Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday urged spiritual and cultural organisations to work towards national development, while calling for collective efforts to help address emerging societal ills and unite people against divisive forces and contribute to India’s goal of becoming a developed nation by 2047.
“Over the decades, times have changed, new challenges have emerged, and new societal ills have surfaced. Today, the responsibility to solve them rests upon all of us,” Modi said.
“To ensure that our education system meets the needs of a ‘New India’, we introduced the National Education Policy (NEP). He credited the spiritual leader with contributing to India’s cultural and spiritual renaissance by taking the country’s philosophical traditions to the public. The prime minister highlighted the role of education in preparing young people for the future, citing the National Education Policy (NEP) as an effort to integrate Indian knowledge traditions with modern science and emerging technologies.
Modi said he had spent the past 25 years serving the nation as head of government, first as Gujarat chief minister and later as prime minister, while carrying forward the vision of leaders such as Chinmayananda. He said the Chinmaya Mission, founded by Swami Chinmayananda in 1951 to make the wisdom of Vedanta and the Bhagavad Gita accessible to all, was not merely an institution but a thought.
“When the Parliament was held in September, we all deeply missed Gurudev,” Modi said. This new policy accords high importance to Indian Knowledge Systems, instruction in mother tongues, modern science, and cutting-edge technology,” he said.
He also praised young people associated with the mission who travelled nearly 40,000 km over about 300 days, reaching more than 100,000 people.
The prime minister said youth empowerment and the building of a strong India were central to Chinmayananda’s vision.
