Date:29/07/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/29/stories/2008072961411100.htm

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Work for the weak and deprived , Sonia tells people

Rajesh Ahuja

KURUKSHETRA: United Progressive Alliance chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday made a forceful plea for reviving the ancient Indian culture and appealed to the people to imbibe moral values by rising above parochial differences and living for others.

Inaugurating the three-day 44th All-India Oriental Conference at Kurukshetra University here, Ms. Gandhi said in chaste Hindi: “In public life we are known by what we do for others and not for ourselves.” Her message was to emulate the example of Lord Krishna and shun selfishness and support others, especially the “weak, the deprived and the oppressed.”

She said the gist of the Bhagwad Gita which Lord Krishna delivered in this holy land of Kurukshetra was “equilibrium in life which comprised of struggle, sacrifice, gain and loss—all of which culminated in a new rejuvenated human culture.”

Calling for rejection of thoughts which created narrowness of mind and culminated in violence and cruelty, she said the way out was to follow the path shown by leaders and savants such as Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindra Nath Tagore and Jawaharlal Nehru as they had “the right approach to life which helped in the development of society”.

While appreciating the scholars of different languages for the knowledge they possessed, she said they were witness to the fact that despite diversities, India’s soul has been one. The First War of Independence in 1857 exemplified this feeling of oneness, she added. The same feeling of unity was exhibited during the freedom struggle led by leaders like Mahatma Gandhi. he hoped that the deliberations of the conference which would be made in the areas of religion, culture, language, philosophy and literature would prove useful for the present as well as future. She added that most of the problems in society and the country were due to ignorance and the golden era was witnessed only when there was “maximum of knowledge and consciousness.” Ms. Gandhi also laid the foundation stone of a museum on the First War of Independence on the campus.