
our caste based, regional and linguistic egos which breed such prejudices. We
will have to stop ourselves from even listening to or speaking such provocative
statements which encourage such prejudices in our hearts. We must also stop
ourselves from participating in any such violent activity that arises from such
provocative speech and environment. Each one of us must test each of our act,
whether big or small, on the simple ground that each member of my great Hindu
society, and each son/daughter of Mother Bharat, is my own brother and sister.
We must ensure that each of our Hindu temple, cremation ground and community
water source must remain open to all Hindus. We should ensure that all Hindus
should participate in all functions, celebrations as well as festivals of great
heroes and personalities.
By shedding away the contraction inflicted on
our extent of love through ages by breaking this barrier, is one kind of “Seemollanghan”
we must do today.
We are not short of philosophies.
Many of our great men have been proponents of personal and collective wisdom in
tune with the eternal as well as contemporary suitable values. This is the 50th
year of 'Integral Humanism' presented by Pt. Deendayal Upadhyay ji. Fortunately
we can see today a set of leadership which appears to be keen to give practical
shape to the values that were presented by our great leaders through their
honest and selfless thinking for the welfare of our nation. Any social
enterprise supported by qualities like vigilance, integrity, personal and national
character and discipline etc is bound to succeed in building a balanced, happy
and beautiful national life in spite of any challenges, in any form.
Vijaya Dashmi is the celebration
of victory. The new horizon of victory visible before the nation is calling us.
The nine days vigilance and penance for attainment of collective strength bore
fruit of the victory of the virtuous Divine, on the Vijaya Dashmi day.
Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh has been engaged since 1925 in building a virtuous,
strong and organised society. A
conducive environment in society helps the transformation in the conduct of
people that leads to desired change in the system. In view of the size of our
society; the complexity of the internal and external problems it is facing; and
the great goal that awaits this nation -- a lot more is yet to be done. Since
its inception, Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh has been engaged in the great
mission of building a work force of such swayamsewaks, who are energized with
the pride of their national Hindu identity; are empowered by inculcating great
qualities in their personality; and are prepared to sacrifice everything even
their life for the great goal as a constituent of dedicated and disciplined
organisation. The all inclusive and all encompassing truth is what we call
Hinduness. It is our national identity. That is why we should take the Sangh
Shakha to each home in every village, street and community. The entire world is
today waiting for this eternal nation to stand up in its own form which was described
by a poet in following words: (as roughly translated from Hindi original :)
“Every
country in the world when baffled and stumbled,
Visited
this very land in search of truth,
The
land offering solace to every trounced,
Offering
to rescue every fallen.”
O!
Great Nation! O! Great Hindusthan!"
^^fo’o dk gj ns’k tc Hkh] fnXHkzfer gks
yM+[kM+k;k]
lR; dh igpku djus]
bl /kjk ds ikl vk;kA
Hkwfe
;g gj nfyr dks iqpdkjrh] gj ifrr dks m)kjrh]
/kU; ns’k egku]
/kU; fgUnqLFkkuA**
I conclude hereby with a
reiterated call to come forward and contribute towards reconstruction of this
great nation!
"BHARAT MATA KI JAI"
1 Comments
Bharat matha ki jai
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