“Collective efforts are essential to confront social evils, unite society against divisive forces, and encourage citizens toward self-reliance,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his call.
The Chinmaya Amrit Mahotsav World Conference, organized by the Chinmaya Mission founded by Swami Chinmayananda, began on Friday at Bharat Mandapam in Delhi. The three-day conference, marking the completion of 75 years of the Chinmaya Mission, is being attended by 9,000 delegates from around the world. Inaugurating the conference, Prime Minister Modi said:
Chinmaya Mission is a global spiritual movement dedicated to the noble mission of making the wisdom of Vedanta and the Bhagavad Gita accessible to everyone. In order to carry forward the visionary outlook of its founder, Swami Chinmayananda, I have been serving the nation to the best of my ability for the past 25 years in the capacity of head of government (Chief Minister of Gujarat - Prime Minister of the country).
Chinmaya Mission is not merely an organization; it is an idea. Chinmaya means pure consciousness. Swami Chinmayananda’s long journey was filled with divine determination.
Times have changed now. New challenges have emerged. New social evils are coming to light. The responsibility to find solutions to these lies with all of us.
Let us act with determination: along with uniting society against divisive forces, we must encourage citizens toward self-reliance. We must connect every individual to the goal of a developed India by 2047. It is essential that we act with even greater determination to achieve these aspirations.
We introduced the National Education Policy to ensure that our education system meets the needs of a “New India.” This education policy gives high importance to Indian knowledge systems, mother-tongue-based education, modern science, and cutting-edge technologies.
Importance to youth: Over the past 25 years, youth have been at the center of the efforts and policies I have undertaken as the head of government.
The young volunteers of the Chinmaya organization have traveled about 40,000 km across India and various countries over the past 300 days, meeting and speaking with more than 100,000 young people. Congratulations to the entire team for this remarkable effort. They have acted as cultural ambassadors of India, carrying our values forward to the next generation.
Recovery of ancient statues: In the past, countless valuable works of art were smuggled out of the country and sold abroad. No inquiry was conducted into this. But over the past 12 years, we have recovered more than 650 ancient statues and brought them back to India. Efforts to recover rare works of art have been continuously undertaken. In addition, more and more Indian cultural heritage sites are being included in the UNESCO World Heritage list, he said.
The Prime Minister also recalled his meeting with Swami Chinmayananda in 1993.
During the event, Prime Minister Modi interacted with a digital avatar of Swami Chinmayananda created using the lifelike three-dimensional visual technology called ‘Holobot.’