Dharma far more comprehensive than religion, says Governor

CHENNAI: Governor RN Ravi on Sunday said Dharma is a far more comprehensive concept than religion.

Inaugurating the Centenary celebrations of ‘Palace for the Poor’ and Residential School at Ramakrishna Mission Students Home here, he said Dharma is all inclusive and rooted in the understanding of integral unity of creations. It is essentially spiritual awareness of presence of the divine in all the elements of creation, he said, adding, there is no word in English language or any European language equivalent to the word ‘Dharma.’

The Governor further explained that secularism as defined in the Constitution of India is state’s non-allegiance to any one Panth (ways of worship) and not anti-Dharma.

He recalled how Swami Vivekananda called Dharma as the Spine of Bharat and said Dharma is a far more comprehensive concept than religion.

Ravi said untold damage done to Bharat’s spirituality by the colonial powers had deeply anguished Mahatma Gandhi who had insisted on spiritual resurgence of Bharat in the post-British India.

Unfortunately, the nation drifted away from the core of this country that is Sanatan spirituality. The Governor said the country under a visionary and dynamic leadership is waking up to her destiny to be the world leader by 2047.

“Bharat’s resurgence necessarily entail spiritual resurgence along with economic and technological resurgence,” he said and emphasised the role of institutions like Ramakrishna Mission in the spiritual resurgence of Bharat and urged those associated with it to be conscious of their role in building a new Bharat.

The Governor flagged the requirement to adopt ways and means to trigger and ignite the spiritual resurgence of Bharat to fulfil the desire of Swami Vivekananda of building a country with muscle of irons, nerves of steel and equipped with Vedantic minds.

The Governor released the ‘First Day Cover’ to mark the celebrations and distributed benefits to the poor and downtrodden people in the function.