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        'Regardless of castes, religions and languages, etc. we are all children of Bharat Mata, the common deity to be worshipped by all of us. Our common ideal is total development of our nation and taking it to the pinnacle of its glory'.

        Decades ago, many Swayamsevaks in the RSS used to sing a song in Hindi whose first lines were:

        The meaning of the above lines is as follows:

        'That my name will appear in the newspapers and that I will wear a welcoming garland, renounce all such paltry motives; you who have set out to save the Hindu Nation'.

There is a very interesting story about Dr Hedgewar, founder of the RSS. Once one of his friends from another town came and stayed with him and he wanted to understand the effective functioning of the RSS better. After staying with Dr Hedgewar, he became such an ardent admirer of the Sangh that he decided to extend his stay and to inform his family about it. When, however, he asked for a pen and paper to write the letter, Dr Hedgewar chose not to produce either the one or the other. Such was his indifference, almost allergy, to even the elementary instruments of publicity. As K R Malkhani puts it beautifully: What was a gain for humility, became a loss for posterity.         Long before the sworn anti-Hindu, anti-Sanatana Dharma Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru and his government started policing the RSS under Sri Guruji, in short, suppression of civil rights, after 15 August, 1947, the CID Police of British India in Nagpur had started spying upon and monitoring the activities of Dr Hedgewar and the RSS on a day-to-day basis. To begin with, all the Swayamsevaks used to gather together at Itwar Darwaza every Sunday at 5 a.m. Their uniform for the occasion was the same as that of Nagpur Congress Session volunteers in 1920, Khaki shirt, knee-long Khaki shots and Khaki cap with two buttons. It was only five years later that the black cap came in. Later the lathi was also introduced. Every Thursday they met to hear a senior colleague on the state of the nation.       After two years this talk came to be known as Baudhik, the name it bears to this day. In this context, it is relevant to mention that after founding the RSS, a few days prior to Guru Poornima Day in 1928, Dr Hedgewar announced that the members have to perform Guru Pooja on a specified day and offer Gurudakshina which alone shall be the financial resource for the Sangh. On Guru Poornima Day in 1928, Dr Hedgewar declared that Bhagwadwaj shall be the 'Guru', under whose auspicious presence all the Shakhas have to be held every day. It represents the Gurus of all religions and religious sects born in the country.

Dr Keshhav Baliram Hedgewar, founder of RSS ( 1889 - 1940)

RSS at prayer

At the beginning, the shakhas were started on an uneven ground called 'Mohite Wada' in Nagpur. This land belonging to Sardar Mohite had been mortgaged by him to a money lender. Very much like the CBI and the Intelligence Bureau of today, the CID police of British India intimidated the money lender to get it vacated, wishfully thinking that it would be the end of the RSS! Raja Lakshman Rao Bhonsle of Nagpur came forward to offer his Hathi Khana. On his death, the Shakha had to be shifted to Tulsi Bagh which was also owned by Bhonsle. However, in a relentless pursuit, the CID Police asked his successors to have Tulsi Bagh ploughed for farming! It was only in 1934 that Dr Hedgewar bought Resham Bagh as a permanent and Central Sanghasthan, in the midst of a jungle on the outskirts of the City. In 1944, the British government tried to acquire even this particular patch of ground in the name of a cinema hall and a stadium, which was effectively thwarted by the leading citizens of Nagpur.

         Dr Hedgewar wanted to inculcate a sense of patriotism, selflessness, sterling character, national consciousness, sense of unity, selfless service, self-realisation and self-discipline among all our countrymen and more particularly the Hindus through the RSS and its mission. He considered it a paramount necessity for the RSS to have a common deity to be worshipped by all, a common ideal to be cherished, pursued and held aloft by all and a common prayer (a Moola Mantra) for all. Dr Hedgewar declared that regardless of castes, religions and languages, etc. we are all children of Bharat Mata, the 'common deity' to be worshipped by all of us. The 'common ideal' is total development of our nation and taking it to the pinnacle of its glory. These two ideals were incorporated in the 'common prayer' beginning with the words, Namaste sada vatsale Matrubhume, to be sung byall the members in every Shakha every day.

he RSS started by Dr Hedgewar and later fostered and expanded in a magnificent way by Sri Guruji has given us a great 'national vision'. In a way, it is nothing new. It is only a restatement in modern language, in a modern setting, of the ancient Vedic Vision as unfolded in the Vedas, in the Upanishads, in the Jainagama, in the Tripitaka, in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, in the Puranas, in the Dharma Shastras, and in the latter-day poetry of Saints and Siddhas. We have had countless spokesmen of that 'national vision' throughout our history.         The first dimension of that national vision is that India is the land of Sanatana Dharma. The second dimension of that national vision is that of a vast and variegated culture. All our art, architecture and sculpture, all our literature -sacred, secular and scientific, which has developed in different regions of this country, in different social and cultural surroundings, have one underlying spirit uniting them, the spirit of Sanatana Dharma. The third dimension of that national vision is that this great society, the society which we describe as Hindu society today, was reared on the basis of spirituality, on the basis of Sanatana Dharma and on the basis of a great culture created by Sanatana Dharma.

Blind men's buff

        The fourth dimension of that national vision is that this great society, the Hindu society, has a glorious history of its own like that of civilizations in Greece, Rome, China, Egypt and Persia. According to that national vision, the history of India is the history of Hindu Society, of Hindu Culture, of Hindu Spirituality. The last dimension of that national vision is that this land of Bharatvarsha is one indivisible whole; it is the cradle of Hindu society, of Hindu culture, of Hindu spirituality; it is the only homeland of the Hindu Nation and all the other communities are welcome to live in this land provided they come to terms with Hindu society and Hindu culture.

        The RSS is not a political organization. From its inception it has been a power-house of social education on behalf of those who are yearning for the regeneration and rebirth of Hindu culture. The RSS is the only cadre-based organization in our country which has given great value to 'Sheela', to an ethical code of behaviour worthy of respect. After putting an end to the dictatorship of Indira Gandhi during emergency, Jayaprakash Naryan addressed a huge RSS training camp in Patna on 3 November, 1977 and said: 'RSS is a revolutionary organization. No other organization in the country comes anywhere near it. It alone has the capacity to transform society, end casteism and untouchability and wipe the tears from the eyes of the poor. Its very name is Rashtriya, that is 'national'. I am not saying this to flatter you. I believe you have a historical role to play through your ideals of 'service, renunciation and sacrifice'.