High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to India Milinda Moragoda met with the Chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)Shri Mohan Bhagwat on 24 February, 2022. The meeting took place at the Headquarters of the RSS in Nagpur, Maharashtra. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, literary meaning the ‘National Volunteer Organization’, is a large and widespread Indian Hindu volunteer organization with a membership of 5-6 million.
The Chief, or the “Sarsanghchalak”,of the RSS Shri Mohan Bhagwat extended a very warm welcome to High Commissioner Milinda Moragoda. During the meeting they discussed a wide range of issues including the age-old cultural and religious relations between India and Sri Lanka, especially between Buddhism and Hinduism, and sought ways and means through which a dialogue could be established between these two world religions which originated in India. The senior office bearers of the organization were also present at the meeting.
The High Commissioner of Sri Lanka gifted two large-framed photographs to the organization to mark this occasion. These photographs feature two murals from the Kelaniya Rajamaha Vihara which depict the gift of Buddhism to Sri Lanka by India. Of these photographs, the first depicts a mural of Arahat Mahinda delivering the message of the Buddha to King Devanampiyatissa upon arriving in Sri Lanka while the second depicts the arrival of Theri Sanghamitta to Sri Lanka bearing the right-hand branch sapling of the Sri Maha Bodhi Tree.
Earlier in the day, High Commissioner Moragoda paid a floral tribute to the memorial of the late founder of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Dr. Keshav Hedgewar. There, at the Dr. Hedgewar Smarak Samiti (Hedgewar Memorial Committee) building he also unveiled the two photographs that were gifted, in the presence of the senior officials of the Committee.
Founded by Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar on 27 September, 1925 in Nagpur with the intention of creating a Hindu nation, the RSS promotes the ideals of upholding Indian culture and the values of a civil society and spreads the ideology of Hindutva, to strengthen the Hindu community.
Shri Mohan Bhagwat is the 6th Sarsanghchalak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. He has held that position since 2009.
High Commission of Sri Lanka
New Delhi
07 March, 2022
