Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Saturday that the consecration of Lord Ram’s idol on January 22 and the beginning of India’s ‘Amrit Kaal’ are not a mere coincidence but a sign that the country will rise to prominence on the world stage in the next 25 years.

Amrit Kaal, which roughly translates to ‘golden era’, refers to the 25-year period from 75 years to 100 years of India’s independence.

About the grand event in Ayodhya next month, Shah said for several years, the country was unable to reconstruct the “holy place where Lord Ram was born and was destroyed 550 years ago”.

Over the years, Shah said, many saints performed various kinds of penances and offered prayers for this country to awaken itself and return to its “age-old, eternal culture”, but it was not happening.

“(Court) cases were made complicated and delayed. Then a government was formed under the leadership of Narendrabhai, and with the blessings and inspirations of saints, all the paths became smooth, and on January 22, Ram Lalla will sit in his house again,” he said while addressing the Shri Purani Swami Smruti Mahotsav organised by Swaminarayan Gurukul Vishwavidya Pratishthanam (SGVP) here.

“And it cannot be a coincidence that the restoration of Ram Lalla in his home and the beginning of India’s Amrit Kaal are happening together. It is not a coincidence, it is nature’s sign that India is going to be on top (on the world stage) in the 25 years of its Amrit Kaal,” he said.

The idol of Lord Ram will be installed in the Ayodhya temple at an auspicious time in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 22.

Shah said Ram Lalla will enter his house at a time when India’s yoga and Ayurveda are receiving acceptance all over the world, and the entire world is looking at them with surprise.

“The whole world is eager to understand the scientific viewpoints of our Vedas, Upanishads and philosophy, and at that very moment, Ram Lalla will enter his house. Modiji will go to Ayodhya on 22nd (January) and will perform the consecration of Ram Lalla there in the presence of saints,” he said.

He said this is “an auspicious signal” for the entire country, because not just Ayodhya, the Modi government has renovated the corridor of “Kashi Vishwanath temple which was razed by Aurangzeb”, rebuilt Mahakal Lok corridor in Ujjain, temples in Badridham, Kedardham, and Somnath, and established Shaktipeeth at Pavagadh in Gujarat, he said.

Modi’s leadership has worked “to awaken the soul of the country”, said the Union minister.

“The world today is keen to know about India’s heritage. From spirituality to Ayurveda, from social science to solar, from mathematics to metaverse, and from zero to space, today we are seeing India’s dominance everywhere in the world,” he said.

After India gained independence, people with faith in India had a feeling that the country had lost direction in its efforts to become ‘Bharat’ and was rather heading somewhere else, Shah said. “Then Modi became the prime minister and the whole world is praising India,” he said.

“This tension was in everyone's mind for years. Within politics, all of us BJP workers have been trying since 1950 to change this direction. Then a day came when the former chief minister of Gujarat became the prime minister of the country. Today the whole world is praising India," he said.

“Narendrabhai” has said that the period from 75 years to 100 years of India's independence will be Amrit Kaal. When the country will be celebrating its centenary of independence in 2047, there will not be any area where India will not be first in the world, he said. “Today the people of the country have resolved to create such an India,” Shah said.

Speaking at the event, Shah said Modi named the point where Chandrayaan landed on the Moon as the ‘Shiv Shakti’ spot. Modi helped the nation successfully fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, despite experts the world over being concerned about the country with such a huge population and “weak” public healthcare.

Between 2004-14, women did not feel safe, and youths and Army jawans were “buried deep in the sea of hopelessness”. During 2014-24, the same country is moving ahead with a stronger commitment to become the number one in the world, he said.

Shah lauded the works of the Swaminarayan sect and said that it made a deep impact on the lives of many people by helping them stay connected to ‘Sanatan Dharma’ through devotion, deaddiction, and activities to keep families together during the hard times of British rule.

“I have no hesitation in saying that if the ‘gurukuls’ of different institutions of Swaminarayan had not been working in Gujarat, the state’s campaign of universal education would have remained incomplete,” he said.

Gurukuls were established in remote tribal areas to prevent religious conversion, he said.

“Through Gurukuls, we connected our tribal children with Sanatan Dharma, also imparted the values to them, and gave them the courage to reach greater heights in their lives," he said.

SGVP Gurukul is a combination of patriotism, spirituality and modern education, he added.

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