India Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankar graced the International Gita Mahotsav 2024 held at Brahma Sarovar in Kurukshetra, Haryana on Sunday.
Gita Mahotsav is celebrated to commemorate the Bhagavad Gita and speaking at the ceremony, the VP emphasised having unity.
"Just imagined the kind of diversity we have, and now imagine all this converges into unity," he said.
He added, "There should be competition, but competition does not mean war. Today there is no opposition, their opinion may be different. This is very important for us because there is diversity in our country. Just imagine the kind of diversity we have and all this converges to unity!"
Dhankar taking inspiration from the great Hindu scripture Gita said that our culture teaches us to protect ourselves when external forces taint and tarnish us.
"Our culture teaches that there are certain occasions when it becomes necessary to crush, attack and counter such forces," he said.
The VP further added that Gita teaches us to counterattack and never ignore when someone attempts to harm India or us.
He said, "Some forces in the country and abroad want to harm India by organising a narrative based on money and power and by using machinery and want to paralyse our institutions. Their sinister design and pernicious objective are to taint, tarnish, and diminish our Constitutional institutions, thereby derailing our growth trajectory."
"Now such forces cannot be ignored," VP added.
He also laid five principles and ideals derived from Gita in the form of "Abhishashan Panchamrit."
The first principle is meaningful dialogue. "Just like Shri Krishna and Arjuna teach us the importance of meaningful dialogue and no use of foul words, no disturbances, no disruptions, no sloganeering, and no use of placards. We need to give importance to that," said Dhankar.
"Meaningful dialogue paves the way for society, country and development," said Dhankar.
Dhankar also lauded the government's efforts and said that a developed India is no longer a dream and it will come true in 2047, without any doubt. And taking inspiration from Arjun, we need to stay focused on our "Lakshya" target.
"Developed India is no longer a dream, it is our goal. To achieve this goal we must adopt the concentration and determination of Arjuna from the Gita. Arjun's eyes were not on the fish, not even on the fish's eyes, his eyes were only on his target. We also have to keep our eyes only on the target and not on anything else!" said Dhankar.
The programme was inaugurated by Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini on December 6, where he offered prayers on the occasion at the Sarovar.
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