This is a great occasion where we are all assembled here in the national youth day. When young people came together and study swami Vivekananda, they became a tremendous force for implementing this social revolution and they will become as a force for the good of the nation.
The Swamiji’s life was very short; he died at the age of 39. In his short span of life he accomplished a lot. As the chief disciple of his great master, sri Ramakrishna, he spreaded the message of the ancient spiritual wisdom of India to the world.
The human being is unique among all evolutionary species. Today’s western science also speaks of human uniqueness. Swamiji never tired of speaking of our inherent divinity. He felt that this concept must be put into practice; our relations must be rethought in terms of that divinity. Humankind, irrespective of colour, creed, sex, country or religion- is basically the spirit and divine.
That our essential nature is divine, is the teaching of the Upanishads, of the Vedanta philosophy, of the saints and seers of India. It was to represent this ancient teaching that swami Vivekananda came to the west, unafraid, he boldly asserted, ‘ye are divinities’.’ His message was that all men and women are brothers and sisters, because they are all divine; they are all carrying that flame of the infinite spirit, the atman, the soul.
Swamiji spoke not merely of the unity of the world in which we are functioning. That unity cannot be a material unity though certainly material unity is there. We say that everything is matter, everything is energy and everything is consciousness. But the supreme unity is the unity of spirit. The Upanishads declare that it is the spirit, it is atman.
Swamiji always asked the youth to have faith in themselves and to stand up on that faith. He advised them to be self-reliant and stand on their own feet. He urged them to eschew laziness and work hard.
But Swamiji also gave that youth wonderful ideas with which to face the real challenge. By the faith in our self, he did not mean merely self-confidence. It involves faith in all the three elements constituting man, the most important being his soul, which is a source of illimitable strength, knowledge and love. Once this faith arises in man, he overcomes all seeming weakness and has self-regard.
This self-regard makes man great. The weakling becomes a hero. In Sanskrit, this is called shraddha. Swami Vivekananda wanted our youth to bring back this lost shraddha to regenerate our motherland. Shraddha downed in the heart of Nachiketa and he met the lord of death, face to face to seek for truth. I am not nothing, I am something asents shraddha. It is said, “yadhrushi yadhrushi shraddha, siddhibhavati thadrushii,” as much Shraddha, so much success.
True democracy will come and a new healthy india will emerge. That is what our youth must work for and achieve today.
Swamiji had great faith in our youth. Young people properly educated, can do wonders. You will find only ideas as to how to unite people, how to make for harmony concord, hoe to make people grow and develop and manifest their fullest perfection. The whole world needs this teaching today. If today’s young people think over this and manifest their spiritual dimension even a little, hey will become a power, for the good of the whole nation.
Swami Vivekananda’s call was not ordinary. It was not the call of thinkers who have brought revolution to the political and social world. Swamiji’s call was a call to all humanity, to the east and to the west.
BY- Swami Antarananda, Assistant secretory Ramakrishna MIssion
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