DNA Special: Life lessons by Swami Vivekananda that are relevant even today

Slogans by the Tukde Tukde gangs in support of terrorists, slogans of 'Pakistan Zindabad' have time and again resounded in the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus in the past. However, on Thursday when Prime Minister Modi unveiled a statue of Swami Vivekananda at the JNU campus through video conferencing, students began protesting on this occasion as well. Students shouted slogans of ‘Narendra Modi Murdabad’ and held posters of ‘Go Back Modi’.

It is unfortunate that while slogans can be raised to dissect India, but when the Prime Minister unveils the statue of a great man who spreads the culture of his country all over the world, these people start opposing it.

On the other hand, there were some who also hailed the unveiling of Swami Vivekananda's statue at the JNU campus and raised slogans of ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’.

Swami Vivekananda believed that through education, the real qualities hidden inside a person could be brought out. But today, a temple of education has been encroached upon by the ‘Tukde-Tukde gang’. If only these students understood the real meaning of education, they wouldn’t have raised slogans opposing the unveiling of Swami Vivekananda’s statue.

The greatest achievement of Swami Vivekananda's life is that he made the world feel the power of India.

Around 600 years ago, a Persian scholar named Amir Khusrow praised India and wrote, "The greatest feature of India is that people from all over the world come to India for education. No person in India ever goes abroad to seek education'.

In the year 1893, the first World Religion Parliament was held in Chicago, USA. Then Swami Vivekananda made an energetic speech that surprised the whole world. At the beginning of the speech, he said, “Sisters and Brothers of America…”  After his speech, the nearly 7,000 people in the audience stood up and applauded him for his inspirational words.

After several centuries in the year 1893, the world saw the global form of India. You must have read and heard about this historic speech. A book by Rajagopal Chattopadhyaya mentions the comments of the New York Critique, a US newspaper, on page 150 of ‘Swami Vivekananda in India: A Corrective Biography’. The newspaper wrote about Swami Vivekananda that "many people made a very good speech, but no one else could do the way a Hindu monk put the subject of the World Religion Parliament before the people. He is a very big speaker. The newspaper wrote that he was printing his entire speech. But it is very difficult to make a statement of the impact his speech had on those present there. Words are falling short to tell their stunning face, their intelligence and the impact of their costumes'.

Another newspaper, The New York Herald, wrote that "there is no doubt that Swami Vivekananda was the greatest speaker in the World Religion Parliament. After listening to them, it seems so silly to send Missionaries to such a learned and intelligent country'

A scholar called Stefanie Syman mentioned the commentary of the Boston Evening Transcript, a newspaper in his book 'The Subtle Body: The Story of Yoga in America'. About Swami Vivekananda, the newspaper wrote that " 4 thousand people sitting in Columbus Hall were listening to others ' speeches for two hours only because they were waiting for Swami Vivekananda's 15-minute speech.

This was the power of Swami Vivekananda that was felt by the whole world, but today some of the youth of our own country have forgotten this power.

‘The Monk As Man’ by Mani Shankar Mukherjee mentions two important things about Swami Vivekananda.

Today, the younger generation needs innovation and new ideas. Unemployment is still the country's major problem today. The younger generation of the country can get a lot of help from some of Vivekananda's ideas.

Swami Vivekananda said, "Take risks in your life, if you win, you can lead, If you lose, you can guide".

Communal tension and caste discrimination are a huge problem in India today. If every citizen of India learns from these ideas of Swami Vivekananda, the problem can also end. Swami Vivekananda had said, "If I love myself despite my countless defects, how can I hate someone else because of some defects."

India used to be a world guru and today India is getting discredited because of hypocritical babas. Spiritual corruption is going on in India today. The treatment of this problem was also conveyed by Swami Vivekananda long ago.

Swami Vivekananda had said, "No one can make you spiritual. Your greatest teacher is your own inner soul"

These are the views of Swami Vivekananda which are still very relevant today.