New Delhi: Highlighting emerging challenges and societal ills over the decades, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday called for collective efforts to address them, unite society against divisive forces and inspire citizens towards self-reliance.
Inaugurating the Chinmaya Amrit Mahotsav Global Sammelan here, Modi said he had spent the last 25 years serving the nation as head of government to the best of his ability, while carrying forward the vision of Swami Chinmayananda, founder of the Chinmaya Mission, a global spiritual movement dedicated to making the wisdom of Vedanta and the Bhagavad Gita accessible to all.
He said the Chinmaya Mission was not merely an institution but a thought, with ‘Chinmaya’ meaning pure consciousness, and noted that its founder’s journey over the decades had been marked by divine resolve.
“Over the decades, times have changed, new challenges have emerged, and new societal ills have surfaced. Today, the responsibility to solve them rests upon all of us,” Modi said.
“We must unite society against divisive forces. We must inspire citizens toward self-reliance, and we must connect every individual to the vision of a Developed India by 2047. For these objectives, we must become even more proactive,” he added.
The prime minister said the vision of far-sighted luminaries such as Swami Chinmayananda around the time of Independence reflected the direction in which the country was fulfilling its responsibilities today.
“To ensure that our education system meets the needs of a ‘New India’, we introduced the National Education Policy (NEP). This new policy accords high importance to Indian Knowledge Systems, instruction in mother tongues, modern science, and cutting-edge technology,” he said.
Modi said the youth had remained at the core of his efforts and policies, over the last 25 years as head of government, first as Gujarat chief minister and later as prime minister.
Expressing delight over the role played by young people in the Chinmaya Amrit Mahotsav, he said several of them had travelled nearly 40,000 kilometres over approximately 300 days, reaching out to more than one lakh youth.
“I congratulate the entire team for this phenomenal effort,” he said.
He credited the Chinmaya Mission with nurturing hundreds of thousands of young people who were acting as cultural ambassadors of India and passing on Indian values to the next generation.
“This contribution of the most revered Gurudev (Swami Chinmayananda) forms an important chapter in the cultural and spiritual renaissance of India,” he said.
Modi also highlighted the efforts to bring back India’s stolen cultural artefacts, saying countless priceless statues had been taken abroad and sold in the past without anyone questioning their disappearance.
“There was no one to inquire about them (statues), let alone worship them. No one even asked about them. Over the past 12 years, we have brought back more than 650 stolen ancient idols. Furthermore, our cultural heritage sites are becoming part of UNESCO World Heritage listings,” he said.
The prime minister noted that when India completes 100 years of its independence in 2047, the Chinmaya Mission will also mark its centenary.
“This means the centenary journey of Chinmaya Mission and the journey of a developed India will progress together. Therefore, our goals are one, our objectives are one, and we must take this journey forward together,” he said.
Recalling his meeting with Swami Chinmayananda in 1993, Modi said he had invited the spiritual leader to the centenary celebrations of the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago, the US.
He said Chinmayananda had accepted the invitation and travelled to the US to encourage people to participate in the event.
“However, just a couple of weeks before the event, Gurudev passed away in August in San Diego. When the Parliament was held in September, we all deeply missed Gurudev,” he said.
Modi also interacted with a ‘holobot’ of Swami Chinmayananda, a technology that projects a realistic 3D holographic digital human.
“The feeling in my heart as I arrived here today has been brought to life even more through modern technology. Having the privilege of seeing revered Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda Ji in this form and interacting with his holobot made me feel as if I had been transported back 33 years in time,” he said.
The three-day event, being held from Friday, brings together over 9,000 participants from India and abroad.
The event marks the culmination of the year-long celebrations commemorating 75 years of the Chinmaya Mission, a global spiritual movement founded by Swami Chinmayananda in 1951 to make the wisdom of Vedanta and the Bhagavad Gita accessible to all.
