Must Unite Society Against Divisive Forces; Inspire Citizens Towards Self-Reliance: PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday called for efforts to address emerging societal ills and new challenges, unite society against divisive forces and inspire citizens towards self-reliance.

Inaugurating the Chinmaya Amrit Mahotsav Global Sammelan here, Modi said Chinmaya Mission was not merely an institution but a thought -- Chinmaya, meaning pure consciousness -- was founded by a Chinmaya sage, whose journey over the decades had also been marked by divine resolves.

"In the past decades, times have changed, new challenges have emerged before the country, and new societal ills have surfaced. Today, the responsibility of solving them rests upon all of us," Modi said.

"We must unite society against the forces that seek to divide us. We must make our citizens aware and inspired towards self-reliance. We must connect every individual with the resolve of a Developed India by 2047. For these objectives, we must become even more proactive," he added.

The prime minister said the nation was the birthplace of Indian culture and the foundation of the country's existence.

"Thanks to the efforts of Chinmaya Mission, today millions of youth are working as cultural brand ambassadors of India. These youth are carrying Indian values to the new generation," he said.

The three-day event, being held from Friday, brings together over 9,000 participants from India and abroad.

The event marks the culmination of the year-long celebrations commemorating 75 years of the Chinmaya Mission, a global spiritual movement founded by Swami Chinmayananda in 1951 to make the wisdom of Vedanta and the Bhagavad Gita accessible to all.