RSS Sahkaryavah Suresh (Bhaiyaji) Joshi while speaking at the first session on the second day of the fourth edition of three-day river festival at the confluence spot of Narmada-Tava rivers on Saturday, said, “Rivers are the identity of Indian culture. Rivers are our mother and for centuries, fairs are held on the banks of rivers in India. People take pledge while plunging into rivers to clean their inner self and discard their bad habits.”
Joshi further said, “Since ancient times, we have been introduced to the rivers. Sages and monks have done austerity, brainstorming on the banks of rivers and have also talked to the rivers and taught us that rivers are our mothers, Gaumata is Kamdhenu maa, vegetation and trees are kalp vraksh, vayu (air) is also deity, all have same consciousness in them.”
He said that nature and human society depend on each other. “We inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide and the trees inhale carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen. In the universe, no one and nothing is self dependent. River would also take care of us only till we would take care of it. Construction and destruction is a natural process that needs to be understood,” he added.
Joshi further said that in the animal world, humans due to its dominance and high and mighty attitude have created problems of pollution and natural imbalance. The stubborn attitude of the humans has come out with a never ending problem of natural imbalance and pollution, he added. The RSS functionary said, “We need to understand that the rivers never cross their limits and keep on flowing with saint like essence between the two banks.” He asked if they started flowing by breaking their banks, then who would stop the destruction.
Other participants also shared their experiences and told the gathering that how they are engaged in saving rivers in their respective areas. BJP’s national vice president Prabhat Jha, State BJP president Nandkumar Singh Chouhan, State organisational general secretary Arvind Menon, State assembly speaker Sitasharan Sharma and Abhay Mahajan were present on the occasion.