BHUBANESWAR: Initiative for Moral and Cultural Training Foundation, Odisha, a newly launched organisation, will organise a four-day Hindu spiritual and service fair in the city beginning December 15 to showcase the service activities of religious organisations and inculcate service motive among school students.
Apart from showing various charitable works rendered by Hindu spiritual organisations, the other themes of the fair are to educate the people about the importance of preserving forests and ecology for
sustainable environment, promoting patriotism, and respecting parents, teachers and women.
A wrong perception has been created outside India that Hindu society does nothing to help underprivileged and weak. This is contrary to the fact that Hindu spiritual organisations have been contributing significantly to the society, noted columnist and co-convenor of the Hindu Spiritual and Service Foundation (HSSF) S Gurumurthy told a media conference here.
"The objective of the proposed fair is to correct an unfair perception about a majority population of the country and build a proper image of India that tallies with the reality to enable the country, which is emerging as a global power, to play its rightful role in the world," he added.
Citing a few examples, Gurumurthy said Satya Sai Foundation provided drinking water to 700 drought affected villages. For this, they lay down 2500 km long pipe line underground and constructed more than
200 water tanks with their own funds.
The society and Hindu organisations will get a better feeling about the good works done by them and this fair will be encouraging them to do far more work in the coming time, he added.
"We want to release the Hindu phenomenon from the limitations of political definitions and make Hindu philosophy a comprehensive and non-conflicting culture and civilisation phenomenon," Gurumurthy said.
The HSSF which has been successfully organising such a fair in Chennai since 2009 will organise similar fairs in nine states including Odisha.
Working president of the the Initiative for Moral and Cultural Foundation Murli Sharma outlined the activities to be taken up during the four days of the fair to be held at Barmunda Ground.
Sharma said students of over 300 schools will participate in the fair where various completions will be held among them.