Youth and the Upanishads

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The Vedanta Kesari, p.565-569, December 2007-

The Present Scenario

Youth is a period of change. A child becomes an adult. This is the time when a person's thoughts play a major role in shaping his or her personality and life. As youth emerges from his dream world, he has to face many unpleasant facts about life. He has to encounter the hard facts of selfishness and cruelty, violence and hypocrisy, negative and narrow ideologies. He has to face all this and above all, he has to face himself.

In this context of personal growth, the youth requires much encouragement and right guidance in order to become a responsible member of society. If one looks at today's youth, one finds that they have more access to facilities and exposure than what their counterparts had a few decades back, nay a few years ago. Thanks to Internet, they are now widely (at times wildly) connected and are well informed about the events and changes in different fields of life. They have more money, more opportunities and more problems too. In spite of large income, due to the present economic boom, cases of depression, suicides and violence are on the rise. There is unrest in their heart. At times they approach the elders in search of solution to life's problems or turn to popular literature to find instant solutions. Despite many uncharitable remarks made about them, experience shows that it is the youth, not the elders, who respond to the ideal of self-improvement enthusiastically. This is quite understandable. Elders have maturity of years but they lack the flexibility or adaptability which is natural to youth

No doubt, the present situation is grim. On one side is the need to guide the youth, to provide them proper care and encouragement, and on the other, there is lack of proper communication. Like all people, the youth want their problems addressed in their language, in their idiom, in the way they can understand it. The present day media flourishes on the weaknesses of youthfulness. They paint a sensual image of life. Youth too are often taken for a ride. They begin to ridicule their own heritage and their own 'river of perennial wisdom.' It is high time we understand the youth and then make them understand the eternal message of the Upanishads. Youth are hungry for guidance and inspiration. They are interested in the timeless wisdom of Upanishad if presented in their language.

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About the author

Swami Shri Bodhamayananda

The author is a monk of the Ramakrishna Order, at Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, T. Nagar, Chennai. He has been actively engaged in conducting workshops, lectures and seminars on Personality Development for the youth