Teachings of Vivekananda and Ramakrishna- need to revisit for a stable nation.
Teachings of Vivekananda and Ramakrishna- need to revisit for a stable nation.
Question:-With so much at disposal to the youth of the country, the stress and chaos thus caused has made it important to revisit the teachings of Ramakrishna and Vivekananda. Comment on the relevance of the teachings of Ramakrishna Paramahansa and Swami Vivekananda to India’s youth today.
- Ramakrishna and Vivekananda were the greatest thinkers of nineteenth century who focused on reforming the socio religious scenario from reason to emotion. This led to Vivekananda founding the Ramakrishna Mission.
- Vivekananda, student of Ramakrishna basically had similar teachings as his teacher. The only difference was in the orientation of their preachings. The world is aware of Ramakrishna through the teachings of Vivekananda. Their teachings are extremely relevant to India's youth today.
- Teachings of Ramakrishna: It was mainly related to the internal development and evolving harmony with nature. According to him every religion shared the same aim, unification with god, however treading different paths.
- Teachings of Vivekananda: He was someone who merged together Ramakrishna's teachings, the vedanta and the real world problems. He laid stress on building the character through education, concern for humanity, service to the world and duty of a person in form of employee, householder etc.
- In relation with youth: Today's world has so much to offer in terms of materialistic things. There is no end to wants of an individual and the satisfaction depends on wrongful notions of happiness leading to distress in individuals. Along with all this comes violence, wars, dominance etc. The youth find themselves torn between all that is at their disposal. There is pursuit of prosperity in a competitive world.
- A disturbed urbanization with declining employment opportunities and a system that focuses on education rather than values, has all led to the degradation in youth as is clear by broken homes, increasing rate in crime etc.
- The teachings of Vivekananda are most useful in these days. Despite being well educated, the youth fails to stand up against basic injustice and indiscrimination in the country. They need to be reminded of looking inward rather than trying incessantly to change the world in one go. It is of dire importance to change oneself first.
- Vivekananda's teaching of being a level headed man, a man of good judgment is something every organization needs. Character building and patience are virtues to be absorbed from the teachings of Ramakrishna and Vivekananda.
Facts and figures:
- Ramakrishna Mission was founded by chief disciple Vivekananda on 1 May 1897.
- He introduced Hinduism at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago in 1893.
- 12 January, his birthday is celebrated as National Youth Day.
