India did not give communalism to the world: Modi

Mumbai: India has not given communalism to the world but only spirituality, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said, asserting that saints and other learned men have always espoused for 'rashtra dharma' (duty to nation).

Modi, while unveiling the 300th book penned by prominent Jain monk Acharya Ratnasundersuriji Maharaj through a video conference, said former President APJ Abdul Kalam believed in India's legacy of spirituality and had said it can help mankind deal with the major challenges it is facing today.

"The world has not been able to understand us the way it should have. India is a country which has never followed sectarian tendencies. India has never given communalism but spirituality to the world.

"Sometimes, community can be a creator of problems but spirituality provides resolution to problems," he said.

Modi described the monk as a "great social reformer and spiritual leader" who has expressed his views on all concepts and objects of the universe through his various books.

The book, 'My India, Nobel India', in four languages - English, Hindi, Gujarati and Marathi - was released at the Somaiya Grounds in Sion-Chunabhatti area here during the 'Sahitya Satkar Samaroh' programme on the concluding day of the 10-day-long religious and spiritual conclave.

"May be I am away from you, but I am very near to your heart and bowing down to the holy feet of Acharya," Modi said to the audience of 30,000 present at the pandal.

"I don't think that these are merely creations of literature, but I deeply feel the heart and soul-felt penance of a reverend saint that introduce us with sublimity of mankind, equally pure like the Ganga," he said.

The Prime Minister said that Ratnasundersuriji Maharaj is a great listener too, by virtue of which he (Acharya) assimilated the life of entire cultural ethnicity of the country in him and it truly reflects in his writings.

Modi also said that the Acharya has equally highlighted various social evils, deficiencies prevailing at individual level, and has expressed his anger about these evils in his book as well.

"At one time we find the coolness and tranquility of moonlight in his creativity, we also come across his acerbic lines that he has manifested against the evils," he said.

"Rashtra dharma (duty to nation) is above all religions and Guruji has lit the candle of rashtra dharm through his writings, as it has been the glorious tradition of our country," Modi said.

He also said that India is the only country which never attempted to divide the world into communities.

"Our saints, hermits and religious leaders have blessed the world with spirituality, a legacy in which our former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam believed and said that the problems of human beings can be neutralised by the spiritualisation of mankind," Modi said.