Sanatan Dharma is 'synonymous' with India : RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat

Bhagwat was addressing a gathering at an event at the Baba Mastnath Math in Haryana's Rohtak. "...Sanatan Dharma he Hindu rashtra hai, ye apne rashtra ke saath ekroop hai (Sanatan Dharma is Hindu rashtra, it is synonymous with the country)", he said.

Chandigarh:Sanatan Dharma is "synonymous" with India and the country's culture is based on it, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat said on Thursday. In an apparent reference to DMK leader Udhayanidhi Stalin's controversial comments on Sanatan Dharma last month, he said that saying that it should be destroyed is like harming oneself.

Stalin had claimed that Sanatan Dharma is against social justice and it should be eradicated. "We have to live by this Sanatan," the RSS chief said, adding that "ye Sanatan Bharat ke saath ekroop hai (Sanatan is synonymous with India)". Bhagwat was addressing a gathering at an event at the Baba Mastnath Math in Haryana's Rohtak. "...Sanatan Dharma he Hindu rashtra hai, ye apne rashtra ke saath ekroop hai (Sanatan Dharma is Hindu rashtra, it is synonymous with the country)", he said.

"Our culture is based on Sanatan. The values of our religion are based on Sanatan," he said. Sanatan never ends and is eternal, the RSS chief said and asserted that it was present earlier, is present today and will be there in the future. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Union Minister V K Singh, Yoga guru Ramdev, Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda and his son and Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Singh Hooda, and seers from across the country were among those present at the event.

Referring to strife in some parts of the world, Adityanath said that "in the entire world, if there can be a guarantee of world peace that only can be Sanatan Dharma and India, and no one else". This is the reason that when there is "sankat" (trouble) in the world, every country is looking towards India and towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi with great hope, the chief minister said.

They believe that India can bring hope to them, and behind this hope when 140 crore Indians come together it becomes a strength for the whole world, he said. Adityanath said that "we all know the Nath sampraday (sect) is the carrier of the country's Sanatan Dharma tradition". Referring to the under-construction Ram temple in Uttar Pradesh's Ayodhya, Adityanath said what was impossible, today Bharat has made that possible.

Those who had disbelief did not want to take the name of Ram Janambhoomi even by mistake. But those who had belief in Sanatan Dharma, they believed in doing is their job and leaving the rest to God, he said. Earlier on Wednesday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had unveiled a statue of Mahant Shri Chand Nath Yogi at the Baba Mastnath Math at Rohtak and also addressed a gathering.