Material wealth cannot satisfy: Mohan Bhagwat

New York, Aug 30 (SocialNews.XYZ) RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has said material abundance cannot provide permanent satisfaction. Lasting happiness comes from recognising the deeper connection among human beings, he noted.

Addressing the Universal Oneness Celebration at Madison Square Garden in New York, Bhagwat said the pursuit of happiness was common to everyone. Material comforts, however, offered only temporary pleasure and soon created fresh desires.

“We have all material happiness, but this cannot satisfy us permanently,” he said.

Bhagwat used doughnuts as a light-hearted New York example to explain how physical pleasure loses its appeal once a person has consumed enough.

“If I like, what should I say, doughnuts in New York. So I will eat doughnuts. How many doughnuts I can eat at a time? I don’t know. I am a diabetic,” he said.

“After that, he will not be able to even see that doughnut. He says, no, no, no, no, keep that away. Doughnut is the same. What changed?”

The desire would nevertheless return, showing that material satisfaction could not last, he said.

“Tomorrow morning I am ready to eat 50 more. So the material happiness is transitory, cannot satisfy, and if abundance of material happiness is there, it may fail also,” Bhagwat said.

He illustrated his argument through the story of Indra, king of the devas, and Virochan, king of the asuras. Both had acquired everything they wanted but remained dissatisfied.

“They had everything. Whatever they wished was ready for their service. But they hadn’t one thing, that is satisfaction,” Bhagwat said.

The two approached their respective gurus and asked where they could find permanent happiness.

“And after having everything, next day we again want to have everything. Where will we get permanent satisfaction?” Bhagwat said while recounting their question.

“A happiness that will satisfy us forever. The happiness that once we partook of it, never fades.”

Their teachers directed them to seek an understanding of the Atman, or inner self, he said. Bhagwat described it as the principle connecting people despite their different bodies, clothes and forms of worship.

“There are many names in many traditions. But it is the truth that connects us all,” he said.

“In spite of our different bodies, different attires, different worships, everything being different, like the beads in a necklace woven through single thread, this Atman is in everybody and it connects us all.”

Bhagwat said this understanding enabled people to see beyond temporary distinctions. Physical bodies would eventually cease to exist, but different traditions accepted that something within a person endured.

“Some believe it lives till judgment day. Some believe it goes through many cycles of birth,” he said.

“But something is there inside that lives, that is permanent, that doesn’t get destroyed in the tide of time.”

Recognising that connection, Bhagwat said, should lead people to work for the welfare of others instead of organising their lives solely around consumption.

“But in them also I live. And they also live inside me. We belong to each other,” he said.

“And work for their benefit. For the welfare of the world. That is the purpose of human life.”

The concepts of Atman and the pursuit of lasting happiness feature prominently in several Indian philosophical traditions. The Upanishads examine the nature of the self and distinguish enduring knowledge from temporary sensory satisfaction.

Bhagwat has served as the sixth Sarsanghchalak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh since 2009. Founded in Nagpur in 1925, the RSS completed its centenary in 2025.

Source: IANS