Amit Shah at Gayatri Pariwar Centenary in Delhi: Gayatri Mantra Is Path to Complete Transformation
Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah on Sunday addressed the Shatabdi Samaroh 2026 organised by the Akhil Vishwa Gayatri Pariwar in New Delhi, marking 100 years of the birth of Param Vandaniya Mata Bhagwati Devi Sharma and the manifestation of the Akhand Jyoti, the sacred flame of the movement.
Addressing the ceremony, Shah said the occasion brings together three sacred streams completing a century: 100 years of the Akhand Jyoti, 100 years of the birth of Vandaniya Mataji, and 100 years of the sadhana of Pujya Gurudev Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya. He said the number 100 is regarded as a symbol of completeness, and this year is therefore a year of completeness for Indian culture and its spiritual journey.
Shah said Mataji herself performed austerities and lit the path for others. The flame lit a hundred years ago has today become a symbol of welfare for countless people, reaching more than 15 crore families across over 100 countries, he said. He added that the great service of Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya in taking the Gayatri Mantra to the masses has given Indian spirituality and spiritual power a new life for the next hundred years, comparable to the contribution of sages and epoch-makers to Indian culture.
At the heart of his address was the Gayatri Mantra. Shah said that, from his own experience, the mantra is not merely a religious or spiritual ritual but the path to complete transformation. By experiencing the positive energy inherent in the mantra and enabling mind, body and soul to realise it, he said, a person brings out the sattva, or essence, within to the fullest.
He explained that the 24 letters of the Gayatri Mantra are connected with 24 auspicious nodes within a person. When these powers are awakened through correct pronunciation learnt from a guru, he said, inauspicious tendencies are subdued and auspicious powers emerge. Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya had taught that chanting the mantra awakens 24 kinds of sadgranthis, whose secretions develop 24 good powers, Shah added.
Shah also recalled attending a four-day conference in Haridwar from January 20 to 23 during this centenary year, and said the two major programmes held in Delhi mark the next stage of the same journey. Union Minister Durgadas Uikey, Gayatri Pariwar Dalnayak Dr Chinmay Pandya and several other dignitaries were present at the ceremony.
The centenary celebration, organised by the Akhil Vishwa Gayatri Pariwar, honours a movement that has carried the Gayatri Mantra, Vedic education and social reform to millions of families in India and abroad over the past century.
