Report of 5th Lakshmanrao Bhide Memorial Lecture

In her brief address as Chief Guest, Smt. Kirtida Bhatt mentioned how she had benefited personally from the guidance of Shri Bhide ji. 'Bhide ji exemplified simple living and high thinking' she said. She recalled that Bhide ji had advised her to device a new methodology to promote samiti in USA seeing the ground realities there and not copy any model. "He strongly believed that mahila hold the key to preserving Hindu values, heritage and culture" she remarked. It was due to this reason that HSS shakhas became a family activity in USA. She also mentioned that Shri Bhide ji had felt that she and her husband Shri Janardhan Bhatt should continue to live in USA and maintain contacts in Bharat and not think of settling in Bharat permanently, as it would be beneficial in many ways. "The best lesson I learnt from Bhide ji was that we need to practice in our daily lives some important values essential to our culture, so that we are an example in a small way and are looked up as Hindu ambassadors" she concluded.

Shri G. Narasimhan, Coordinator LBML and Vice President - VAK, rendered the Vote of Thanks. He also introduced many special personalities from various countries present among the audience who had come to attend VSS 2010 in Pune and stayed back to attend the Bhide ji Memorial Lecture. Mementos were also presented to all the dignitaries.

Shri Seshadri Chari started his address by mentioning that Bhide ji was an embodiment of simplicity and openness and he personified love and affection. He recalled how in his last days when Shri Bhide ji had lost his ability to speak he had not lost his sense of humour and requested Seshadri Chari to talk to him and not write a message as his hearing was much in tact.

Talking on the subject 'Dharma for fostering Global Pluralism' he cited several examples to show the fundamental differences between Western philosophy, Semitic / Abrahamic religions and Hindu Dharma as practiced in Bharat over thousands of years. He mentioned that Hinduism, Hindutva, Hinduness, Hindu way of life or Hindu Dharma, whatever way we may call, is essentially universal and pluralistic in outlook and even the Indian Constitution and Supreme Court have not yet clearly defined it as it is very complex. Therefore, the Hindu Code Bill does not speak of who it applies to but mentions who it not applies to. He mentioned that many 'isms' that attempted to become 'global' and 'universal' have miserably failed as they could never accept diversity, insisted on uniformity and imposed their teachings as the only way forward. He remarked that 'ism' and pluralism cannot exist together.

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