“Arise, awake and do not stop until the goal is reached”-Swami Vivekananda

More than 50% citizens of India are aged below 25 and the average age of Indian population is 29 years. So we can easily say that India is still young!

In the year 1984 the government of India declared 12th January as “National Youths’ Day”. The reason? As we all know 12th January is the birthday of Swami Vivekananda, the patriotic saint of India. Can you imagine, an young man devoting his life to sannyas at the early age of 20? The man travelled the Indian sub-continent starting from the Himalayas to the Kanyakumari, just to acquire information about the sufferings of the common Indians prevailing in British India.

Swamiji was hugely influenced by the visions and philosophies of his guru Sri Ramakrishna, who taught him to follow the path of serving the mankind. Ramakrishna said that one can serve the God only by serving the humankind. Swamiji believed that a man cannot believe in God until he believes in himself! In his boyhood swami Vivekananda acquired knowledge of “Vedanta” and “Yoga”. He also obtained a deep knowledge in Sanskrit and formed a totally different perspective about spirituality. He believed, “You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.”

Swamiji worked for bringing Hinduism to the status of major world awareness. In the year 1893 he travelled to United States to represent India at the parliament of world religion. Swamiji encouraged the youths to work for the betterment of the society. He said,” Condemn none: if you can stretch out a helping hand, do so. If you cannot, fold your hands, bless your brothers, and let them go their own way.” He started working from poor people from Ramakrishna mission in Kolkata. He taught all the Indians that no one should be neglected on the basis of caste or creed or colour everyone should be looked upon in the same way. He said,” There cannot be friendship without equality!”

So according to the government of India, “It was felt that the philosophy of Swamiji and the ideas, for which he lived and worked, could be a great inspiration for the Indian youth.”

So, this year, on the National Youths’ Day let our young minds take the pledge of following the path showed by Swamiji to make India a better place to live, a place where there is less poverty and right to education for all!

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