Youth Empowerment

 

Dream, Believe, Achieve – The Spirit of Youth Empowerment

            The ignited mind of the youth is the most powerful resource on the earth. The youth power, if properly directed and controlled, could bring about transformation in humans for its progress.

 

Friends, let me share with you a beautiful experience when I visited Greece in April 2007. I was negotiating and climbing towards Acropolis mountains top in Athens and came across a group of 150 Greek students. They threw a spontaneous smile on me, the teachers came forward and introduced the students. They said they were very happy to see the Indian president and that the children would like to hear a few words from him.

 

My mind at that time was thinking about the great personalities the land of Greece had given to the world: Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. The words of Plato were ringing in my mind when I was young students. Plato said 2400 years ago that Our aim in founding the State is not the disproportionate happiness of any one class, but the greatest happiness of the whole.

 

Similarly, around the same period Tamil poet Saint Thiruvalluvar said, that “the important elements that constitute a nation are freedom from diseases; high earning capacity; high productivity; harmonious living and strong defence”. We have to find hoe we can provide all these elements to the citizens of every nation on an equitable basis for happiness for all.

 

With these thoughts, I made up my mind, of what to say to the students and the youth of the Greece. I slowly repeated line by line, a hymn which I normally hear in Indian spiritual centres.

 

Righteousness:

            Where there is righteousness in the heart, there is beauty in the character.

            When there is beauty in the character, there is harmony in the home.

            When there is harmony in the home, there is an order in the nation.

            When there is order in the nation, there is peace in the world.

 

When the students and the youth repeated with me, the tourists around at the Acropolis also repeated and there was all-around ovation. Then I realized how people from multiple nations, young and experienced were influenced by the thought of righteousness in the heart generates beauty in the character in the human beings and beauty in the character leads to harmony in the home. Harmony in the home in an integrated way generates order in the nation.

Of course the order in the nation finally helps peace blossom in the world. The righteousness in the heart is the starting point for great individual, great family and great nation and ultimately a great planet earth.

 

Now the question is: How do we inculcate the righteousness in the heart. In my opinion, there are three sources which can build a youth with righteousness in the heart.

            One is the mother, second is the father, and the third and the most important is the teacher, particularly primary school teacher. Also to provide righteousness in the heart to the young minds, we should have an environment of great education and a spiritual of live and spiritual environment.

 

Power Within:

            I would like to put forth to the Youth that the ignited minds of the youth are the most powerful resource on the earth, above the earth and under the earth. I am unconvinced that the youth power, if directed and controlled, could bring about formation in humanity for its progress, meeting its challenges and bring peace and prosperity.

 

Let us now consider two major problems the world faces: one is, out of 6.6 billion people, two thirds of the population live below poverty line, 50% of the population do not have access to safe drinking water, above all many do not have access to quality education. What can the youth of the world contribute to face the situation? Can every one of the educated spread literacy at least to five in their life? Can the youth spread the message of water conservation? Can the youth come with “out of box solutions” for solving water scarcity?.

 

I have started in my country, what is called Lean India 2020 movement. It is indeed a youth movement, with the mission for young students based on the 10-point oath which I have specially designed.

 

The ten-point oath given to the youth of my country conveys that the youth can make difference to the society where they are living in the areas of literacy, environment, social justice, minimizing rural urban divide, and work for the national development, while working hard for an individual goal. I see the youth has multiple dimensions:

            The youth working hard improving his knowledge with a career goal, can serve the family, can serve the society, can serve the nation to which he or she belongs and can serve the humanity as a whole.

Dear friends, I would like to share with you five unique events that have inspired millions of lives.

 

Make a Difference:   

            While talking about good deed, I am reminded of the advice given to Mahatma Gandhi by his mother. She says, “Son, in your entire life time, if you can save or better someone’s life, your birth as a human being and your life is a success. You have the blessing of the Almighty God”.

            This advice has made a deep impact in the mind of Gandhi, which made him work for the humanity throughout his life.

 

 

Beyond Self:

      During the year 2003, when I was visiting one of the Indian states, Arunachal Pradesh, I visited a Buddhist monastery at Tawang which is at 3500m. altitude. I was in the monastery nearly for a day. I observed a unique situation in all the nearby villages, where the young as well as the experienced radiating happiness in spite of severe winter environment. Then, I visited the 400-year old Tawang monastery and there I saw monks of all age groups in a state of serenity.

 

I was asking myself what is the unique feature of Tawang and surrounding villages which makes people and monks to be at peace with themselves. When the time came, I asked the Chief Monk, I am experiencing peace and happiness being radiated by everyone. There was a pause, the chief monk smiled. He said, “You are the President of India. You will know all about us and whole the nation”. Again, I said, “it is very important for me, please give me your thoughtful analysis”.

 

There was a beautiful golden image of Lord Buddha radiating smile and peace. The Chief Monk assembled nearly 100 young and experienced monks. The Chief Monk and myself were sitting amidst them. The Chief Monk gave a short discourse, which I would like to share with you. He said, “In the present world, we have a problem of distrust, unhappiness transforming into violence. This monastery spreads this message:

                        When you remove ‘I’ and ‘Me’ from your mind, you will eliminate ego; if you get rid of ego, hatred towards fellow human beings will vanish; if the hatred goes out of our mind, the violence in thinking and action will disappear; if violence in our mind is taken away, peace springs in human minds. Then peace and peace and peace alone will blossom in the society.

 

I realized the meaning of the beautiful equation for peaceful life, but the difficult mission for the individual is how to remove the ethos of ‘I’ and ‘Me’. For this, we need the education inculcated in the young age as propagated by ancient philosophers.

 

Letting Go:

          In my search for evolving a peaceful and prosperous society, I got a part answer. My search for real truth continues. I visited an ancient Christian monastery in Bulgaria, where I had a discussion with highly experienced monks on the message of Tawang. The Monk added that forgiveness is also the foundation of good life.

 

 

The Gift of Joy:

          Similarly, I had a memorable experience in the birth place of Swami Vivekananda. There I met a young monk of India who could keep the audience spell-bound in eastern and western society with his inspirational messages of spirituality and practical life. I explained the Tawang experience to the disciples and they too felt the Tawang experience indeed was beautiful and they added “Trait of Giving” will add to peace and happiness.

 

 

Kindness Returns:

          When I visited Ajmeer Sharif where I participated in the Friday Namaz, the sufi expert told me that Almighty’s creation, the man, has been challenged with another powerful creation of Shaitan. Only good deeds lead to good thinking, good thinking results in actions radiating love as commanded by Almighty.

 

The message from all these and other spiritual thinkers is that there are many ideas and spiritual thoughts which transcend religions, geographies and time. If only we could bridge the spirituality among religions and nations, many of the problems like the gaps between the haves and have-nots, deprivation causing unrest leading to extremism, the remnants of pat animosities and war and several other road blocks to peace and prosperity can be tackled. I am sure the global youth will be able to work on this theme for a safe world that they dream.

 

 

Stronger Together:

          Friends, I would like to share with you an inspirational experience, which I came across sometime back. At a Special Olympics, nine contestants, all physically or mentally disabled, assembled at the starting line for the 100 mtr race. At the starting signal, they all started out, not exactly in a dash, but with a relish to run the race to the finish and win.

 

One of the contestants-a little boy who stumbled on the asphalt, tumbled over a couple of times, and began to cry. The other eight heard the boy cry. They slowed down and looked back. Then they all turned around and went back every one of them. One girl with Down's syndrome bent down and kissed him and said, "This will make it better” Then all nine linked their arms together and walked together and finally reached the destination. Everyone in the stadium stood, and the cheering went on for several minutes.

 

 People who were there are still telling the story Why? Because deep down we know this one thing: What matters in this life is more than winning for ourselves. What matters in this life is helping others win, even if it means slowing down and changing our course. I would say that you do not have to slow down. Rather by helping difficult areas, the feedback will make you go faster. If you pass this on, we may be able to change our hearts as well as someone else's "A candle loses nothing by lighting another Candle”.

 

Spirit of Courage:

            I was reading a book called ‘Everyday Greatness’. I would like to share one event which is an essential component of our development today. Today what we need is a leadership with compassion. Let me narrate one experience which happened in Mexico

 

A riot was raging in La Mesa Prison in Mexico. Twenty-five hundred prisoners were packed into a compound, which had been built for only six hundred. They angrily hurled broken bottles at the police who fired back with machine guns. Then came a startling sight. A tiny five foot two inch, sixty-three-year-old woman, calmly got into the crowd, with outstretched hands, in a simple gesture of peace. Ignoring the shower of bullets, she stood quietly and asked every-one to stop. Incredibly everyone did.

 

No one else in the world, but sister Antonia could have done this. Why did the people listen to her? All because of her decades of service to the prisoners by her choice. She sacrificed all her life for the sake of prisoners, lived in the midst of murderers, thieves and drug lords all of whom she called her sons. She attended their needs round the clock, procured antibiotics, distributed eye-glasses, washed bodies for the burial and counselled those with suicide tendencies. This selfless act of love and compassion generated respect among the prisoners to control themselves and urged them to do what she wanted them to do. What a great message for humanity? We have seen a leader with compassion is there for even prisoners, but we need leaders with compassion for the voiceless people of millions in the world.

 

 

Sharing Heritage: 

            I would like to recall one incident which commonly occurs in many parts of my country. I have witnessed this event when I was a young boy (10 yrs). In our house, periodically I used to see three different unique personalities meet Pakshi Lakshmana Shastrigal, who was the head priest of the famous Rameshwaram temple and a vedic scholar, Rev Father Bodal, who built the first church in Rameswaram Is-land and my father who was an Imam in the mosque.

 

All three of them used to sit and discuss the island's problems and find solutions. In addition, they built several religious connectivities with compassion. These connectivities quietly spread to others in the island like the fragrance from the flowers. This sight always comes to my mind whenever I discuss with people on Dialogue of Religions. India has had this advantage of integration of minds for thousands of years. Throughout the world, the need to have a frank dialogue among cultures, religions and civilizations is felt now more than ever before.

 

 

Creative Integration: 

          We have seen how the launching of the Sputnik by Russians or the Neil Armstrong's stepping on the moon have electrified the entire youth of the world. When an Indian Origin Astronaut along with her colleagues was returning to earth after a major space mission, the entire world was praying for their safe return. Cricket is a common wealth theme, Soccer is a European inspiration, and they represent intense competition and admiration across borders. Recently, in India, we had a unique cricket tournament called Indian Premier League (IPL). In this tournament, fifteen teams participated, each team consisting of players from different countries. First time in the world such integration of international players in every team has taken place. It had a large number of viewers. For example, on the day of the finals over 24 million viewers watched this programme. This was an example of how individuals can play the role nationally and globally. Similarly, I have seen many instances of how art and music integrate the minds of the youth.

 

Dear friends, if you ask me how my life has been enriched for the last 82 years, I have to convey to all of you one message. The message is like this. When I reached the age of 17, that is the time I had one great companion. That companion is nothing but great books. Throughout my life from the early phase till today, books enriched me. Hence, I would suggest and recommend to all of you to read the following books.