Pujya Swamiji was the recipient of the prestigious ‘Surya Ratna’ lifetime achievement award conferred upon Him by His Excellency Dr. Aziz Qureshi, Governor of Uttarakhand, Padma Vibhushan Dr. R. A. Mashelkar, CSIR Bhatnagar Fellow & President, Global Research Alliance and Prof. Dr. Sanjay B. Chordiya, Founder and President of Suryadatta Group of Institutes, at Suryadatta’s Campus in Pune, Maharastra. This great honour was given to Pujya Swamiji for Excellence in Innovative Spirituality and for His exceptional service to Humanity and the Environment.
This award was conferred on the auspicious occasion of the Foundation Day “Suryadatta Annual Celebrations – SURYOTSAV” a week-long celebration of excellence in academia, athletics, and culture which commences every year in a grand event commemorating the extraordinary achievements and contributions of exceptional individuals. Nearly 5,000 eminent dignitaries and students participated in the gala awards ceremony to inaugurate the Suryostav.
Dr Chordiya said, “The motive behind felicitating such eminent personalities is to mould the mind sets of the students and offer them an opportunity to choose their own role models.” He further said, “These personalities who are to be felicitated have done a remarkable work in their fields. Students will take inspiration from them and explore the world. Even if 20% of the students in India try to imbibe values from such stalwarts, they can carve a nice niche in the world”.
Pujya Swamiji said: “The point of life is not to win medals. Of course, medals are nice, but the point of life is to be a MODEL, a model of integrity, a model of seva, a model of tenacity, a model of selflessness. These days everyone is focused on filling their shelves with more and more possessions, and while the shelves are getting fuller the SELF is getting emptier. We must work not to fill our shelves but to be true to our divine Self, to live and serve as God’s tools here on Earth.”
Other eminent personalities honoured with the Suryadatta Lifetime National Award this year included:
- Padma Vibhushan Ustad Amjad Ali Khan for excellence in the field of Indian Classical Music
- Padma Shri Bhavarlaji Jain, Founder Chairman, Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd., for excellence in global entreprenuership & corporate excellence
- Padma Bhushan Late Dr. K.B. Grant, Founder of Ruby Hall clinic, Pune, for excellence in health care, medicine & social service, Smt. Neela Satyanarayana, State Election Commissioner, for excellence in public service
- Padma Shri Anup Jalota, Renowned Bhajan Maestro, for excellence in music
- as well as a few other extraordinary personalities.
In previous years, the prestigious award has been bestowed upon: Pandit Jasraj, Sri BKS Iyengar, Shri Anna Hazare, Smt. Indu Jain and many other luminaries.
