Vice President's Secretariat
Vice President expresses concern over the rising levels of irritation, intolerance and impatience in the world;
There is a need for more soothing voices to promote tranquility, inner peace and joy: Vice President
Hosts ‘Samvad with Sadhguru’ at Uparashtrapati Bhavan
The Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu has expressed concern over the rising levels of irritation, intolerance and impatience in the world and called for more soothing voices that inspire tranquility, inner peace and joy.
He was addressing the gathering at ‘Samvaad with Sadhguru’, a discourse by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, at the Uparashtrapati Bhawan, here today.
The Vice President opined that mechanical lifestyle and high pressure work routines are making our lives stressful. He also expressed concern that anger and hatred are discolouring discourses across the world today. ‘This does not bode well for our progress’, he said.
Shri Naidu spoke of the need for inner peace, tranquil minds and joyful hearts and called on all spiritual leaders to interact more frequently with people and give them spiritual advice and guidance for improving the quality of lives.
The Vice President said that Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev had the rare ability to explain complex concepts easily. ‘He is a guru who reaches out to the people with the message of hope, of peace and positive thinking’, he added.
Shri Naidu said that for most of us who are only used to ‘vaad’ and ‘vivaad’, a ‘samvaad’ would be a refreshing change. He expressed hope that the ‘samvaad’ would lead us a little closer to the ‘sadasad viveka’ or the ability and the wisdom to separate ‘sad’ from ‘asad’, the ‘good’ from the ‘not good’.
The Vice President appreciated Sadhguru’s discourse on happiness, positivity and wellbeing and applauded his ‘Rally for Rivers’ initiative for water conservation.
The Speaker of Lok Sabha, Shri Om Birla, the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri G. Kishan Reddy, the Minister of State for External Affairs, Shri V. Muraleedharan, the Deputy Chairman, Rajya Sabha, Shri Harivansh, Justice N.V. Ramana, Judge, Supreme Court, Justice L. Nageswara Rao, Judge, Supreme Court, Justice R. Subhash, Judge, Supreme Court, Shri A. Surya Prakash, Chairman Prasar Bharathi several secretaries to the government and prominent educationist, Shri J.S. Rajput and others were present on the occasion.
Following is the text of Vice President’s address:
“Let me welcome you to this morning’s Samvad with Sadguru. Today’s world is a troubled world. The mechanical lifestyles with high pressure work routines are making most of our lives quite stressful. The levels of irritation, intolerance and impatience are rising. Anger and hatred are discolouring our discourses. This does not bode well for humanity’s progress. We need to calm down and start adding ‘life’ to our years. It is not enough if we merely add years to our life. We need inner peace, tranquil minds and joyful hearts. We need solace, we need a soothing voice that refreshes and rejuvenates us. One such voice is the voice of Sadguru. We are fortunate to have him with us today morning.
He is one of those remarkable modern day sages who connects us with our spiritual heritage. He has the rare ability to explain complex concepts easily. He has the gift of connecting effortlessly with the audiences across the world. He is a guru who reaches out to the people with the message of hope, of peace and positive thinking. In fact, I feel that all the spiritual leaders, pitadhipathies and mathadhipathies should move more actively among people, mingle with them and give practical spiritual advice and guidance to them in order to improve the quality of their lives. We need gurus who reach out to common people and communicate with them in a language easily understood by all and guide them. Sadguru has been taking this up as his mission over many years now.
Today we are privileged to have him amidst us and hear him speak with all of us. For most of us who are only used to vaad and vivaad, we thought having a samvaad would be a refreshing change. We are grateful to Sadguru for agreeing to lead this short Samvadtoday. This samvaadwith Sadguru promises to be a dialogue which, I am sure, will lead us a little closer to the “Sadasad Viveka” or the ability and the wisdom to separate ‘Sad’ from ‘Asad’, or identifying what is ‘good’ and what is not good.
I now request Sadguruji to kindly address us.
Thak you, Jaihind!”