Grand inauguration of Swami Vivekananda Sardha Shati Samaroh in Delhi
“KALIYUGA is Karmayuga (era of action). This should begin right from the school days. Joining any of the sewa activity should be compulsory for every student in school days itself. Similarly, after completing the graduation, it should be mandatory for every youth to go to any village and work there for at least six months. It will not only help him/her understanding India in better ways, but will also help in village development,” said Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, while inaugurating Swami Vivekananda Sardha Shati Samaroh in New Delhi on January 11.
RSS Sarsanghachalak Shri Mohan Bhagwat, Gayatri Parivar chief Dr Pranav Pandya, president of Vivekananda Kendra, Kanyakumari, Shri P Parameswaran, honourary chairman of Swami Vivekananda Sardha Shati Samaroh Samiti and former Lok Sabha General Secretary Dr Subhash Kashyap, Swami Nikhilananda of Chinmaya Mission, Jain saint Acharya Lokesh Muni, Swami Ritambharananda of Shivgiri Math, Trustee of Akshardham Temple, Delhi, Shri Jayesh Gadiya, former Pramukh Sanchalika of Rashtra Sevika Samiti Pramilatai Medhe and secretary of the Samaroh Samiti Shri Aniruddha Deshapande also shared the dais.
More than 2400 distinguished people of the national capital, including former Deputy Prime Minister of India Shri LK Advani, BJP president Shri Nitin Gadkari, organising secretary of BJP Shri Ramlal, former state BJP president Dr Harsh Vardhan, Shri Avinash Jaiswal of Rashtriya Sikh Sangat, former Delhi Prant Sanghachalak Shri Ramesh Prakash Sharma, Delhi Prant Sanghachalak Shri Kulbhushan Ahuja, Akhil Bharatiya Sahkaryavahika of Rashtra Sevika Samiti Smt Asha Sharma, Delhi Prant Pracharika of the Samiti Sushri Poonam Gutpa, Shri Ashok Prabhakar of Hindu Jagran Manch, Utttar Kshetra Sanghachalak Dr Bajranglal Gupt, RSS Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramukh Dr Manmohan Vaidya, senior Sangh Pracharak Shri Madhubhai Kulkarni, Uttar Kshetra Karyavah Shri Sitaram Vyas, BJP general secretary Shri Vijay Goel, VHP general secretary (organisation) Shri Dinesh Chandra and many others were also present at the function. A message from Swami Gautamananda Maharaj of Ramkrishna Math was read out at the function.
The theme of the 150th birth anniversary year celebration is ‘Wake up India, Enlighten the World’. The main ideal is to work for social harmony. A large number of activities have been planned for the year-long celebration beginning from January 12, 2013 all over the world. At the time when the inaugural function was going on in Delhi, similar functions were held across the country at the same time.
The 150th centenary year celebration committee has basically planned five types of activities focusing on youth, women, village development, Vanvasi upliftment and intellectual section of society. The functions will be organised at central, state, district, tehsil, block and village level. In order to stress on strength, crores of students across the country will perform mass Suryanamaskar on January 18. The Suryanamaskars will also be organised in at least three lakh villages also. Similarly, about four crore families of the country will be contacted with the message of Swami Vivekananda this year.
Amma stressed the need to awaken the wisdom of youth and said the feeling that ‘modern youth are good for nothing’ should be replaced with the belief that ‘youth are good for everything.’ “If we are able to awaken the youth today, only then we can feel that our future is safe, otherwise we all will be in dark. The foremost task before us should be to impart eternal values of Hinduism to youth. This work should begin right now. In this task the teachings of Swami Vivekananda are highly helpful,” Amma added.
In his brainstorming speech, RSS Sarsanghachalak Shri Mohan Bhagwat said now it is the time to act more and preach less. He said the prime objective of the 150th anniversary celebration is not to celebrate any festival, but to take the teachings of Swamiji to every village in order to stand the nation with full vigour. He called upon the people assembled at the function to pledge ‘here and now’ to follow the teachings of Vivekananda on their life’. Shri Bhagwat said this year would prove to be a turning point for the entire world.
Dr Pranav Pandya said the 150th birth anniversary celebration of Swami Vivekananda is going to prove a turning point for India. He said Vivekananda is more relevant for the world than he was relevant in any other phase of time. He said the prime task before all of us should be to awaken the youth, offer them leadership and connect them with the age old culture of this land. “The effectively we do it, the better will be for the entire world,” he added.
Shri P Parameswaran said the celebration can be a turning point in the march of humanity. He said what the country needs are not more laws and punishment, more agitation and protests, more criticism and fault finding, but a radical change of the social mindset. I believe Vivekananda will be always remembered in the world’s history because he virtually initiated ‘the counter –attack from the east’.
Swami Ritambharananda assured full cooperation of his Guru Math in the year-long celebration. Describing Swami Vivekananda as the spiritual life of the modern world, he cautioned that there is no life without action and the action should be righteous. Acharya Lokesh Muni stressed the need of Indianisation of education. He said the solution to all the ills that Bharat is facing today lies in teachings of Swami Vivekananda.
Swami Nikhilananda said the strength that India needs today is available in our scriptures. Dr Subhash Kashyap proposed a vote of thanks and Shri Aniruddha Deshpande conducted the proceedings.
