STATE TIMES NEWS
Rohtak/Hisar: Sanatan Dharma is “synonymous” with India and the country’s culture is based on it, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat said on Thursday.
In an apparent reference to DMK leader Udhayanidhi Stalin’s controversial comments on Sanatan Dharma last month, he said that saying that it should be destroyed is like harming oneself.
Stalin had claimed that Sanatan Dharma is against social justice and it should be eradicated. “We have to live by this Sanatan,” the RSS chief said, adding that “ye Sanatan Bharat ke saath ekroop hai (Sanatan is synonymous with India)”.
Bhagwat was addressing a gathering at an event at the Baba Mastnath Math in Haryana’s Rohtak.
“…Sanatan Dharma he Hindu rashtra hai, ye apne rashtra ke saath ekroop hai (Sanatan Dharma is Hindu rashtra, it is synonymous with the country)”, he said.
“Our culture is based on Sanatan. The values of our religion are based on Sanatan,” he said. Sanatan never ends and is eternal, the RSS chief said and asserted that it was present earlier, is present today and will be there in the future.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Union Minister V K Singh, Yoga guru Ramdev, Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda and his son and Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Singh Hooda, and seers from across the country were among those present at the event.
In another event in Khanda Kheri village in Hisar district where among others Ramdev was also present, Bhagwat said the whole world has followed India’s rich cultural heritage.
He said the world is going through difficult circumstances and families are breaking apart. At the same time, Bhagwat said India’s situation in the “Kaliyuga” is much better than other countries.
The RSS chief was addressing a gathering after inaugurating the ‘Bharat Mitra Pillar’ in Khanda Kheri.
The ‘Bharat Mitra Pillar’ has been built in the memory of the late Mitrasen Arya, father of BJP leader and former Haryana Minister Abhimanyu.
Bhagwat said that this pillar reflects the cultural heritage of India, and people, particularly youngsters, should visit to see this. They should be made aware of the rich cultural heritage of India, he said.
He said people like Mitrasen Arya strived to take society and the country forward.
“To connect our new generation with values, culture and civilisation, we should follow the footsteps of Mitrasen,” he said.
At the Rohtak event, while referring to strife in some parts of the world, Adityanath said that “in the entire world, if there can be a guarantee of world peace that only can be Sanatan Dharma and India, and no one else”.
This is the reason that when there is “sankat” (trouble) in the world, every country is looking towards India and towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi with great hope, the chief minister said.
They believe that India can bring hope to them, and behind this hope when 140 crore Indians come together it becomes a strength for the whole world, he said.
Adityanath said that “we all know the Nath sampraday (sect) is the carrier of the country’s Sanatan Dharma tradition”.
Referring to the under-construction Ram temple in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya, Adityanath said what was impossible, today Bharat has made that possible.
Those who had disbelief did not want to take the name of Ram Janambhoomi even by mistake. But those who had belief in Sanatan Dharma, they believed in doing is their job and leaving the rest to God, he said in Rohtak.
Earlier on Wednesday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had unveiled a statue of Mahant Shri Chand Nath Yogi at the Baba Mastnath Math at Rohtak and also addressed a gathering.
