RSS chief Bhagwat calls for sustainable living at Universal Oneness Celebration in US

New York, Aug 30 (IANS) RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has called for a model of development that allows people to prosper without destroying nature, saying human beings have a responsibility to sustain the environment and the wider world.

Addressing the Universal Oneness Celebration at Madison Square Garden in New York, Bhagwat said development and environmental protection were often presented as opposing goals.

“World is facing the problems. Development destroys the environment. Preservation of environment means stopping the development. What is the way?” he said.

“We have to give the way, and our ancestors have given this way through their own sacrifice, through their own sayyam.”

Bhagwat said India’s civilisational outlook placed responsibility at the centre of human life. People must consider whether their actions sustain not only themselves but also society and nature.

“We are one with human beings. We are one with nature. We have to see that whatever we do sustains not only us, sustains everything,” he said.

Human intelligence, he argued, should not become a licence to dominate or exhaust the natural world. Instead, it placed a greater obligation on people to protect other forms of life.

“Human beings are responsible for the world because they have been given special quality of thinking,” Bhagwat said.

“They have been also given the understanding of right and wrong.”

Referring to the rise of human beings in the food chain, Bhagwat said their progress had come at a severe environmental cost.

“Man came into picture in this food chain very late and was at the bottom,” he said. “But within 3,000 years, he came at the middle. And in 7,000 years, he came at the top, destroying 8,000 plant species. And some 5,000 animal species.”

“Animals could run. That is why they saved themselves. Plants could not. This is not the style of living of a human being,” he added.

Bhagwat said possessing superior intelligence did not make human beings absolute masters of creation. It required them to take responsibility for the survival of others.

“You are most intelligent. You have gone beyond the nature of limits and you are living very good life,” he said. “It is your duty to sustain.”

He urged people to move beyond the idea of simply allowing others to live and instead actively help sustain them.

“We have to care for each other. We have to care so that my life is sustaining life. I sustain others. I live and not merely let live. Make others live. That is the message,” Bhagwat said.

He said change could begin through modest adjustments in everyday conduct rather than waiting for a sweeping transformation.

“Whatever happened up till now, hereafter at least, I will think about my life and one small thing at a time, one small step at a time, I will make life a sustaining life,” he said.

Bhagwat also referred to the RSS programme of “pancha parivartan”, saying its principles first had to be adopted by individuals and then carried into society.

“They will sustain the humanity. They will sustain the environment. They will sustain the Srishti, the existence,” he said. “That is the goal.”

The RSS’s “pancha parivartan” initiative identifies five areas of social transformation: environmental protection, social harmony, family values, civic duties and the adoption of indigenous practices. The organisation has promoted individual and community action in these areas during its centenary period.

Founded in Nagpur in 1925 by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, the RSS completed 100 years in 2025. Bhagwat, its sixth Sarsanghchalak, has headed the organisation since 2009.

–IANS

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