Using BJP's popular catch-phrase "Acche din aaye hai" (good days have arrived), Bhagwat said the opportunities must not be squandered.
He said it was a coincidence that the calendar of August 1947 and May 2014 were identical.
"Unfortunately, we wasted the opportunities of nation-building post-Independence," he said.
The RSS, which is a disciplined organisation, only followed the diktat of the Election Commission in asking the electorate to exercise the franchise in the elections, Bhagwat claimed.
The RSS supremo said there was a need to create "conducive environment" for helping the new government to work in a right way. The government must function in a transparent manner, he said.
Spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who attended the function as a guest, criticised in his speech the ruckus in Parliament and state legislatures, which he blamed on lack of discipline and affection for each other and the love for the country.
He also denounced drug abuse, saying that the countrymen were following the bad legacy of the British.