Parliament Building’s Bhoomi Pujan: Understanding Significance Of The Sankalpam By PM Modi

The recent samkalpam taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during during the bhoomipoojan ceremony of India’s new Parliament building has become a sensation on the internet.

The new building's Lok Sabha chamber will have 888 seats while there will be 384 seats in the Rajya Sabha chamber. It will be earthquake-resistant, and adaptable to the most modern digital technology. It will incorporate indigenous architecture from different parts of the country, and showcase cultural diversity.

The prime minister today laid the foundation stone for the new Parliament building, which is expected to be completed by 2022. He said that the building would signify ‘co-existence of the new and the old’ and would be a witness to ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’.

Pujaris from the Sringeri Math Karnataka did the rituals for the ‘bhoomi pujan’ at the new Parliament building site.

The samkalpam roughly translates to the prime minister as well as other office holders in the country summoning divine support for not just successful completion of the task at hand — building the parliament — but also to protect the country from parasparvidvesha, parasparninda, parasparahimsadinaam (communal, inter-personal tension, distrust and violence), and promote the spirit of parasparasaumansya (harmony and mutual understanding), chittasthairya santoshadi (peace of mind, contentment etc), and desha abhivriddhi (national prosperity).

The samkalpam also talks about the prime minister and other government officials making the yogyanirnaya (right decisions) for the well-being of the people.

'Sarva Dharma Prarthana' was also performed by leaders of different religious groups at ceremony,

The spirit of nation-building undergirds the samkalpam which talks about bringing together a diverse people together in bonds of mutual trust and respect.

While it mentions the goal of the prosperity of India as a nation, it is situated within the broad tradition of universalism and tolerance — mata bhoomi putroham prithivyah and vasudhaiv kutumbakam — which makes it truly inclusive.

The samkalpam not only extends a deference to humanity but also the ecology which sustains the humanity. The reverence to the mother earth which bears our weight, the divine that nurtures existence in a variety of forms - the Varaha, the Koorma, the Surya and the navagrahas orbiting it, the Gajanana.

The samkalpam reminds us that while the task at hand — the building of Parliament — is limited in time and space, it’s the part of a universe that is boundless and endless.

It opens up a discourse that upholds the legacy of our freedom fighters, where politics and ethics are united and the power-holders are morally accountable. It goes beyond the goal of the mechanical and textual functioning of a materially prosperous polity to build a nation that is united at a spiritual level and prosperous in values — Ram Rajya — as Gandhi called it.