ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITY OF YOUTH IN BUILDING

MODERN INDIA
The most vital and memorable part of a person’s life is the “Youth Era”. Most of the great

achievements accomplished by the “Numero Uno” Indians were when they were ‘Young’ only.

Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, and Rajguru were all only 23 yrs old, when they kissed the rope to

which they were going to be hanged; Gautama Buddha, was merely 28 yrs old when he attained

enlightenment at BodhGayya; Narendranath Dutta(Swami Vivekananda), also indeed was a

youngster when he began to know the pro’s and con’s of this mortal world.

The pace of thoughts in the mind, the race between the ideas to do the assigned work in the most

legible manner, managing the ubiquitous day-to-day activities and relations, without getting

nervous or tensed, are the gifts of the Youth only. Neither children nor the aged have such a vast

amount of patience in dealing the things in a proper manner. Young people are vested with a

good amount of creativity, using which they may either turn their society, thereby their Nation

into a Heaven to dwell-in, or they may even be the cause for its downfall. Hence it is quite clear

that the people, who possess the power to change the Fate of a Nation, are none but the “Youth”

only.
Sage Valmiki said so…..

One of the greatest Indian sages, Sage Valmiki had mentioned in one of his writings,

“Raghuvamsham”, as to how Lord Rama and His ancestors were, in their young age:

“Shaishavey abhyastha vidyanam, yauvaney

vishayaishinam”

Which means, Lord Rama and his ancestors had learnt every aspect of education when they were

children, and when they became young, they understood every aspect of leading a prosperous,

respectable, and a happy life; in affection and love with the family and, in co-operation and co-

ordination with the rest of the society.

In one way, sage Valmiki gave the youngsters of the forthcoming generations, the inspirational

directions, to make their life more meaningful. So the youth should be well educated when in

childhood and they should be well-versed with the constantly changing society so that, they can

prove their worth for their Motherland.

Swami Vivekananda’s version of Youngsters….

Young Narendranath had observed for himself that the Youth of his age had a totally different

psychology altogether. Neither of them had the thoughts which Naren had in his mind. His

encounter with Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa had fanned the fire and had broughtabout a

revolutionary renovation in his life, which converted Narendranath into Swami Vivekananda

and in-turn, into a real, bold patriot who never ever feared taking India’s name with pride, even

before the Whites.

of Religions. There at the Conference, Swami Vivekananda spoke in an enchanting manner,

about the rich and varied; political, cultural and secularistic heritage of India. It was the first and

foremost time for the world that the residents of Chicago were addressed by someone as,

“Brothers and Sisters of America” and not as “Ladies and Gentlemen”, and this someone, who

made his mark in such a way, was none other than Swami Vivekananda.

Strength and weakness…

Swami Vivekananda often said, “Strength is Life, weakness in Death”. He said so because he

believed that strength is felicity, life eternal and immortal. On the other hand, weakness is

constant strain and Misery, and to be more precise, weakness is as good as Death. This was his

message to the Youth, to always possess a considerable amount of Strength in them and more

importantly, to confide in it. But it occurs with regression that most of the youth take it for

Physical strength and make themselves physically strong and don’t bother about their mental

strength, which later plays a substancial role in their failure in tackling the problems of their life.

Hitherto, the strength described by Swami Vivekananda was inclusive of both physical as well as

mental strengths because, their combination makes a person eveready, to face any sort of

problems they encounter in his/her life. Hence, his version of youth should be sound, both

physically and mentally.

behind it. He used to believe that once fear has taken its place in mind, then even a well-versed

person may be considered as sheer nobody. Fear may be of many types. It may be either the fear

of interacting with people, or fear of facing some negative situatons, or the fear of taking a

wrong step ahead in some arbitrary venture, and so on.

He further says that Fearlessness is a virtuous quality which should be possessed by every youth

because, once out of fear, a very marvelous work may be accomplished by the youth. In fact, he

himself set an outstanding example of being fearless. At the peak heights of the great Himalayas,

where even animals have themselves donned in heavy Fur, Swami Vivekananda slept on the

finger-biting Icy land, with a bare back. Generally sleeping on the ice, is an out-of-thought

idea for conventional people, but Swami Vivekananda showed his version of fearlessness by

sleeping on the icy-land, that too with a bare back. Sleeping in such a way, poses threat to life,

but swami Vivekananda had challenged this threat too and it had to retreat, because it didn’t have

any other option. Indirectly, his message to the Youth is that, when life itself can be staked to

death and be won back with a good amount of confidence, then why to fear to anything else in

this world?

So, according to him, youth should treasure the quality of Fearlessness in order to make their

mark in the society. He advises the Youth to say to themselves, the statement, “I have no fear”

and to say aloud to the rest, “Have no fear”. He said so because at least to say to themselves, the

above statements, they should lose that unnecessary point of Fear.

Swami Vivekananda emphasized that only fearless and daring Youth can change the fate of our

motherland. Once when addressing a gathering of young people, he called out to the youngsters

in the following manner:

munduku randi…gaadha nidralo munigi unna

Maatrudeshaanni melukolpudamu…”

This meant that, the youngsters who have vested with them, a considerable amount of dare and

fearlessness, may please come forward with full vigor, so that we all can let our Motherland be

awakened with a flash of enlightenment! Now this call of Swami Vivekananda made waves and

tides amongst the youngsters and they all began to learn and most importantly, understand the

lifestyle of being Fearless.

Youth should be neither Theists nor Atheists….

Swami Vivekananda often says, youth should neither be theists nor atheists. The underlying

meaning of his words is that, the youth should believe in God, but they should also believe that

the God is resident in the people and so, serving people is as good as serving God Himself. For

this, he used to say,

“God is present in every Jiva. There’s no other God besides

that. He who serves people, serves God indeed”

His words are not out of some fascination, but they are out of sheer experience. Generally, it so

happens that whenever a highly reputed person is expected to enter an adjoining city, he is

provided with a lot of support and protection, but for the conventional public, no such thing is

made for them to avail. They have to traverse from one place to the other, in personal vigil. Any

harm to the people done in such a process, leads to their frustration, which ends up in their curses

to the authorities. Curses, in a way, make life miserable to live-in.

involuntarily they give the real blessings which are essential to wipe away the previously

committed sins or sinful acts. In fact, Blessings are what we expect to be on us, for our safe and

sound continuation of life on this Earth.

It’s our turn now…..

In the past, many seers, visionaries and socialists had strived a lot for a corruption-free nation,

but now, its our turn, to convert our Motherland into a real Heaven to dwell-in. Many do have

this thought in their minds but the only question which acts as a hindrance is, “How will you do

it??” Well, the answer is, better not to waste time discussing as to what, where, when and How;

just take a step forward, and the next one follows in no time.

National Renaissance….

It’s a general yet a powerful statement in Hindi which goes like,

“Koi bhi desh perfect nahi hota, usey perfect banana

padta hain”

This means, no any nation in this world is originally perfect. The constituent people, thereby the

constituent governments have to work hand-in-hand to propel the nation towards prosperity. It

may be termed as National Renaissance. Renaissance means re-birth i.e. we have to build a new

India in such a way that the world should treat this new form of India as the birth of a new

Democratic country, which completely defines as to what exactly Democracy means.

There arises a question here, “What is the need of Youth in reforming the Nation?”
The answer is, it’s only the Youth, which has the substance to make the nation move towards

prosperity that too at a commendable pace.

The Youth is so strong and deterministic that any decision which is to be implemented for the

national progress, is implemented on a war-footing basis.

The reformation in the nation may be broughtabout by the Youth, in the following probable

ways:

Stopping the Brain-Drain….

The major drawback which is affecting the social and economical progress of our nation is the

“Brain-Drain”. Young talent, in the search of a better financial strength, is draining away into the

foreign territories which is making India sans all the assets of knowledge and wisdom. The

benefitted clan, are the hosts of the foreign land and the ones losing in a big way are the

indigenous talents, as they are not only exploited at work, but also their knowledge is all sucked

into the foreign countries’ progress. This type of atrocity committed on them should be realized

and the timely decision should be taken by them.

There’s a Sanskrit sloka which may be brought in, in this aspect.

“shakatam panchahastena, dashahastena vaajinam…

hastinam shatahastena, deshatyaagena durjanam…”

Which literally means that, a distance of 5 feet should be maintained from a dog and a distance

10 feet should be maintained from a horse, a distance of 100 feet should be maintained from an

Elephant and the Nation itself should be abandoned where there are people committing atrocities.

The above sloka plays an important role in the lives of the young people moving towards the

nations abroad. They should realize that the nations to which they have come in search of a better

livelihood, are exploiting them for their own benefit. Subsequently, they should return to their
country realizing that its their Motherland and not the foreign land, which requires their dire

presence.

Join Politics and cleanse it….

Its quite true that the Indian politics has got rotten with the wicked politicians taking advantage

of the public’s belief on them and their atrocities on the public have got worsened. Many people

can see this with their naked eyes, but there must be someone who throws a big challenge on the

faces of these cunning politicians and make them feel that their fox-plans to amass the public’s

wealth will be failed for sure. This someone, is none other than the Youth. The youth is the only

force which can put an end to these politicians’ injustice. It is so because Young people can

easily understand and feel the pains and problems of a common man. Also, they have the dare to

challenge the challenges to their lives and come-out of the treacheries successfully. It’s Of

course a backdrop that the Youth is facing the problem of “Haste”, but this problem may be

nullified by the proper and stable understanding of the situations and conditions prevalent around

them. Politics is not a simple phenomenon to facilitate every individual to join it. It’s a huge pool

of scorpion-like persons who always sting others and stay un-noticed. So in order to jump into

this pool and cleanse it, only those people are eligible who are; daring enough to challenge their

lives, wise enough to think in a much sharper manner than their counter-parts, honest enough to

reach the hearts of people, diplomatic enough to tackle every situation with calmness, and strong

enough; both physically and mentally, to save themselves from the hazards impinged upon them.

When all the above conditions are met by any One, then that person is eligible to join the

politics.
The former Leaders have always been promising many things to the public during the time of

elections, but as soon as they gain power and begin to reign a state, they forget all the promises

they made to the people and they become selfish and look for their own benefits and profits in

every prospect they undertake. They discriminate people based on caste, creed, race, religion,

region, etc; and support only those, who, they think can help them in maintaining their firm hold

on the Politics. If any person puts a petition with the leader regarding the anomalies in either in

his locality or town, he is sent back almost hopeless, as the words said by the leader to him are

just, “I’ll look into this matter soon!” and that fine day never arrives.

The badly affected ones are the woman clan. Women and their values are those, whom the

Government has to safe-guard with utmost care and responsibility, but due to the control of the

govt. given into the hands of a few power hungry politicians, these values and morals are not

being taken care of and as a result, many women are made victims of “Domestic Violence”.

So, it is imperative on the part of the young leaders that they should not favour the things which

are used as a witch’s wand by the former leaders. Instead, they should keep-up with the promises

they make to the public, treat every person equally irrespective of the Caste, creed, etc; they

should ensure that the rights and values of the women are safe-guarded by the govt. and the

problems brought to surface by them are attended-to at regular intervals, and consequently try to

prove that, we have rightly called our mother-land India as a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular,

Democratic, and Republic in the Preamble of our Constitution.

It’s a fact that till now no any youth could enter the politics independently and individually, but

we can at least expect only such Youth to enter politics, who can not only rule the public, but

also can up-keep the name of Democracy in India, which is titled, “The Largest Democratic
country in the World!”. One of the poems of the great Sri Sri may be taken as an inspiration by

the Youth so as to increase the level of their personal morals :

“bhootaanni, yagnyopavetaanni, vaiplavya geetaanni

nenu…smaristey padyam, aristey vaadyam…anala vedika

mundu asranaivedyam… lokaalu, bhavabhooti slokaalu,

parameshti jookaalu naa mahodrekaalu…naa ooha

chaampeya maala, rasaraajyadola, naa oola kedaara

goula….girulu, saagarulu, kankelikaamanjarulu, jharulu

naa sodarulu…nenoka durgam, naadoka swargam…

anargalam, anitharasaadhyam naa maargam…”

This poem reflects the type of strong emotions which the youth should have in themselves so as

to tackle every problem in their way, with utmost fearlessness.

Come…lets join hands together and make the Difference….

One individual alone cannot accomplish the task of National Renaissance. It should be achieved

with the mutual co-operation and co-ordination from the much important, “Janata Janardan”

ie; the public as they are the ones who can not only make a nation but also break a nation, and

also because of the reason that they are the only ones who make a normal person living amongst

them, to be their leader, expecting that he will lead them towards a better standard of life. So

now it becomes the prime duty of the Youth to take care of the values and morals of the public
after they come into power. As we know the saying, “Better late than never!” at least now we

should begin to reform our Indian society so that we can make the entire world take India’s name

with pride and say, “Yes! India is truly the world’s largest Democracy”.

JAI HIND