Hindus do not aspire to dominate: Bhagwat
Says I am not anti-modern but pro-future
Chicago, Sept. 8: Hindus have no aspiration of dominance and the community will prosper only when it works as a society, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has said and urged the community leaders to unite and work for the betterment of the mankind.
Addressing a gathering of some 2,500 delegates in Chicago attending the second World Hindu Congress, Bhagwat said one of the key values to bring the whole world into a team is to have controlled ego and learn to accept the consensus.
The second World Hindu Congress marks the commemoration of the 125th anniversary of Swami Vivekananda’s historic speech at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in 1893 in Chicago.
“If a lion is alone, wild dogs can invade and destroy the lion. We must not forget that. We want to make the world better. We have no aspiration of dominance. Our influence is not a result of conquest or colonisation,” he said.
Bhagwat said a sense of idealism is good and described himself not as “anti-modern”, but as “pro-future”.
He sought to describe Hindu dharma as “ancient and post-modern”. “Hindu society will prosper only when it works as a society,” he said at the conference inspired by the Hindu principle ‘Sumantrite Suvikrante’ or ‘Think Collectively, Achieve Valiantly’.
“One of the key values to bring the whole world into a team is to have controlled ego and learn to accept the consensus. For example, Lord Krishna and Yudhishtra never contradicted each other.”
In this context, he alluded to the war and politics in the Hindu epic Mahabharata, and said politics cannot be conducted like a meditation session, and it should be politics. “To work together, we have to accept the consensus. We are in a position to work together,” Bhagwat said.
He urged the conference attendees to discuss and evolve a methodology to implement the idea of working collectively. He said the Hindu society has the largest number of meritorious persons. “But they never come together. Coming together of Hindus in itself is a difficult thing,” he said.
He noted that Hindus had been suffering for thousands of years because they forgot to practice its basic principles and spiritualism. “We have to come together,” Bhagwat said, noting that all the people need not to register under one umbrella. He noted that Hindus had been suffering for thousands of years because they forgot to practice its basic principles and spiritualism.
“Hindus don’t live to oppose anybody. There are people who may oppose us. You have to tackle them without harming them,” he said.