RSS leader Mohan Bhagwat said on Friday that missionaries in the southern states do several times as much social assistance as Hinduspiritual gurus, but this is not a competition. He was addressing the Keshav Vidhyapeeth in Jamdoli, close to Jaipur, during the opening ceremony of a three-day Rashtriya Sewa Sangam conference held by a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh affiliate. Bhagwat said intellectuals in the country generally mention (Christian) missionaries when talking about service to society.
“Missionary organisations run various institutions, schools, and hospitals all over the world—eeveryone knows this. But what is the Hindu seer community doing?” With this thought in mind, a Hindu service fair was held in Chennai, he said. It was noticed there that the service done by the acharyas, munis, and sanyasis in Kannada-speaking, Telugu-speaking, Malayalam-speaking, and Tamil-speaking provinces “is many times more than the service done by the missionaries,” he said. “But I am not talking about any competition—about being better than them or worse than them,” the RSS chief added quickly.
“This cannot be the measure of service. Service is service; service is not a matter of competition. Service is the natural expression of man’s humanity,” he said. Bhagwat said animals too are sensitive, but it is a human quality to act on sensitivity, which is called compassion.
Emphasising the need to eradicate backwardness from society, Bhagwat said everyone is equal. “We all are part of society; we all are society together. If we are not united, we will be incomplete,” he said. He said there is a disparity in society, which is not needed. Unfortunately, this situation has come about. We do not want this situation, this disparity,” he said. Citing the example of the human body, he said when there is a pain in the leg, all other parts start functioning together (as a support system) to focus on the pain. Similarly, service should be done in such a way that no section of society is left out.
