The karyakarta is not a decoration - There is a roof above the hall in which we are sitting. If someone were to ask what the purpose of this roof is, we would say it is to protect the occupants from rain and sun. We may also see a fan on the ceiling. What is the purpose of this? It is to create the movement of air when it is hot. In the same way the purpose of the light bulb is to provide light when it is dark. However, in some rich homes we see the head of a deer displayed on the wall. This was certainly the custom in years gone past. So we might wonder why it is placed there? Does it give light? Does it move the air? The answer to these questions would definitely be ‘no’. The purpose of the deer head is to decorate the house. It is there to make the room and the house look better. In sangh, do we have karyakarta to make sangh better? The answer is ‘no’. The Shakha should be improved, but there is no karyakarta to make the sangh work look better.

The late Nanarao Palkar was a person who dedicated his life to sangh. He often used to say in his lectures – ‘There is no decorative post in RSS, all are living posts’. We should always remember – I do not work to make sangh look better, I am a living karyakarta, so whatever type of responsibility I am given – whether to determine the speed of the work or the direction – I am a karyakarta to do justice to it. By keeping this in mind I shall develop myself. This what sangh expects from its karyakarta.

I am one, I shall become many - Once, while walking in Nagpur bazaar, I saw a man who was selling corn on the cob. I felt a desire to eat this, so I picked a good one to buy. What do I mean by a good one? I mean the corn on the cob with many grains on it. I bought this and returned home. I thought of the way home – this corn on the cob has around a hundred grains on it, does this mean that when it was grown the farmer planted a hundred grains together? Then I realized that this was not the case. The farmer sowed just one seed. He sweated over it – he watered it, provided compost – and after some time it had grown into corn with many seeds on its own. The seed knows that it is one and that is has to become many. We should also have this thinking. I am a sangh karyakarta – I am one, I must become many. With this in mind, how can I inspire other people to also become karyakartas, how can I make them join in this work and how can I develop them? We need to keep this in mind as we work within our area of responsibility. This is why in the Shastras we have this maxim: ‘Ekoham Bahusyam’ – I am one, I shall become many.

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Here is the story of aa Sangh Pracharak, who moulded Narendra Modi ji.

This series is taken from “Jyothi Punj” in Gujarathi written by Narendra Modi ji himself. Aakar Patel has been translating this into English and it has been appearing in bits and pieces on first post.