Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Chief Mohan Bhagwat on 30 August argued that knowledge alone is insufficient to bridge religious and social divides, calling on people and religious leaders worldwide to embed service, love, and respect into daily practice. He was speaking at the 'One World, One Humanity' programme in New York.

The Core Argument

Bhagwat contended that every major tradition across the world already holds the wisdom needed to foster peace and unity. The gap, he said, lies not in what people know but in what they consistently do. 'The problem is not knowledge of human beings,' he told the gathering. 'In our knowledge, traditional knowledge, all over the world, every society in its tradition has this knowledge somewhere.'

He pressed further: 'But now we have to create a situation wherein this knowledge prevails. And this knowledge rules the human behaviour. Knowledge of goodness. Knowledge of love. That we have to do.'

Why Knowledge Alone Falls Short

To illustrate the gap between knowing and doing, the RSS chief drew on a personal example — his own diabetes. He acknowledged that despite knowing he should avoid sugar, he still found reasons to consume sweets. 'I know everything,' he said. 'But still, when that comes, I say, oh, once I find it, it is all right. I find excuses. I do it.'

He argued that human beings behave similarly with moral and spiritual guidance — they recognise the right message from religious teachers but yield to habit, temptation, and the pull of material gain. 'This is a matter not of educating them, intellect twice,' Bhagwat said. 'We have to instill the practice.'

Role of Ritual and Interfaith Practice

Bhagwat pointed to religious rituals as vehicles for building habits of generosity. 'Rituals of all religions teach the practice of giving,' he said. He cited Ramakrishna Paramahamsa — the 19th-century mystic and spiritual teacher of Swami Vivekananda — who reportedly practised multiple faiths, including Islam and Christianity, and concluded that all paths lead to the same destination.

'He practiced all the religions — those of Bharatiya origin and also Islam and Christianity,' Bhagwat said, adding that Ramakrishna's finding was 'not theory. Real experience.'

He also referenced philosopher and academic R.D. Ranade, who studied mystical traditions across faiths and cultures and documented strikingly similar spiritual experiences across different paths.

The Call to Religious Leaders

Bhagwat urged religious leaders to persist in their work even when visible progress is slow, warning that abandoning the effort could allow humanity to revert to conflict. He called for a radical reshaping of personal habit — strong enough to resist what he described as the lure of material happiness, influence, and superiority.

'Habit should be changed so radically and new habit should be so strong that it should fight this deflection of the lure of material happiness,' he said.

Context and Background

The Ramakrishna movement traces its spiritual roots to Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, whose teachings shaped Swami Vivekananda's landmark 1893 address in Chicago, which introduced Vedanta and yoga to a wider Western audience. Mohan Bhagwat has led the RSS since 2009; the organisation was founded in Nagpur in 1925 and marked its centenary in 2025. His New York address comes as interfaith dialogue gains renewed urgency amid rising global polarisation.