MAHATMA GANDHI’S message was relevant then, is relevant now and would continue to be relevant even after the next 100 years and never be obsolete, Union Minister for Home and Cooperation Amit Shah said in Ahmedabad on Thursday.Shah was addressing a convocation ceremony of Gujarat Vidyapith (GV), the university founded by Mahatma Gandhi in 1920. He said that those who enter politics for themselves are committing a sin and suggested that guided by Gandhi’s spirit of ‘punarnirman’ or reconstruction, the (PM) Narendra Modi led- Central government is taking India forward.A total of 900 students were conferred with degrees at the ceremony that was attended by Governor of Gujarat and Chancellor of G V Acharya Devvrata and Vice Chancellor of the university, Harshad Patel, among others.Shah told the students, “Today, I want to give a message to the students…Before leaving the Vidyapith campus, you must set a goal for your life. And while setting that goal, do not carry the burden of whether it will be achieved or not. A truly great person once told me that one shouldn’t think about whether the work will get done or not; one should only think about whether the work is worth doing or not.”Shah said that the goal in life should not be for oneself, but for the country, society and poor.“If you have set a goal for society, for the nation, the burden of victory or defeat will not rest upon you. No matter how many difficulties arise in life, despair will never arise. But if you set goals only for yourself, for your family, then difficulties will bring despair, and you will stray from your path,” he said.He added, “I speak from my own example — I have faced many hardships in my life, encountered numerous difficulties, but despair never arose. And the sole reason for that was that the goal for which those difficulties came, and the goal for which the rest of my life was to be lived, was not for myself, nor for my family. Because of this, my enthusiasm to work always remained intact. Despite a million attempts to make me feel defeated, I was never discouraged, and by God’s grace, I kept fighting my way through every battle.”“In my life, I have read about many great personalities, understood the essence of their words, thoughts, and writings, and tried to translate their message in a meaningful way relevant to present times. However, after reading all this, I want to tell you one thing today — Gandhi’s message was just as relevant back then, is just as relevant today, and will remain equally relevant even after 100 years. It can never become obsolete. And the path to the welfare of not just the nation, but the entire world, is the exact same,” Shah said.Story continues below this adHe added that the Indian way of life, Indian values and the Indian knowledge tradition constitute Gandhi’s message.“There is nothing from outside in it. And that is why it is eternal, will never become irrelevant, and will never be outdated,” the Union Minister said.He highlighted that Mahatma Gandhi was the founding Chancellor of GV and that later it had Chancellors such as Sardar Patel, Rajendra Prasad and Morarji Desai who knew that the institution was not merely to be preserved, but to be carried forward.Shah said that Gandhi believed that independence will remain incomplete until our language, our culture, our labour and our purpose become national and truly our own.Story continues below this adIn this context, he talked about the National Education Policy brought under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said, “Mothertongue, skill, multidisciplinary study, Indian knowledge tradition, and the development of a holistic personality… our new education policy is built upon these very five pillars. And in a way, the very system of education that India gave to the world for centuries, our Prime Minister has brought back afresh for our youth. Without changing the core elements, we have worked to infuse global modernity into the new education policy.”Shah also asked the youths to remember ‘seven sins and 11 vows’ defined by Gandhi and lead their life accordingly. The seven sins include politics without principles, business without morality, wealth without work, knowledge without character, pleasure without conscience, science without humanity, and worship without sacrifice. Whereas, the 11 vows include non-violence, truth, non-stealing, chastity, non-hoarding, physical labour, control of palate, fearlessness, equal respect for all religions and removal of untouchability.While speaking on these, Shah also said that Gandhi had also termed religious conversion as a sin.Shah said that on the lines of Gandhi’s emphasis on empowerment of villages, the current government of PM Modi is also working in the direction of making villages stronger. He also said that Gandhi never talked about ‘Navnirman’ and always used the word ‘Punarnirman”.Story continues below this ad“…there is no major difference between ‘navnirman’ and ‘punarnirman’. And if we look at it minutely, there is a huge difference.Principles will be those which are prevailing since thousands of years, we will modernise and do the punarnirman,” Shah said.He then added, “For the past 12 years, from 2014 till 2026, the country has started on the path of punarnirman. The government of Narendra Modi has made a successful attempt to walk while making the principles of capability, prosperity, security, self reliance and morality in leadership as its base from 2014 to 2026.”