Mohan Bhagwat says India serves world as vishwa guru, not super power

Washington,UPDATED: Aug 31, 2026 20:22 IST

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said on Sunday that India’s civilisational traditions have long been guided by the idea of helping others without discrimination, and that the country has served the world as a ‘vishwa guru’ rather than as a ‘super power’.

Speaking at the ‘Hindu Vishwa Bandhu – Embrace the World in Friendship’ event organised by Canadian Hindus for Outreach, Relations and Dialogue in Toronto, Bhagwat said the Hindu worldview was universal in nature and rooted in ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’, or the belief that the entire world is one family.

He said service was the defining feature of the ‘Bhartiya’ civilisational ethos. “Whenever Bharat has been asked for help anywhere in the world, it has never refused and it extends a helping hand even without even being asked. This is our tradition, the DNA of Bharat. That is why you may have heard the saying – ‘If Hindus awaken, the world awakens’,” Bhagwat said.

Bhagwat also referred to Sant Kabir’s couplets to stress that knowledge has little meaning without love. “Kabir Maharaj says, you may have read so many books, and you are such a vidwaan (scholar). It doesn’t mean anything if you don’t know those two and a half letters, prem, or in English, four letters – love,” he said.

He added, “Four-letter words are shunned in English. I know that. But there is one word, L-O-V-E. Love for humanity. We are all one. Our interests cannot collide. Because we are one, we have to act as we are one.”

Calling for diversity to be embraced, Bhagwat said it should be accepted and respected because it reflects a deeper unity. “We have to serve, accept, and respect this diversity because it is an expression of unity. It beautifies it. It is the decoration. We celebrate it,” he said.

He said Bharat’s ancient ethos sees diversity as natural and unity as the basic reality. “In nature, the expression of reality is diverse. Diversity is natural. Unity is the reality. That is the ancient ethos of Bharat,” he said.

According to Bhagwat, India’s spiritual heritage promotes a sense of oneness among humanity and nature. “Those who are open-minded and knowledgeable embrace the concept of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam - the belief that the entire earth is one family,” he said.

He said that while people may differ in body, shape and complexion, they are one in essence, and serving others is therefore a duty. He added that Indians are taught to regard both the animate and the inanimate as their own, and to see unity in diversity. “That is why diversity never poses a problem for unity in India; our tradition teaches us that not only is there unity in diversity, but diversity itself is a form of unity,” he said.

Bhagwat also cited historical and modern examples of India helping during international humanitarian crises, including the plight of Polish refugees during the Second World War. “One may call Bharat a superpower at that time, but it was not a superpower. It served the world. By its own character, it became Vishnu Guru, not Mahashakti. So the rise of Bharat means more united, more emancipated humanity,” he said.

Bhagwat is on a three-nation tour of the US, Canada and the UK. In his address in Toronto, he presented service, love and respect for diversity as central to India’s civilisational outlook and its role in the world.

With PTI Inputs

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