SHILLONG: Meghalaya Governor Banwarilal Purohit maintained that for India to become a world leader, Indians should walk in the path laid down by spiritual leaders in the past.
He was speaking at the 163rd birth anniversary of Jagatpurush Sree Narayana Guru on Sunday at Sri Aurobindo Institute of Indian Culture.
Speaking about spiritual leader, Narayana Guru, Purohit said that he did what was entitled to him by the god.
He asserted that India would not progress due to corruption and pointed out that Narayana Guru taught about simple living which would have been key to prevent corruption.
Citing an example of simple living, he referred to late Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, India’s former President, Purohit said, “When he became the President of India, he had only two suitcases, one that contained books and the other his clothes, it was the same two suitcases that he carried when he left as President.”
Former Governor of Meghalaya, Ranjit Mooshahary pointed out that there is “truthfulness deficit” in the present times as “every day we tell lies”.
“We have too many places of worship but our character has not evolved. Religion cannot reform and it will not solve any problem but in the contrary it is used as a tool to create conflicts, wars etc.,” he said.
“We should relook our approach to religion and uplift it to spirituality. Religion ends where spirituality begins,” he added.
Recalling that revered saints in India opposed caste system and untouchability, he, however, pointed out many conflicts based on religion, caste, faith, class were still plaguing the country despite its diversity of culture and religion.
He rued that the system of division in India still continued in certain parts of India.
“In the 16th century, we had great saints, we are proud of the past but have not been able to recreate the past,” Mooshahary said adding that India has not produced a Nobel laureate since Rabindra Nath Tagore, CV Raman, Amartya Sen and recently Sattyathi.
Meanwhile, TP Sreenivasan, Director general, Kerela International Center stated that Narayana made fundamental changes that affected everybody in the society.
“His basic teaching was that everybody should think that he belongs to one caste, one religion and one god. Many spiritual leaders have said this but what he did was bring it to the common man- the lowest of the low caste who could not enter temples,” he told The Shillong Times.
When asked, he said, “Spirituality for India is a 5000-year-old tradition and it is fundamental to us but we are not conscious of it but tolerance is what spirituality is all about.”
“That is the great thing about India. Of course, there is spirituality elsewhere also but many of them are not as committed to spirituality as Indians are,” he said.
Four Sree Narayana Guru Awards, namely, ‘Sree Narayana Guru Award for Social Service’, ‘Sree Narayana Guru Award for Education’, ‘Sree Narayana Guru Award for Entrepreneurship’ and, ‘Sree Narayana Guru Lifetime Achievement Award’ were presented distributed on the occasion.