Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday participated in the inaugural ceremony of year-long joint celebrations of the 90th anniversary of Sivagiri Pilgrimage and Golden Jubilee of Brahma Vidhyalaya at 7 Lok Kalyan Marg. He also launched the logo for year- long joint celebrations. Both Sivagiri Pilgrimage and Brahma Vidhyalaya were started with the blessing and guidance of great social reformer Shri Narayana Guru. Apart from the spiritual leaders of Sivagiri Mutt and devotees, Union Ministers, Rajeev Chandrasekhar and V. Muraleedharan were among those present on the occasion.
The Prime Minister commented that celebrations of 90th anniversary of Sivagiri Pilgrimage and Golden Jubilee of Brahma Vidhyalaya are not confined to the journey of these institutions but “this is also the immortal journey of that idea of India, which keeps moving forward through different mediums in different periods.”
PM Modi continued, “Be it the city of Shiva in Varanasi or Shivagiri in Varkala, every centre of India’s energy holds a special place in the lives of all of us Indians. These places are not mere pilgrimages, they are not just centres of faith, they are awakened establishments of the spirit of ‘Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat’.”
The Prime Minister further said, as Indians, we have only one caste i.e. Indianness.
“We have only one religion – the dharma of service and duty. We have only one god – Mother India. Shri Narayan Guru’s exhortation of ‘One Caste, One Religion, One God’ gives a spiritual dimension to our patriotism,” he added.
Calling Shri Narayan Guru a radical thinker and a practical reformer, the Prime Minister said that the Guru Ji always followed the decorum of discussion and always tried to understand the viewpoint of the other and tried to convey his viewpoint collaboratively by working with the other person. He used to create an environment in the society that the society itself used to get in the direction of self-improvement with the right rationale.
The Prime Minister elaborated that when we walk on this path of reforming the society, then a power of self-improvement is also awakened in the society.