Ayam nijah paro veti ganana laghuchetasam, udaracharitanam tu vasudhaiva kutumbakam. “This is mine, that is theirs” is the reckoning of the narrow-minded. “For those of noble character, the entire world is one family.” The verse is from the Maha Upanishad.
India took Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, rendered “One Earth-One Family-One Future,” as the theme of its G20 presidency, from December 2022 to November 2023.
K. Kasturirangan, a former chairman of ISRO, died on April 25, 2025. The chairman of ISRO, V. Narayanan, said that Kasturirangan “was like a family to the 20,000-odd ISRO employees.”
Hum Saath-Saath Hain, We Are Together, was written and directed by Sooraj Barjatya and released in November 1999. In Wikipedia’s words: “The story centers on a joint family and its values and togetherness, who grow apart after a misunderstanding.”
Saathi haath badhana. Friend, lend a hand. The song comes from the film Naya Daur (1957). Sahir Ludhianvi wrote it, O.P. Nayyar composed it, and Mohammed Rafi and Asha Bhosle sang it.
In the Hitopadesha, a flock of pigeons is caught in a hunter’s net. The flock first abuses the pigeon whose advice led them into it. Then their king, Speckle-neck, tells them to act “at one moment and with one will, rising under the net, let us fly off with it.”
“Having pondered this advice, the Pigeons adopted it; and flew away with the net.” This is Edwin Arnold’s translation.
Om saha navavatu, saha nau bhunaktu, saha viryam karavavahai. The invocation comes from the Taittiriya Upanishad. “May He protect us both together,” runs Swami Gambhirananda’s translation.
Teacher and student pray as one. A line-by-line translation by The Divine India ends: “May no obstacle arise between us.”
The langar of a gurdwara “serves meals to all free of charge, regardless of religion, caste, gender, economic status, or ethnicity,” Wikipedia notes. “People sit on the floor and eat together.” Guru Amar Das required people to “dine together irrespective of their caste and class.”
The kitchen is run by volunteers “doing seva.”
In the Indian Army, a bada khana, a big meal, is a feast at which officers and soldiers eat together. In June 2025 Defence Minister Rajnath Singh shared a bada khana with soldiers at Udhampur and called it Ekta ka Utsav, a festival of unity. “We are not just soldiers, but a family,” he said.
Writing in Swarajya, Brigadier Ashish Jindal said that “partaking the soldier food and drink is still the essence of badakhana.”
Ek akela, do se gyarah. One is alone, two make eleven. The Rekhta dictionary explains in Hindi that two people together can do much work, and that there is great gain in joining.
A shorter form is ek aur ek gyarah hote hain, one and one make eleven.
Sam gacchadhvam sam vadadhvam sam vo manamsi janatam. “Assemble, speak together: let your minds be all of one accord.” This is from the last hymn of the Rigveda, in the translation by Ralph Griffith.
The hymn continues: “One and the same be your resolve, and be your minds of one accord.”