Bhagwat inaugurates Nagpur Nagrik Sahakari Bank's new headquarters, releases memorial volume on pracharaks

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat on Monday inaugurated the new headquarters and auditorium of the Nagpur Nagrik Sahakari Bank in Nagpur. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari was also present. A memorial volume (smriti granth) on the lives of pracharaks was released at the same event.

Bhagwat spoke on the Sangh's hundred-year journey, its idea of individual building (vyakti nirman) and the lives of pracharaks. According to him, the Sangh's greatest strength is the swayamsevaks who give their lives to the organisation and society without expecting any personal gain or recognition.

He said the day's programme combined two occasions: the inauguration of a new building on one side and the release of a memorial volume on pracharaks on the other. Bhagwat said Gadkari had also felt that one side was austerity and the other its result, and that both could be seen together today.

To explain his point, he told an old story of a king and ascetics. A king lost his way in a forest and reached the hut of some sadhus. The sadhus sent him to another place, where complete arrangements had been made for food and lodging for his army. When the king asked the next day, the sadhus told him that they themselves live in want and arrange comforts for others.

Bhagwat also recalled the early years of the Sangh. He said that in the 1930s an attempt was made in the Central Provinces assembly to impose the first ban on the Sangh. At that time no swayamsevak was there to defend it, and no one was there to support its ideology. A member named Mr Ibrahim spoke in its favour, saying the Sangh should not be shut down and was not communal. According to Bhagwat, he had said: "I believe that those who call Hindustan a Hindu Rashtra should be sent to a lunatic asylum. I know Dr Hedgewar, he is not mad, he is a good man. So the Sangh cannot be communal." Bhagwat said the Sangh was then only a few years old and not widely known, but everyone knew Dr Hedgewar. When the Sangh began, the swayamsevak became its identity, and a hundred years later the swayamsevak remains its identity.

On individual building, he said the Sangh's founder had understood its importance very early. The founder believed that if a person became good, society and the country would also change for the better. The Sangh has followed this thinking for the past hundred years. The organisation's growth is the result of swayamsevaks' duty, hard work and dedication. Every swayamsevak contributes according to their ability. Some give their time, while others create a good atmosphere in society through their conduct and behaviour.

On pracharaks, Bhagwat said they may differ in temperament and capacity for work, but their dedication is the same. Pracharaks devote their entire lives to the Sangh's work and expect no money, position or honour in return. Speaking of his experience of foreign travel, he said people even in developed countries are astonished to learn how the Sangh produces workers who keep working for decades without any personal gain.

On the memorial volume, he said books on the lives of pracharaks are being written as the Sangh completes a hundred years, though pracharaks never expected this. For them, the Sangh's work comes first. Behind these books are affection and gratitude towards those with whom one had the chance to work. Shyam ji and his team gathered the information and prepared the volume.

Bhagwat said about 6,500 current and former pracharaks had attended the programme held on the birth centenary of Doctor Sahab. The number must have grown manifold by now. Pracharaks do not seek honour themselves, but swayamsevaks hold them in reverence because of their sacrifice.

At the end of his speech, he narrated some amusing anecdotes about how pracharaks work. Mukund ji created an atmosphere of discipline and order wherever he went. Some pracharaks were quite different when it came to packing. Bhagwat said with a laugh that such people would gather their clothes and push them straight into a bag. He said ways of working may differ, but everyone's dedication to the organisation is the same.