Bharat Mata ki Jai,

Bharat Mata ki Jai,

Bharat Mata ki Jai,

I heartily wish you all the best for the Gudi Padwa and the New Year! The most revered Sarsanghchalak Ji, Dr. Mohan Bhagwat Ji, Swami Govind Giri Ji Maharaj, Swami Avdheshanand Giri Ji Maharaj, the popular Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis Ji, my colleagues in the Union Cabinet Nitin Gadkari Ji, Dr. Avinash Chandra Agnihotri Ji, other dignitaries and all the senior colleagues present here, today I have got the privilege of being here in this holy ritual of Rashtra Yagna. Today, this day of Chaitra Shukla Pratipada is very special. The holy festival of Navratri is starting from today. The festivals of Gudi-Padwa, Ugadi and Navreh are also being celebrated in different parts of the country today. Today is also the birth anniversary of Lord Jhulelal Ji and Guru Angad Dev Ji. This is also the occasion of the birth anniversary of our inspiration, the most revered Doctor Saheb. And this year, the 100 years of the glorious journey of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh are also being completed. Today on this occasion, I have got the privilege of visiting Smriti Mandir and paying tribute to revered Doctor Saheb and revered Guruji.

Friends, 

During this period, we have also celebrated 75 years of our Constitution. Next month is the birth anniversary of the architect of the Constitution, Baba Saheb Ambedkar. Today, I bowed down to Baba Saheb at Deekshabhoomi and took his blessings. I bow down to these great personalities and extend my heartfelt greetings to the countrymen on Navratri and all the festivals.

Friends, 

Today, in Nagpur, this holy pilgrimage of Sangh service, we are becoming the evidence of the expansion of a pious resolution. Just now we heard in the Kulgeet of Madhav Netralaya, this is a wonderful school of spirituality, knowledge, pride and guruta, this service temple devoted to humanity is a temple in every particle. Madhav Netralaya is such an institution, which has been serving lakhs of people on the ideals of Pujya (revered) Guruji for many decades. Light has returned to people's lives, today the foundation stone of its new campus has been laid. Now after this new campus, these service works will gain more momentum. This will spread light in the lives of thousands of new people, the darkness of their lives will also be removed. I appreciate all the people associated with Madhav Netralaya for their work, their spirit of service and extend my best wishes to them.

Friends, 

From the Red Fort, I had spoken about everyone's efforts. The way the country is working in the field of health today, Madhav Netralaya is enhancing those efforts. It is our priority that all the citizens of the country get better health facilities. Even the poorest of the poor should get the best treatment in the country, no citizen of the country should be deprived of the dignity of living, the elderly who have devoted their lives for the country should not be worried about treatment, they should not have to live in that situation, and this is the policy of the government. And that is why today crores of people are getting free treatment facilities due to Ayushman Bharat. Thousands of Jan Aushadhi Kendras are providing low price medicines to the poor and middle-class families of the country. These days there are about a thousand dialysis centers in the country, which are running a Yagna of providing free dialysis services, due to which thousands of crores of rupees of the countrymen are being saved and they are getting health benefits. In the last 10 years, lakhs of Ayushman Arogya Mandirs have been built in villages, where people get telemedicine consultation from the best doctors of the country, get primary treatment and further help. They do not have to travel hundreds of kilometers for disease checkup.

Friends, 

We have not only doubled the number of medical colleges, but we have also tripled the number of operational AIIMS in the country. Medical seats in the country have also doubled. The effort is to have more and more good doctors available to serve the people in the coming times. We have taken a very bold decision, this happened for the first time since independence. So that even a poor child of this country can become a doctor and his dreams can be fulfilled, we have provided the facility to students to become doctors in their mother tongue. Along with these efforts related to modern medical science, the country is also advancing its traditional knowledge. Our Yoga and Ayurveda have also got a new identity in the whole world today, India's respect is increasing.

Friends, 

The existence of any nation depends on the expansion of its culture, the expansion of the consciousness of that nation, generation after generation. If we look at the history of our country, there were hundreds of years of slavery, so many invasions, so many cruel attempts to erase the social structure of India, but the consciousness of India never ended, its flame kept burning. How did this happen? Because even in the most difficult times, new social movements kept happening in India to keep this consciousness alive. Bhakti movement is an example of this, which we are all well aware of. In that difficult period of the medieval period, our saints gave new energy to our national consciousness with the ideas of devotion. Guru Nanak Dev Ji, Kabirdas, Tulsidas, Surdas, Sant Tukaram here in our Maharashtra, Sant Eknath, Sant Namdev, Sant Dnyaneshwar, so many saints breathed life into our national consciousness with their original ideas. These movements broke the trap of discrimination and tied the society in the thread of unity.

Similarly, there were great saints like Swami Vivekananda. He shook the society, sinking in despair, and reminded it of its true nature, instilled self-confidence in it and did not let our national consciousness die out. In the last decades of slavery, great personalities like Doctor Saheb and Guruji worked to give it new energy. Today we see that the seed of thought that was sown 100 years ago for the preservation and promotion of national consciousness is in front of the world today in the form of a great banyan tree. Principles and ideals give height to this banyan tree, millions of volunteers (Swayamsevak) are its branches, this is not an ordinary banyan tree, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is the modern Akshay Vat of India's immortal culture. This Akshay Vat is continuously energizing the Indian culture, the consciousness of our nation.

Friends, 

Today, when we are starting the work of the new premises of Madhav Netralaya, it is natural to talk about vision. Vision gives us direction in our lives. That is why, the Vedas also wish - Pashyem Sharadah Shatam! (पश्येम शरदः शतम्!) That is, we should see for a hundred years. This vision should be of the eyes, that is, external vision, and there should also be internal vision. When we talk about internal vision, it is natural to remember the great saint of Vidarbha, Shri Gulabrao Maharaj Ji. He was called Pragyachakshu. He lost his eyesight at a very young age, but he still wrote many books. And now anyone can ask that when one cannot see with eyes, how can one write so many books? The answer to this is that even though he did not have eyes, he had vision. This vision comes from knowledge, it appears from wisdom. This vision gives immense power to the individual as well as the society. Our Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is also such a Sanskar Yagna, which is working for both inner vision and outer vision. As outer vision we see Madhav Netralaya and inner vision has made the Sangh synonymous with service.

Friends, 

It is said here - Paropakaraya phalanti vriksha, paropakaraya vahanthi nadya. Paropkaaraay Duhanti Gaavah, Paropkarartha-midam shariram. (परोपकाराय फलन्ति वृक्षाः, परोपकाराय वहन्ति नद्यः। परोपकाराय दुहन्ति गावः, परोपकारार्थ-मिदं शरीरम्।। ) Our body is only for charity, for service. And when this service becomes part of our sanskars, then service itself becomes sadhana. This sadhana is the life air of every volunteer's (Swayamsevak’s) life. This service sanskar, this sadhana, this vital air, is inspiring every volunteer from generation to generation for penance. This service keeps every volunteer constantly moving, never lets him get tired, never lets him stop. Pujya Guru ji often used to say, it is not the duration of life, but its usefulness that is important. We have taken the life mantra of country from Dev and nation from Ram, and keep performing our duty. And that is why we see, no matter how big or small the work is, any field of work, border villages, hilly areas, forest areas, the volunteers of the Sangh keep working selflessly. Somewhere someone is engaged in the work of Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram by making it his aim, somewhere someone is teaching tribal children through Ekal Vidyalaya, somewhere someone is engaged in the mission of cultural awakening. Somewhere someone is serving the poor and deprived by joining Seva Bharti.

We recently saw how volunteers helped lakhs of people at the Netra Kumbh in Prayag. That is, wherever there is service, there is Swayamsevak. Whenever there is a calamity, be it the devastation of floods or the horror of an earthquake, volunteers reach the spot like disciplined soldiers. No one looks at their problems, no one looks at their pains; we simply get busy with the work with a sense of service. Service is in our hearts, it is Yagna kund, let us burn like sacrificial fire and let us merge in the ocean in the form of a river.

Friends, 

Once in an interview, the most revered Guru Ji was asked, why does he call the Sangh omnipresent? Guru Ji's answer was very inspiring. He compared the Sangh to light. He said that light is omnipresent, it may not do all the work alone, but by removing the darkness, it shows the way to others to work. This teaching of Guru Ji is a life mantra for us. We have to become light and remove darkness, remove obstacles, make a way. We keep hearing that feeling throughout our life, everyone keeps trying to live it in more or less quantity. I am not you, I am not we, “Idam Rashtraaya Idam Na Mam” (“It is for the nation, it is not for me”).

Friends, 

When during the efforts, when the focus is on we than I, when the spirit of nation first is paramount, when the interest of the people of the country is paramount in policies, decisions, then everywhere its influence and light is visible. For a developed India, it is most important that we break the shackles in which the country was entangled. Today we are seeing how India is moving forward from the mindset of slavery. The scars of slavery in which they had been carried for 70 years are now being replaced by new chapters of national pride. Those British laws, which were made to demean the people of India, have been changed by the country. The Penal Code, which was created with the idea of ​​slavery, has now been replaced by the Bharatiya Nyay Samhita. In the courtyard of our democracy, it is no longer the Rajpath, but the Kartavyapath. The symbol of slavery was also printed on the flag of our Navy, in its place now the symbol of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj is fluttering on the flag of the Navy. The islands of Andaman, where Veer Savarkar suffered torture for the nation, where Netaji Subhash Babu blew the trumpet of freedom, the names of those islands have also been kept in the memory of the heroes of freedom.

Friends, 

Our mantra of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam is reaching every corner of the world today. And the world is seeing and feeling it in our actions as well. When a pandemic like Covid comes, India considers the world as a family and provides vaccines. Wherever there is a natural disaster in the world, India stands up to serve with full dedication. You have seen just yesterday that such a big earthquake has struck Myanmar, India has reached there first to help the people there under Operation Brahma. When there was an earthquake in Turkiye, when there was an earthquake in Nepal, when there was a water crisis in Maldives, India did not waste a moment in helping. In situations like war, we evacuate citizens from other countries safely. The world is watching that today when India is progressing, it is also becoming the voice of the entire Global South. This spirit of world brotherhood is an extension of our own values.

Friends, 

Today, India's biggest asset is our youth. And we see how confident the youth of India is today. Their risk-taking capacity has increased manifold compared to earlier. They are doing new innovations, waving their flag in the world of start-ups and most importantly, today's youth of India is proud of their heritage, proud of their culture. We recently saw in the Prayagraj Maha Kumbh, today's young generation reached the Maha Kumbh in millions and were filled with pride by connecting with this sanatan (eternal) tradition. Today, the youth of India is working keeping in mind the needs of the country. The youth of India has made Make in India a success, the youth of India has become vocal for local. A passion has been formed, we have to live for the country, we have to do something for the country, from the playground to the heights of space, our youth, filled with the spirit of nation building, are moving forward, moving forward. These same youth are holding the flag of the goal of developed India in 2047, when it will be 100 years of independence and I am confident that this triveni of organization, dedication and service will continue to give energy and direction to the journey of developed India. The hard work of the Sangh for so many years is bearing fruit, the penance of the Sangh for so many years is writing a new chapter of developed India.

Friends, 

When the Sangh was established, the condition of India was different and the circumstances were also different. From 1925 to 1947, that was a time of struggle. The country had the big goal of independence. Today, after the 100-year journey of the Sangh, the country is again at an important stage. The important period from 2025 to 2047, once again we have big goals before us in this period. Once revered Guruji had written in a letter, I want to be a small stone in the foundation of our grand nation, we have to keep our resolve of service always burning. We have to maintain our hard work. We have to realize the dream of a developed India and as I had said on the construction of the new temple of Lord Shri Ram in Ayodhya, we also have to lay the foundation of a strong India for the next one thousand years. I am confident that the guidance of great personalities like revered Doctor Saheb and revered Guruji will continue to give us strength. We will fulfill the resolution of a developed India. We will make the sacrifices of our generations worthwhile. With this resolution, once again many best wishes to all of you for this auspicious New Year. Thank you very much!

DISCLAIMER: This is the approximate translation of PM’s speech. Original speech was delivered in Hindi.

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MJPS/ST/SS