BHOPAL: Without mentioning the issue of reservations, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday gave a strong message saying that privileged and empowered classes should bend down and extend a helping hand to backwards and deprived communities to socially bring them up to the mainstream."A nation will progress only when everyone prospers in it," he said, addressing a large gathering commemorating the Sant Ravidas (preacher of the Bhakti Movement) Jayanti. He also said, "The entire Hindu society is our own family. Everyone will prosper and those who have not received success so far, efforts should be made to make them prosperous."The RSS chief is on a week-long visit to the state and is scheduled to participate in a series of functions and organisational meetings. Bhagwat's speech on Thursday evening was focused on the RSS' new strategy of 'samajik samrastha (social harmony)', an effort to unify Hindus."When I am educated and get a good job, I want the same for my brothers. I educate my brothers too because they are my own," Bhagwat said. "Likewise, this society belongs to us and every man is our brother. Bhed-bhao ko bhool jao. Koi kaam chhota bada nahi, koi manushya chhota-bada nahi (Forget the differences. No work is small or big, no man is small or big)." He added that service to our own community should not seem like a burden.Recalling a story of the Mahatma, he said: "One day, Mahatma Gandhi was climbing down a hillock when he saw a ten-year-old girl carrying her five-year-old brother on her shoulder. The Mahatma told the girl to put him down and make him walk. But the girl said, her brother was adamant and wouldn't walk. Mahatma told her that she was needlessly carrying a burden when the boy was old enough to walk down with her. The ten-year-old girl then told him, "What are you saying? Do one's own never become a burden?"While advocating support and patronage for the deprived classes, Bhagwat spoke elaborately on the dignity of labour. He said no work is small or menial and every job is essential for life. "A country cannot grow without the dignity of labour. A man who works hard deserves high stature in society. Don't think that any work is menial or weak. Society needs this labour that is why people are working.

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