Swami Vivekananda, known in his pre-monastic life as Narendra Nath Datta, was born in an affluent family in Kolkata on 12 January 1863. He spoke on many topics including women and society but his main thrust was on spiritualism.He talked about ‘complete freedom’. Some people want to be free from poverty, some people want to be free from ageing.According to him, education is the manifestation of the perfection that is already present in a man.

                                              The youth of India have great creative energy with the positive potential to take them to spiritual heights. Today’s India is at its youngest best and has the power to meet any challenge with the collective consciousness and effort of all people, especially young people. He used to say that a thousand dedicated youth can revolutionise this country. He pointed out that the youth should have the spirit of philanthropy, service and feelings for the fellow countrymen. The only qualification that he looked for in youngsters was to cultivate and nurture the ability to ‘feel’. He offered his potential ‘mantra’ and desired to take solid action so that those who wanted to go beyond just feeling could do so. The most influential P’s are: Purity, Patience and Perseverance. Our youngsters should decide what they want to do in this life. Right from our childhood, we are constantly chained by the thought of careers, or what we want to be and in that process forget some of the finer aspects that life has to offer. It is extremely important not to decide the purpose of life with the narrow objective to be something or the other. Think of doing not becoming and in this process you will certainly become something. Once the purpose of life is clear, all actions of life become driven by that purpose. This era belongs to organization and teamwork. Be it any sector from science, technology to business, teamwork constitutes a major cornerstone to attaining the desired results. Swami Vivekananda was greatly impressed by the spirit of teamwork and he thought of the need to re-vitalize this spirit of teamwork in India.

Swami Vivekananda believed that working for any social change required massive energy and spirit. Hence, he requested the youth to amplify both their mental energies and physical fitness. He wanted from the youth were ‘muscles of iron’ and ‘nerves of steel’. Today, the youth are exceptionally responsive and they just need to be encouraged in their quest for justice for common benefit. He is not only the medium, he is himself the message as well for the youth. It is indeed high time that we follow these ideals and take this youthful nation to greater heights.

Jan 12, Swami Vivekananda’s birthday, is celebrated as National Youth Day.