On 12 January 1963, on the occasion of Swami Vivekananda's birth centenary, the Citizens Council — set up initially to mobilise citizens' efforts during the Chinese attack of 1962 — was renamed Bharat Vikas Parishad. The timing was entirely intentional.
Vivekananda's call to "Arise, Awake" was not for individual advancement. It was a call for organised, collective service. He believed India's greatness would be restored not through political power but through the selfless work of educated, committed citizens lifting those around them.
BVP's five sutras — Sampark, Sahyog, Sanskar, Sewa, Samarpan — are a direct translation of Vivekananda's philosophy into organisational action. Every BVP programme is his teaching made concrete.
The teaching "Nara Seva is Narayan Seva" — service to human beings is service to God — is the philosophical foundation of every free physiotherapy session, every tailoring lesson, every subsidised diagnostic test that BVP Panchkula's volunteers provide.
