Swami Vivekananda An Inspiration to the youth

Modern youth have developed a profound interest in personality development, but they are groping in the dark to find answers to their searching questions. They are in a hurry and expect instant change in their personality.Infact; they do not understand the difference between change and development. Its impossible to change ones personality overnight. What is Personality? Personality is defined by psychologists as the sum total of a persons capacity, habits and attitudes .The sign of life is struggle for growth. A tiny seed breaks open the earth to grow into a plant, but growth alone does not add beauty to life, rather wild and abnormal growth sometimes leads to stagnation .Shaping the growth through proper training and systematic discipline is the only way to make life beautiful, which ultimately leads to full fledged personality. A well developed personality excels in every field of human activity-be it academics or research or arts or games or social dealings or financial management or even following the political pursuits. We shall place Swami Vivekanandas teachings in different settings and see how they can provide inspiration to the youth in prospects of personality development. i)True Education : Our youth does not form 100% of the population but they definitely form 100% of the future of the society -a reformer writes .To create such a youth of hope, who will bring glory to our motherland, they have to be trained in the right direction. It is high time we exposed our youth to positive methods of learning .Swami Vivekananda suggests the type of education that our youth need today.We want that education by which character is formed, strength of mind is increased, the intellect is expanded and by which one can stand on ones own feet . ii)Strength is Life, Weakness is death : To face challenges it is obvious that our youth need to equip themselves with superhuman strength .Modern educational system and book learning alone is not going to help them in solving problems .They will have to discover that strength within themselves. Let us have faith in the words of Swami Vivekananda :All power is within you; you can do anything and everything .Believe in that ,do not believe that you are weak. Stand up and express the divinity within you . India needs heroic sons and not just goody-goody bookworms. Developing practical wisdom and physical and mental strength alone can make us ever ready to face challenges and difficulties with courage and boldness. Swami Vivekananda roars What our country needs are muscles of iron and nerves of steel, gigantic will which nothing can resist, which can penetrate into the mysteries and the secrets of the universe, and will accomplish their purpose in any fashion, even if it means going down to the bottom of the ocean and meeting death face to face. iii)Strength of Character : It is popular saying that if wealth is lost nothing is lost, If health is lost something is lost ,but if character is lost everything is lost ,but if character is lost everything is lost .Greatest help to prepare oneself to face challenges in life comes from our true self-assessment and integrity of character. Swami Vivekananda was tireless in calling upon the youth to grow in one essential element called character. Neither money pays, nor name, nor fame, nor learning; it is character that can cleave through adamantine walls of difficulties . Character includes developing the virtues of faith, a key word in his scheme of man-making. iv) Development of Will-Power: Concentrating on the aspect of western-science; we have completely neglected long-cherished values .Due to lack of character energy we have converted human beings into machines. Human values such as love, compassion, peace ,happiness ,truthfulness, honesty ,sincerity, contentment , non-violence, patriotism, fearlessness, confidence, courage, self-restraint are replaced by hatred ,cruelty ,deceit, greed ,dishonesty ,lust ,anger, fear ,cowardice ,selfishness, violence, self-indulgence etc ,which has created a vacuum in the hearts of millions. Today our youth must develop tremendous will-power to resist these evils .Swami Vivekananda tells To succeed ,you must have tremendous

perseverance tremendous will .I will drink the ocean, says the persevering soul,At my will mountains will crumble up. Have that sort of energy that sort of will, work hard and you will reach the goal. v) Self-Confidence a key to Success: Here is an inspiring incident from the life of Swami Vivekananda in his own words: Once when I was in Varanasi, I was passing through a place where there was a large tank of water on one side and a high wall on the other. I was in the grounds where there were many monkeys. The monkeys of varanasi are huge brutes and are sometimes surly .They took into their heads not to allow me to pass through their streets, so they howled and shrieked and clutched at my feet as i passed .As they pressed closer, I began to run, but the faster I ran, the faster came the monkeys and they began to bite at me .It seemed impossible to escape but just then i met a stranger who called out to me, Face the brutes. I turned and faced the monkeys, and they fell back and finally fled .That is a lesson for all our life-face the terrible, face it boldly .Like the monkeys, the hardships of life fall back when we cease to flee before them. Swami Vivekananda considered faith in oneself as the first requisite for personality development .He said, The ideal of faith in ourselves is of the greatest help to us. If faith in ourselves had been more extensively taught and practiced, I am sure a very large portion of the evils and miseries that we would have vanished. Faith in ourselves will do everything. Self-confidence is the mantra for success in any field. A clear cut goal and one-pointed concentration alone helps us to manifest tremendous confidence. Swami Vivekananda saidTake up one idea, make that one idea your life; think of it ,dream of it, live on that idea .Let the brain,muscles,nerves,every part of your body be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This the way to success . Youth optimizes human possibilities. The Taittiriyopanishad, while drawing a picture of graded joys, considers a youth in the prime of life, good, learned, most expeditious, most strongly built, and most energetic. This will be one unit of human joy. Perfect youthfulness is the state of the whole humanity constantly strives to reach and retain. Youth! Arise Awake and know your strength.