In his inaugural speech, SCS hospital Managing Director Dr Jeevaraj Sorake said:”though the country has got fertile land and pure water, we have not learnt to respect it. However, there is increase in the awareness about cleanliness across the nation. We should not throw wastes in City, which would help to minimise the malaria and dengue cases,” he said and promised of active participation in Swacch Mangaluru campaign. Swami Jitakamanandaji said that students should understand their responsibility and work on removing ‘developing nation’ tag. Cleanliness is not the work of the City Corporation only. but individual participation is very important. This awareness will be created by thinking. It helps to be a good citizen who can play a role in the development of the nation, he said.

Swami Atmarupanandaji said India is glorious country with rich spiritual, intellectual, cultural, scientific heritage. Swami Vivekananda had believed that India has special place in awakening of world. The country has everything it needs, but just has to learn civil cleanliness.

Speaking on ‘Cleanliness is next to Godliness – Eastern v/s Western Perspectives’ on second day of ‘Jagruth Bharath – Awakened India’ programme at Ramakrishna Math here on Saturday, Swami said that cleanliness is a compose of physical and spiritual thing. In India cleanliness come with culture and it is based on personal purity. Most of the Indians bath at least once in a day, they clean their homes, but not their streets.

However, the ‘mother earth’ concept of India is not poetical, but true. There is reason behind naming rivers after Goddesses, he said. In Western countries the concept of cleanliness was not with culture, but it has come in recent years to avoid transmission of diseases. They keep everything clean to avoid to diseasing germs, the seer said.

Indian Green Service Project Director Sri C Srinivasan Vellore, SVYM Mysore Founder Dr R Balasubramaniam, resource person Sri Vijay Nath Bhat shared their thoughts in the succeeding sessions. Mangaluru University NSS Officer Vinitha Rai was also present.