The Vice President\nof India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu has said that India needs a cultural\nrenaissance, a large scale awareness and knowledge-sharing movement to bring\nthe best in the Indian thought to the common man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asserting that\n\u201cshare and care\u201d was the core of Indian philosophy, the Vice President stressed\nthe need to create a society that actually demonstrates Indian philosophy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Addressing the\ngathering after releasing the books \u2013 Vivekadeepini, a concise book of\naphorisms that contains glimpses of India\u2019s wisdom in English and nine Indian\nlanguages, the Vice President said that Indians have been fortunate that\nspiritual leaders like Adi Shankaracharya and Swami Vivekananda have shaped our\ncountry\u2019s ethical foundations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shri Naidu said\nthat the pieces of wisdom initially written by Adi Shankaracharya in\nPrashnottara Ratnamalika have universal relevance irrespective of religion or\ncommunity and they represent the ethical and moral perspectives underpinning\nthe Indian world view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou will agree\nthat these pieces of wisdom are truly universal. It is the intellectual legacy\nevery Indian should not only be proud of but live those values in everyday\nlife,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shri Naidu wanted\nschools and colleges across the country to take the lead along with\nnon-governmental organisations like Vedanta Bharati to spread the universal\nmessage of tolerance, inclusion, harmony, peace, well-being, righteous conduct,\nexcellence and empathy that recurs in the Indian spiritual tradition with\nresounding clarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Observing that one\nmust rediscover India\u2019s ancient knowledge, a treasure whose positive impact has\nbeen felt around the globe, Shri Naidu said that it was an essential link to\nthe past. \u201cIt is a treasure that constantly inspires us to be at the global\nlevel the voice of peace, of ethical conduct and sustainable development\u201d, he\nadded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shri Naidu\nappreciated the efforts of the publishers for translating it into nine Indian\nlanguages and said that there was an urgent need to undertake more such efforts\nto spread the knowledge of ancient India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Vice President\nalso complimented Vedanta Bharati for spreading the wisdom of Sri Adi\nSankaracharya in English, Kannada, Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Telugu, Malayalam,\nMarathi, Odia and Gujarati languages. Stating that the message should reach\npeople in its true sense, he expressed the hope that Vivekadeepini would be\nbrought out in all the Indian languages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stressing the need\nto promote the use of mother tongues, he pointed out that language and culture\ngo together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Calling for ending\ngender and other forms of discrimination, he said casteism was the biggest bane\nof the society and must be removed at the earliest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Peethadhipathi\nof Yadathore Sri Yoganadeshwara Saraswathi Math, Sri Sri Shankara Bharathi\nSwamiji, the Director of Vedanta Bharati, Dr. Sridhar Bhat Ainakai, the\nTrustees of Vedanta Bharati, Shri A. Ramaswamy, Shri S.S. Naganand & Shri\nC.S. Gopalakrishna and other dignitaries were present at the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following\nis the text of Vice President\u2019s address<\/strong>:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am extremely\npleased to have joined you on this occasion to release Vivekadeepini, a concise\nbook of aphorisms that contains glimpses of India\u2019s wisdom in most lucid\nlanguage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am happy to\nrelease this book and hope that it will enable a wider audience to appreciate\nthe classic work, \u2018Prashnottara Ratnamalika\u2019 written by one of India\u2019s greatest\nspiritual and literary geniuses, Sri Adi Sankaracharya. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I compliment\nVedanta Bharati and Shri S.S. Naganand ji for taking up this endeavour to\nspread the wisdom of Sri Adi Sankaracharya in English, Kannada, Hindi, Tamil,\nBengali, Odia, Telugu, Malayalam, Marathi and Gujarati languages. I am glad to\nknow that select verses of Vivekadeepini are being taught to the students of\nsome 10,000 schools in Karnataka. I am sure that your admirable project of\ntranslating Vivekadeepini into different Indian languages will spread the\nuniversal message of Indian wisdom among many more schools in different States\nacross the country and to a much larger audience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sisters and\nbrothers,<\/p>\n\n\n\n We, in India, have\nbeen fortunate that, over the years, spiritual leaders like Adi Shankara and\nSwami Vivekananda have shaped our country\u2019s ethical foundations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dear sisters and\nbrothers,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Drawn from the 67\nverses of Prashnottara Ratnamalika written by Adi Shankaracharya, the\nVivekadeepini is a compilation of select 36 verses which are in the\nquestion-answer format.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These pieces of\nwisdom have universal relevance irrespective of religion or community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They represent the\nethical and moral perspectives underpinning the Indian world view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sisters and\nbrothers,<\/p>\n\n\n\n The book is called\n\u201cPrashnottara Ratnamalika\u201d, a garland of gem-like questions and answers. It\ntouches upon a number of key themes and gives short answers to important\nquestions. For example, to the question, \u201cwho is Pandita or a learned person\u201d?\nthe answer is \u201cViveki\u201d, \u201cone who has wisdom\u201d. To the question as to what\nconstitutes purity, the answer is \u201cYasya Maanasam shudham\u201d (whose mind is\npure). The verses define human quest for happiness, fulfilment and knowledge\nthat empowers and ennobles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To the student\u2019s\nquestion of \u201cKim Satyam\u201d (What is truth?)\u201d the teacher replies \u201cBhootahitam\u201d or\nthe \u201cwelfare of all beings\u201d. The accent is on good behaviour. A Sadhu is\ndefined as a person with \u2018good conduct\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This short book\nVivekadeepini is a summary of the Prashnottara Ratnamalika. It is heartening\nthat the books has been translated into ten Indian languages. We need more of\nthese kind of efforts to spread the knowledge of ancient India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We have a vast\ntreasure in our country. It is a treasure whose positive impact has been felt\naround the globe. It is a treasure that constantly inspires us to be at the\nglobal level the voice of peace, of ethical conduct and sustainable\ndevelopment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It is the path of\ndharma, the path that sustains us and makes us follow a path that is good not only\nfor ourselves but for the whole humanity and the entire planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We must rediscover\nthis ancient knowledge which, sometimes, tends to become unseen and unheard and\ntherefore not fully understood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If we don\u2019t know\nabout this treasure, we lose a vital link with the past. We lose the\nability to enrich our present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We need to build\nthat link to that noble thought process, adapt it to our contemporary life\ncontext.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Adi Shankara\u2019s\nworks are among the finest literary works in world literature apart from their\nextraordinary depth in terms of spiritual insights. They enlighten us and\nenthral us. They and other noble thoughts of Indian seers strengthen the\nethical pillars of our society. But this can happen only through awareness,\nstudy and what is most important, internalization and behaviour change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The verses in this\nbook contain universal truths. They are the starting points for\nreflection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, Verse\n16 the question is \u201cWho is your friend? The reply is \u201cOne who does not allow\nyou to commit sin is your best friend.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat is\ndecoration?\u201d The reply says, \u201cCharacter is true decoration\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Verse 18 tell us\nabout four auspicious deeds one must perform as often as possible – Charity\nwith kind words, Knowledge without pride, Valour with forbearance, Wealth with\nCharity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You will agree that\nthese pieces of wisdom are truly universal. It is the intellectual legacy every\nIndia should not only be proud of but live those values in everyday life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What we need is a\ncultural renaissance, a large scale awareness and knowledge sharing movement\nthat brings the best in the Indian thought to the common man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our schools and\ncolleges should take the lead along with non-governmental organisations like\nVedanta Bharati to spread the universal message of tolerance, inclusion, harmony,\npeace, well-being, righteous conduct, excellence and empathy that recurs in the\nIndian spiritual tradition with resounding clarity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We must create a\nsociety that actually demonstrates the core Indian philosophy and values of\n\u201cshare and care\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am happy that\nVedanta Bharati has taken up this onerous responsibility to connect our\ncitizens with our intellectual tradition. I would suggest that Vedanta Bharati\nshould continue this gnana yagna<\/em> and contribute to building a new\nIndia on the ethical foundations laid by long lineage of sages and thinkers in\nthe last two thousand years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I once again\ncongratulate Shri S.S. Naganand ji for writing such lucid commentary. I wish\nhim and Vedanta Bharati every success in bringing out many more useful\npublications in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu has said that India needs a cultural renaissance, a large scale awareness and knowledge-sharing movement to bring the best in the Indian thought to the common man. Asserting that \u201cshare and care\u201d was the core of Indian philosophy, the Vice President stressed the need to create […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":3486,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[60],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-3485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs-articles","tag-government-schemes-current-affairs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3485"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3485\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3487,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3485\/revisions\/3487"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3485"},{"taxonomy":"offerexpiration","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/offerexpiration?post=3485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}