'Statue Of Equality' Of Ramanujacharya Will Spread Message Of Equality, Sanatana Dharma To The World: Amit Shah

Hyderabad, Feb 8 (PTI) Ramanujacharya's 'Statue of Equality' will spread the message of 'Vishishtadvaita', equality and 'Sanatana' Dharma to the entire world for years to come, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said here on Tuesday.

'The statue of Ramanujacharya will provide consciousness and enthusiasm to work for several years,' Shah said after offering prayers and addressing a programme to mark the millennium birth anniversary celebrations of Sri Ramanujacharya.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on February 5 inaugurated the 216-foot statue of Ramanujacharya at Chinna Jeeyar Swamy Ashram in Muchintal on the city's outskirts.

The 'Statue of Equality' commemorates Ramanujacharya who promoted the idea of equality in all aspects of living, including faith, caste and creed.

Highlighting the 11th century saint's message of equality of all, Shah said Ramanujacharya was very humble but he was also a revolutionary and he ended many evil practices due to his rebellious soul.

'If we look at the history of India till date, there have been many ups and downs and Sanatana Dharma has endured the struggle of time, keeping its existence and moving forward without being outdated. In order to establish equanimity in society, along with Dvaita-Advaita and then Vishishtadvaita, many Acharyas worked on making complex knowledge easy to use and the biggest contribution in that was Ramanujacharya's,' Shah said.

Ramanujacharya did revolutionary work of bringing unity in Indian society with the concept of Vishishtadvaita by explaining the middle path, he said adding that due to the Vishishtadvaita philosophy India was strung together in one thread from the East to West.

Ramanujacharya also did revolutionary work to end caste discrimination 1,000 years ago, division of work according to ability, rights of worship, divided the operation of a temple into 20 parts, and also gave equality of language and right to salvation as being class-specific instead of all, Shah said pointing out that Ramanujacharya also worked for women's empowerment.

When invaders attacked temples in India, Ramanujacharya had started the tradition of worshiping God at home due to which Sanatana Dharma has survived today, the senior BJP leader said.

'Be it a follower of any faith or sect, they must come here once. Seeing this statue brings peace and happiness to the mind. It will continue to propagate Ramanujacharya's message of equality and Sanatana Dharma all over the world,' Shah said.

Shah further said it is only due to the blessings of the almighty that in the same period in which the Statue of Equality was built, the construction of the grand Ram Temple and the revival of Kashi Vishwanath Corridor took place, the work of reconstruction of Kedardham and Badridham is also being done.

This is the period from which after becoming aware of Sanatana Dharma, it has to spread its resplendent knowledge to the world, he said.

'I believe that for many years this Statue of Equality of Ramanujacharya will spread the message of Vishishtadvaita, equality and Sanatana Dharma to the world,' Shah added.

The inauguration of the statue is a part of the 12-day Ramanuja Sahasrabdi Samaroham, the ongoing 1,000th birth anniversary celebrations of Ramanujacharya.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)