Social service by Hindu spiritual gurus much more than missionaries: Bhagwat

“In our country, the sewa mantra has been around for quite some time. After mentioning sewa or service activity, the prabuddhjan (intellectuals) normally mention missionaries. The missionaries run various organisations, schools, hospitals, around the world, everyone knows this,” he said.

He said that with the thought of what the sant sanyasi of Hindu community are doing, the Hindu sants of Tamil Nadu organised the Hindu Service Sewa Fair. Then, it came to be realised “that in the four southern prants (regions): Kannada language prant, Telugu language prant, Malayalam language and Tamil language, the service our spiritual acharya, muni, sanyasi, do together is many times more than the service of missionaries.”

He, however, was quick to add, “I am not talking of competition, this is not my unit of measurement. And it can’t be a unit of measurement. Service is service, it is not a matter of competition.”

He said that what differentiates a human from an animal is that an animal has samvedna (feelings), but humans have a quality of acting on that samvedna called karuna (compassion).

He linked this with the backward sections of the society, saying, “Everyone in our country together makes a society and the nation. If there isn’t one, then we will be incomplete. And when we are all together, we are complete … All of us have a soul, and we should know it if our foot is pricked by a needle, then all our organs think about the part pricked … and the entire body does something about it. That is how society should be.”

Citing the example of the human body, he said when there is a pain in the leg, all other parts start functioning together (as a support system) to focus on the pain. Similarly, service should be done in such a way that no section of society is left out.

“If we want to make our country a good country, a vishwaguru, then every part should be sarvanga paripoorna (every organ should be fulfilled).” He said service makes a healthy society, but before that, it makes an individual healthy.

The three-day programme is being organised for the third time in the country and first time in Rajasthan. Held every five years, it was scheduled for April 2020 but had to be postponed because of Covid. The first Sangam was organised in Bengaluru in 2010, where 98 delegates or “social reformers” participated while the second one was organised in New Delhi in 2015, where about 3,500 persons participated. This time, about 2,700 persons are participating.

Ajay Piramal, chairman of Piramal Group, also addressed the inaugural session. Also present on the occasion were BJP state president C P Joshi, Leader of Opposition Rajendra Rathore, former BJP state presidents Satish Poonia, Arun Chaturvedi, BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Ghanshyam Tiwari, Lok Sabha MPs Ramcharan Bohra, Diya Kumari, Sukhbir Singh Jaunpuria, MLA Vasudev Devnani, etc.