Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat told an audience at Madison Square Garden in New York on 30 August that material abundance, however plentiful, cannot deliver permanent satisfaction — and that enduring happiness lies in recognising the deeper spiritual connection shared by all human beings.

The Central Argument

Addressing the Universal Oneness Celebration, Bhagwat said the desire for happiness is universal, but material comforts offer only a fleeting sense of fulfilment before generating fresh wants. He drew on a deliberately light-hearted local reference to make the point accessible to his New York audience.

'We have all material happiness, but this cannot satisfy us permanently,' he said. Using doughnuts as his example, Bhagwat — who noted he is diabetic — observed that even a favourite food loses its appeal once consumed in excess, only for the craving to return the following day. 'Tomorrow morning I am ready to eat 50 more. So the material happiness is transitory, cannot satisfy, and if abundance of material happiness is there, it may fail also,' he said.

The Parable of Indra and Virochan

Bhagwat anchored his philosophical argument in a story from Indian tradition involving Indra, king of the devas, and Virochan, king of the asuras. Despite possessing everything they desired, both remained dissatisfied. 'They had everything. Whatever they wished was ready for their service. But they hadn't one thing, that is satisfaction,' he said.

The two rulers turned to their respective teachers seeking a happiness that, as Bhagwat paraphrased their question, 'once we partook of it, never fades.' Their gurus directed them toward the understanding of the Atman — the inner self — as the source of permanent fulfilment.

The Atman as the Thread That Connects

Bhagwat described the Atman not merely as an individual soul but as the unifying principle that transcends differences of body, clothing, and forms of worship across traditions. 'In spite of our different bodies, different attires, different worships, everything being different, like the beads in a necklace woven through single thread, this Atman is in everybody and it connects us all,' he said.

He acknowledged that different traditions frame the persistence of the self differently — some placing it until a day of judgement, others through cycles of rebirth — but argued that across traditions there is a shared recognition that something within a person endures beyond the physical. 'But something is there inside that lives, that is permanent, that doesn't get destroyed in the tide of time,' he said.

Purpose of Human Life

Bhagwat concluded that recognising this inner connection should redirect human effort away from consumption and toward the welfare of others. 'But in them also I live. And they also live inside me. We belong to each other,' he said, adding: 'And work for their benefit. For the welfare of the world. That is the purpose of human life.'

The concepts Bhagwat invoked — the Atman and the distinction between temporary sensory pleasure and enduring self-knowledge — are central to several Indian philosophical traditions, including the Upanishads. Bhagwat has led the RSS as its sixth Sarsanghchalak since 2009. The organisation, founded in Nagpur in 1925, marked its centenary in 2025.