|
|
|
|
Features/Articles
|
Swamiji
– An Inspiration for Youth
Souvagya Kar
One hundred and forty-five years ago, on 12th January,
Swami Vivekananda was born. He has been described as ‘Yogi
of the highest spiritual level in direct communion with
Truth, who had consecrated his whole life to the moral and
spiritual uplift of his nation and humanity’, and as a
bridge between the East and the West.
A firebrand nationalist, Swamiji had a strong vision for
India. He was a social reform activist, an educationist
and above all a humanist who believed in the innate
greatness of man.
Swamiji was the earliest nationalist thinkers to claim the
Indo-Islamic past as part of the Indian heritage. After
all, the first great Indian exponent of tolerance and
liberalism in religion was Vivekananda’s Master Sri
Ramakrishna Paramahansa whose ‘Yata Mat Tata Path’ (All
beliefs are ways to God) became the final word of
religious harmony in the modern world.
English historian Arnold Joseph Toynbee mentioned that
Ramakrishna, “Practised successively almost every form of
Indian religion and philosophy and went on to practice
Islam and Christianity as well.”
On June 10, 1898, at Almora, Swamiji spoke “for our own
motherland a junction of the two great systems, Hinduism
and Islam- Vedanta brain and Islamic body- is the only
hope.” Swamiji was of the view that “without the help of
practical Islam, theories of Vedantism, however fine and
wonderful they may be, are entirely valueless to the vast
mass of mankind.”
The life and message of Swami Vivekananda are still an
infinite source of great inspiration to youth. The nation
celebrates his birth day as National Youth Day on January
12 a befitting tribute to one who personifies the fiery
youth. This year the13th National Youth Festival will be
held at Chennai, Tamilnadu. The theme is “Youth For
Progress and
Excellence”. The National Youth Festival is a mega
National Integration Camp where about 4000 youth from all
over India will participate in the five-day Festival.
Variety of cultural programmes (both competitive and
non-competitive), Youth Convention, Suvichar and
Exhibition etc. are organized to show the talent and
creative energy of youth.
Swami Vivekananda advocated a complete fusion of all
classes and castes. “I consider the great national sin is
the neglect of the masses and that is one of the causes of
our downfall. No amount of politics would be of any avail
until the masses in India are well-educated, well-fed and
well-cared for. If we want to regenerate India we must
work for them”, Swamiji’s stirring words still reverates
in our minds. In his programme of national regeneration he
attached great importance to mass education; an education
that is not religious in the conventional sense, but both
spiritual and scholarly and at the same time scientific
and cosmopolitan. The only service to our lower classes,
according to him, was to give them education “to develop
their lost individuality”. “If the poor cannot come to
education, it must reach them at the plough, in the
factory, everywhere.”
Education, education and education. Only education is the
panacea of all ills affecting the society, felt Swamiji.
“Education is not the amount of information that is put
into your brain and runs riot there, undigested all your
life. We must have life-building, man-making,
character-making, assimilation of ideas.” These words of
Swamiji have a great value in inspiring millions of people
world over.
“A nation is advanced in proportion as education and
intelligence spread among the masses. The chief cause of
India’s ruin has been the monopolizing of the whole
education and intelligence of the land among a handful of
men. If we are to rise again, we shall have to do it by
spreading education among the masses.” A socialist at
heart, Swamiji
dreamt of a resurgent India. In his opinion all the social
reform movements in the country had failed to succeed
because they were confined only to a handful of people in
the upper rungs of society and
never penetrated to the masses below. Unless the masses
could be transformed, all these reform efforts were bound
to be confined to a very narrow base. He assigned great
importance to the youth, the woman and the lower class as
catalysts in his scheme for national regeneration.
Swamiji, the towering world leader, proclaimed his eternal
message to humanity from the platform of Parliament of
Religions in Chicago. “Help and not fight,” “Assimilation
and not Destruction”, “Harmony and Peace and not
Dissension”. The Nation’s fitting homage could only be to
follow his immortal words.
|
|
|
|
|
|
