On behalf of Hindu Heritage Pratishthan, it is my proud privilege to welcome Hon'ble Her Highness Smt. Pratibha Patil, Governor of Rajasthan, Shri Girdhari Lal Bhargava, Member of Parliament from Jaipur, Shri Ashok Parnami Mayor of Jaipur, Swami Vigyananand Ji Coordinator for the Asia and Pacific Zone of the Vishwa Hindu Paris had, students who have come from overseas and are taking their education in India and are on the last leg of their heritage trip to this beautiful Pink City, friends, ladies and gentlemen.

    It is a great pleasure for me to welcome Governor of Rajasthan Smt. Patil who is an epitome of women entrepreneurship and empowerment. She personifies in her the calm and deep silence of the sea and the equanimity as propounded in Shrimat Bhagwat Gita. The personal interest that she has shown will long be cherished by one and all present here and associated with us. My personal thanks to the lady Governor for treating us with a wonderful breakfast in the morning and being with us now. Mr. Girdhari Lal Bhargava is the grand old young man of Jaipur who has the outstanding and distinguished record of being six times Member of Lok Sabha from Jaipur since 1989 and is still full of energies. It will be a treat to learn how he is able to maintain one to one public relationship with people who have the highest trust and regards for him and vote for him so passionately.

    The fact that Mr. Ashok Parnami has been one of the 50 finalists in the World Mayor 2006 Conference, one of the 12 amongst Asia and one of the two from India says more then I can say about his contribution to this city as a mayor. His contribution to make this city look more beautiful and absorb the growth explosion is phenomenal. Swami Vigyananand is an IIT graduate from Kharakpur and had joined Civil Services to give up all and now clad in these pious clothes he is here with us to tell the world what is more fundamental and essential for it. He travels and meets more people then any one of us can and it is our greatest pleasure to have him here at this period.

    The presence of you all here, particularly 67 students from 24 different countries stretched around the globe and members of 40 families where these students stayed for about 4 days is a testimony to the wide reaching importance of the issue of awareness and the benefits arising as a result of developing cross culture relationship. And that is the objective for these heritage trips conducted by Hindu Heritage Pratishthan. The effort is to bring about this awareness, the awareness of the single cosmic energy which strings the humanism in a common bond which we call the vasudev kutambh.  

    Hindu Heritage Pratishthan was constituted un 1996 to disseminate information and expose all human beings to the true values of abhey (fearlessness), asangh (non attachment) and ahimsa (non violence) deeply ingrained in our daily life. It is now becoming more evident every day that the rich Hindu heritage and culture alone is capable of bringing about universal love, peace and harmony where the world is splitting apart. To fulfill this goal Hindu Heritage Pratishthan has been coordinating interactions amongst students by conducting Heritage Trips and also undertaking Sadbhavana Milan on the occasionof Holi, Raksha-bandhan and Diwali where hundreds of foreign students participate and realise the true meaning of these pious festivals.

    Friends, as a result of the paradigm shift we are in the information age where networking is the only way to survive in the most beautiful way. But let me put you all to a word of caution and that is that individually we all have the capacity to develop into intellectual giants, but collectively, we fail to co-ordinate and emerge as a cohesive force. It is for the new generation which is sitting here to have a more scientific and spiritual temperament, for we are passing through an era of crises of faith and trust.  It is time to leave our small and petty islands of thoughts' which we under illusion, believe to be the 'Whole'.  You all are the  only  hope  for the new world with new energy and you must all be able to surge ahead jointly, in the spirit  of  this  land, from the time of Rig Veda till today -

"Meet together, talk together,

May your minds comprehend alike,

Common be your actions and achievements,

Common be your thoughts and intentions,

Common be the wishes of your hands,

So may there be union amongst you.

    With these words, I once again welcome you all on this beautiful evening in a striking city which must leave in your mind beautiful experiences and powerful bonds of relationship to be cherished throughout your life

    Thank you  

Aruneshwar Gupta

President, Hindu Heritage Pratishthan

Jaipur, 08.10.2006