This is the time when youth is easily provoked by the environment and by the value around us. India is doubtless the only country with so many young and educated people. As it does make one feel warm that our young are so competent of creating giant wealth in such a short period of time, it also makes one wonder if ‘making wealth’ is the only value that is driving our young today.

India is a soil of incredible challenges. And on one hand, one can notice such colossal prosperity and wealth while on the other one-third of Indians go without a second meal every day. Even as India’s scientific attainments in the groove of telecommunication, information technology and space is desirable. Still today virtually over 40 per cent of our children in the rural communities find it hard to access schooling.

Sadly, child labour is extensively spread-out in rural areas compared to urban places. Most of the children earn their bread by working in the agricultural sector, house-holds and craftwork. According to a recent survey, children under the age of 14, work as domestic help or in family ventures. There are more boys employed under-14 than girls as work in these sectors requires a lot of hard work.

Swami Vivekananda who was born on January 12 in 1863, elaborated on this by making simpler the entire quandary of existence. Swamiji made nationwide renovation with the ideals of ‘Tyaga’ and ‘Seva’ the most imperative purpose of living for the young. To the more discriminating, he made this way of life a ‘spiritual pursuit’. The transience of human attainment and the impermanence of material wealth were of critical consideration to this thinking. What he attempted to do was to show us a higher reason to live, a higher ideal to live for and a higher state to reach within the limitations and boundaries of a human existence.

Swamiji needed the mere qualification from the youth to have been this superb ability to ‘feel’. To those who wanted to go beyond just feeling and take to concrete action – he gave this potent mantra. The influence of the 3 P’s: Purity, Patience and Perseverance. These three words are the qualities that every young person desiring to do social work needs to possess.

Purity treats in contemplation and achievement. Patience to comprehend the vigorous of any community improvement activity and the verity that Society is always slow to understand and quick to label all such efforts. One also needs great perseverance to work in the complex settings of Indian society. Working with the realities of social, economic and political diversity needs enormous perseverance. Otherwise one could easily get drained and demotivated.

Vivekananda was a great observer of the human mind and the human society at large. He realized that mission any social change needed enormous energy and will. Hence he called upon the youth to not only build up their mental energies, but their physical ones as well. He wanted ‘muscles of iron’ as well as ‘nerves of steel.’ He wanted the youth to possess indomitable will and the strength to drink up the ocean. What he wanted was to prepare the youth both physically and mentally to face the challenges that would lie ahead of social workers. He was also practical enough in warning the young of the pitfalls ahead and the way Society reacts to such endeavours.

Today, the young are exceptionally result leaning and need to know the grounds for what they need to do as well as the benefits of what they do. To them Swamiji had a simple formula. He laid down in clear and simple terms the three levels of service that one can do. The first is that of the Physical – taking care of the human body and undertaking activities to ameliorate human physical suffering. Running hospitals, orphanages, old-age homes and various income generation programs would qualify for this level. The next higher level was that of Intellectual service. Running schools, colleges and awareness and empowerment programs would operate at this level. And finally for the evolved, Swamiji prescribed the highest level of Spiritual service.

The rare spiritual contents of Vivekananda’s writings have given the Indian youths of his time a distinctive character flowing in three aspects of feelings — his compassion for the oppressed humanity and vast international understanding and sympathy and burning patriotism. Thus he says, ‘weakness is the cause of suffering. We become miserable because we are weak, we lie, steal, kill, and commit other crimes because we are weak.’

The Swamiji himself was a social reformer and rather a religious, preacher, and again, he was much more a nationalist Indian — an idealist and also a true humanist and a socialist. Vivekananda’s humanism was deeply rooted in the Indian soul while his socialism was based on high idealism linked to liberal humanism. Vivekananda had deep faith and confidence in the contemporary young generation of his time and his messages are embodiments of a living dynamic spirit that inspire human being forever. (IPA Service)