India was formed for the welfare of the world and the country must share its knowledge as a duty amid its rise in strength and prestige, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat said on Saturday.

Addressing a gathering at Gujarat University here, Bhagwat asked Indians to shed their doubts and lack of belief in the country's ancient knowledge system and instead carry out research to find out what is relevant and share it with all.

"Our nation was formed because of the penance of our forefathers, who wanted the world's welfare. That is why it is our duty (to share knowledge)," Bhagwat said after launching 1,051 volumes of the ancient Indian knowledge system and related subjects prepared by Punarutthan Vidyapeeth, an Ahmedabad-based and RSS-linked think tank.

Even as India's strength and prestige increases globally, it is required from us that we review our knowledge system as well as those existing in the world to "find new levels of knowledge and offer it to the world", he said.

Indians should first gain knowledge themselves before working to share it with the world, as a lot of people are "doubtful and carry disbelief regarding this knowledge", Bhagwat added.

There are people with genuine knowledge but there is disbelief about them on our part as "our brain has been shaped like this," the RSS 'sarsangchalak' claimed.

Exhorting Indians to share after researching, Bhagwat said, "We should first see what existed in the past, then relearn it and present a holistic form of knowledge to the world on the basis of the Indian knowledge tradition relevant to the country, time and situation." "Everyone has a right to knowledge. A human is born for knowledge. Work hard for knowledge and gain knowledge that will set you free," he asserted.

Hailing the acceptance the world had given to ancients Indian systems like Ayurveda and Yoga, Bhagwat said certain people had tried to patent some of their aspects.

"However, we would never do such a thing (patenting). Knowledge is for all. It is for all those who work hard. It is not limited by birth, caste, nation, language and region," he said.

Post the COVID-19 pandemic, the world wants a new way of looking at things, and it should be the purpose of India to offer such a way, he said.

Bhagwat said the difference between "vigyan" (science) and "gyan" (knowledge) is about the vision, and hailed the New Education Policy (NEP) for the "change of vision" it wants to bring.

Science may bring us closer to destruction but that is not the fault of science but our tendency, the RSS chief said, adding that true knowledge came from inside "where our inclination resides".

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.