Dr. Vishiesh Verma
Ravinder Nath Tagore once told a group, “If you want to know India, read Vivekananda”, He could well have said to the youth of today: “it is the time to read Vivekanand again”. May be some of his enthusiasm and vigour to bring about a transformation-in the way we relate to one another, think and act-will motivate those among us who need just that little bit of inspiration to start ticking right.
January 12, which is the birthday of Swami Vivekananda is observed as “National Youth Day” every year in our country. In fact India is a country of young people. Over 65% of India’s population is under 35 years now. Data suggests first time voters in India, between 18-23 years, comprise 14% of the electorate. That is a staggering number. The difference it could make to this election and our polity is huge. The Indian youth today are sorely in need of an icon, they can look up to. Swami Vivekananda for everyone and forever is a first choice. Brought up in the intellectual climate of late 19th century Calcutta and touched by the simplicity of Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Vivekananda focussed on social uplift-he was deeply perturbed by the terrible poverty of rural India. He had experienced hunger after the death of his father. He would roam streets of city in search of livelihood and then sleep on an empty stomach so that his family members could have the meagre food at house.
He gave clarion call to the youth to ‘Arise’ and ‘Awake’ and stop not till the goal is achieved. This cyclonic monk is widely remembered as the awakener of modern India whose burning words from ‘Colombo to Almora’ thrilled the sleeping nation, roused it to an intense awareness of its long neglected cultural and spiritual heritage and inspired the great freedom fighters: Tilak and Gokhale, Sri Aurbindo, Gandhiji, Nehru and Subash Chander etc. Swamiji was a thousand petalled lotus in the luminous and in his own summing-up he was condensed India. What made Swamiji so powerful and irresistible was his deep spiritual realisation, the indubitable knowledge of the divine within.
The impact of Vivekananda’s personality on youth has always been great. They are at once convinced that there is a man who has light, who sees things beyond darkness, who has prophetic vision, and this man is not afraid of truth but is ready to go along where the truth leads, sacrificing on the way all cherished dogmas. The youth is convinced about his utter sincerity of purpose, absolute selflessness, and catholicity of views, his scientific temper and his intellectual powers. Vivekananda’s call to youth has deep roots in his great life. It had come from the depth of his soul- this call itself is to the soul for its awakening and his call straight goes to the youth so let them listen directly from him.
Vivekananda wanted the youth to be physically strong, mentally vigorous, intellectually alert, and spiritually awakened. He wanted them to reject all that is weakening. He taught that morality and purity are the only strength and proclaimed that character is the foundation of great and good lives
Vivekananda was a man with a mission. His plan was to “Rebuild India”. He set out a work programme: want less, give more, others first, self last.
Be not nostalgic. Earn courage from the outcomes of your mistakes. Be not afraid. Every hallow is followed by a crest.
Analyse your present. In India, the essence of all our progress, be it politics, science and technology or society, is religion. And what is religion? It is the manifestation of the divinity within. The realisation of divinity is spirituality and the practical manifestation of this spirituality is religion. The aim of all our political motives, scientific and technological progress and social developments should be to attain religion, as defined by Swamiji.
Vivekananda advocated body building and exercise to help ones morale and strength.
He said, “it would be better to play football than read The Gita .. ” and the statement was a powerful metaphor for the youth . He wanted the youth of his time to evolve – fearless, strong and independent in the right sense. It was a call to action, to karma.
Vivekananda saw the world as a gymnasium where one learns to become strong and fearless. He dared to attempt to revamp all that was rotting in Indian society, and to enrich and learn from all that was noble.
He was a man with mission, and he was the first to present Vedanta thought in the simplest terms possible. Romain Rolland said of him:” his words are like great music, phrases in the style of Beethoven”.
The parliament of religions that opened in Chicago in Sept 1893 was a notable event in mankind’s long search for spiritual harmony. It emphasised the accord between “Unity in Diversity” and Diversity in Unity” of religious outlook and urged a cultural fellowship and mutual understanding between the western and eastern worlds.
Vivekananda attended the Parliament assisted by the families of American philanthropists. Harvard Professors had already written about him,” Here is a man who is more learned than all our learned professors put together”. His address started with greeting the audience as sisters and brothers of America was received with a prolonged applause and unprecedented enthusiasm, a spontaneous realisation of spiritual oneness of mankind. The tone had been set in right perspective. His discourse on Hinduism set forth basic ideas concerning the nature of the soul and man’s destiny pointing out that the goals towards which human beings we striving is the realisation of oneness or unity of existence.
“We believe not only in universal toleration” said Swami Vivekananda, “but we accept all religions true”. I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecution and the refuges of all religions and all nations of earth.
The writer is a former reader Coordinator of University of Jammu.
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