January 12, 2024, marks Swami Vivekananda’s 162^nd birthday (1863-1902).  It has been more than one and a half century, and we keep returning to Swami ji’s discourses on various topics as an inspiration for humanity. He gave a powerful exposition of Sanatan Dharm for the world in general, but there were several instances when Swami ji specifically addressed the youth of Bharat.

Vivekanand is one of the very few Indian inspiring leaders who not only directly addressed the youth of the country, but also called them showing immense trust in their potential to stand up for the sake of true nationalist identity. January 12th every year is celebrated as National Youth Day in India. It becomes imperative to remember the message he gave up to the youth of Bharat and check if our youth today is moving in a direction like the one Swami ji envisaged for a progressive Bharat.

Swami ji has given several invaluable lessons to youth over his short but impactful lifetime. This article mainly captures three main points he specifically made while addressing the youth of the country. First is his message of trusting one’s unlimited potential and confidence, second is inculcating all virtues in oneself of a good human being for one’s spiritual progress, and the last one is serving humanity.

Today’s social conditions have changed from the time in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries when Bharat was filled with ignorance, poverty, and illusion. By the next decade, Bharat will be rising on the world platform boasting of her big chunk of the youth population. India’s unique demographic advantage is going to be its asset on one hand, but at the same time its pressing challenge, on the other.

Indian youth today are not only more aware of the world but also more meaningfully engaged in their own development. They are more confident, educated, independent and ambitious and are working for their goals. With the help of social media, they stay motivated to educate themselves and learn the right skills to earn a better living.

However, this does not mean that the entire youth of the country is beaming with success. Challenges are never-ending. The selfish interests of today’s youth have made them mentally confined to only their own needs and ambitions. As a common phenomenon, many of the young population is still groping in the dark, finding solace in all kinds of self-harm through drugs, mental illnesses, indulgence in corrupt means to satiate one’s immediate goals, terrorism, and other sorts of distractions. To them, Vivekananda’s message to push oneself towards a meaningful goal and coexistence still holds water. In fact, Swami ji’s message to the youth has become much more relevant than ever on a global level.

‘Thou art that’ or ‘tattva twam asi’

It has become common for today’s youth to get easily frustrated and disappointed in themselves. Vivekananda gave a practical interpretation of the basic essence of Vedanta and told the youth that they should trust their inner potential and have confidence in themselves that they are divine.  Swami ji reinterpreted Adi Shankaracharya’s high ideal of ‘thou art that’ (‘tattva twam asi’) given in a spiritual sense, but Swami ji redirected the same message to the youth telling them in a more practical sense. He encouraged youth not to give up and recognize one’s potential. He said that each person is nothing less than a divine being with the ability to accomplish much more than they can conceive.

The Vedanta teaches men to have faith in themselves first. In his words, “Darkness never existed, weakness never existed. We who are fools cry that we are weak; we who are fools cry that we are impure.”[i] Having mental strength and courage is important to achieve any goal. One should be able to put one’s whole mind into the work and do it to one’s best ability.

He assured his countrymen that everyone has infinite possibilities and the infinite capacity of all to become great. “Let us proclaim to every soul: उत्तिष्ठत जाग्रत प्राप्य वरान्निबोधत ।— Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached. Arise, awake! Awake from this hypnotism of weakness. None is really weak; the soul is infinite, omnipotent, and omniscient. Stand up, assert yourself for the greater good of the country.”[ii]

He reminded the youth that they had enough of inactivity, mental weakness, and illusions. In his own words, “O ye modern Hindus, de-hypnotise yourselves. The way to do that is found in your own sacred books. Teach yourselves, teach everyone his real nature, call upon the sleeping soul and see how it awakes. Power will come, glory will come, goodness will come, purity will come, and everything that is excellent will come when this sleeping soul is roused to self-conscious activity.”[iii]

Inculcating virtues

Another basic Vedantic ideal that Vivekananda uses as a medium for selfish people is to not forget the idea of universal oneness. One must not forget, in one’s materialistic pursuits, that there is underlying sameness and oneness of things.  We humans are born with individual differences and might belong to different races, colours, nationalities but in the end, we all are humans.

To love others and view them the same as us, first let us work on our inner divinity. We should manifest the inner divinity in ourselves in every movement in our lives. We should focus on becoming a better person and working on our inner spiritual qualities and manifesting those qualities like becoming fearless, loving others, having natural self-control on senses, unselfishness, and sacrifice for others. Doing one’s own duties with a certain level of detachment, maintaining one’s equipoise in challenging times and not deterring from the path of virtue are the true testing times of one’s journey to divinity.

Service to Humanity

Once we understand this essence of Sanatan Dharma as universal oneness, folks should be able to see the whole universe is interconnected, interrelated, and interdependent. Therefore, we must expand our sense of belonginess to others. So, each of our expanding forms is family, society, nature and humanity; being part of all that is nothing that is ‘other’. Everything is an expression of the self. With this novel way of looking at others, we will be more forthcoming to serve others as we are only serving our extension of self.

This attitude of affection for others can bring a revolution in society as one will learn to serve others, not merely our own self-interests. Whatever I do to others, is not for 'others', so it is going to come to me. Therefore, I should behave with others the way I want them to behave with me.

In brief, if the youth can keep these ideas intact- avoiding disorientedness during testing times and moving forward with inner faith in one’s self; continuously working on one’s divine qualities as doing one’s duty, maintaining one’s equipoise, and sacrificing self-identity if one can see that it will accrue higher benefit for others, and serving others to one’s best of capacity as being interconnected with the surroundings, Vivekananda’s efforts to spread Sanatan values will find its more impactful place in society.

The youth need these kinds of repeated positive exhortations to be given to them time and again. Swami ji’s in-depth and broad outlook on social issues and ways to deal with them with the change of our attitude is a priceless message for today’s youth. He picked the jewels from the ocean of ideas from Sanatan Dharma and presented it in a much simpler and comprehensible form. We must convey his message to our materialistic youth, giving them a strong spiritual foundation.