“Contemporary life has turned out be a crisis of sorts where individuals are gripped with time and tension management,” said Manendra Pratap Singh, Member Secretary, Indian Council of Philosophical Research (ICPR), New Delhi.
Delivering the keynote address at the inauguration of the three-day national philosophy conference on the topic “A paradigm of integral human development in the thoughts of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya” here on Saturday, he said society was experiencing a triple crisis in the form of modernity, development, and governance and the people are expected to cope with them with the help of time-tested wisdom and knowledge.
Speaking on spiritualism and nationalism, Mr. Singh said spiritualism was a journey towards truth and justice and should serve the cause of nation building, as propounded by Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya. He was not a spiritual leader but a political ideologue who influenced Indian polity and governance. What he propounded during 1948-49 when the Constituent Assembly was debating on evolving the Constitution, democracy at the grassroots and decentralisation of administration had found expression in the governance and evolution of Panchayat Raj system during the period of former Prime Minister late Rajiv Gandhi.
The national conference, being held for the first time, has been sponsored by ICPR and organised by Belagavi-based Academy of Comparative Philosophy & Religion (ACPR) in association with the Rani Channamma University (RCU) at ACPR’s Gurudev Ranade Mandir in the city.
Earlier, KLE University Vice-Chancellor C.K. Kokate inaugurated the conference and paid rich tributes to the spiritualist Gurudev R.D. Ranade. He said India was the spiritual capital of the world and Indian saints contributed immensely to philosophy and spiritualism. He said human beings were mere mortals yet failed to understand the essence of life. Today’s man was in hurry and ambitious and becoming increasingly selfish without realising how he was loosing the spirit of humanism.
ACPR Hon. Secretary M.B. Zirali spoke about the objectives of the conference. ACPR Registrar V.S. Kumbar and Vice-President Ashok Potdar were present. Earlier, a college student Ejaz Tashildar held the audience spell-bound with his rendition of the popular patriotic song ‘Aye mere vatan ke logo…’ espousing the feeling of patriotism and nationalism, the need of the hour as observed by the participants. He was also honoured by Mr. Singh.
