Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh) [India], April 5 (HBTV): Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday said that the state succeeded in its goal of organising the Mahakumbh in Prayagraj, which witnessed the participation of 66 crore devotees in just 45 days within a temporary city.

CM Yogi was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the two-day national seminar on the Contribution of Yogiraj Baba Gambhirnath of Indian Yoga tradition held at Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gorakhpur University.

‘I held the first meeting regarding the Mahakumbh in November 2022. It took a year to finalise everything and then to implement it on the ground. If a good team isn’t selected, the situation turns out like what happened during the Commonwealth Games in Delhi. The CWG had ended, but the stadiums were still being built,’ he said.

‘Some people started criticising the Mahakumbh. I knew that the INR 7,000 crore we were spending was the hard-earned money of the people of Uttar Pradesh. But in return, we would give Uttar Pradesh a return of INR 3 lakh crore and show the world that faith can become a cause of prosperity. We had not understood its strength,’ he added.

‘We succeeded in our goal. The Mahakumbh was magnificent and divine. The world was amazed to see the spiritual and cultural organisation of India, with 66 crore devotees in just 45 days in a temporary city,’ the Chief Minister stated.

He emphasised that the presence of 66 crore devotees in Prayagraj, who bathed in Maa Ganga and took a sip of its water, demonstrated the spiritual strength of India.

‘The power of spirituality cannot be bound by the limitations of the physical world,’ he remarked.

Highlighting the significance of India's spiritual heritage, CM Yogi said, ‘India's Upanishads are the greatest treasures not only in this physical world but also for those who want to understand the mysteries of the universe.’

‘The problem was not in the world but within us. We had distanced ourselves from the Upanishads. The result of this is visible today. The world that once ran behind us—we are now running after that world,’ he said.

He also spoke about the country’s global transformation over the past decade.

‘In the past 10 years, we have seen India change. Earlier, no one paid attention to India. But after 10 years of transformation, today, everyone wants to come to India. Everyone feels proud of India. Today, 193 countries around the world are practising Indian yoga techniques. Even an atheist country like China organises yoga events. The same China, which once did not believe in religion, is now researching Buddhist philosophy. Isn’t this India’s victory?’ CM Yogi Adityanath said.

(ANI)