Swami Vivekananda (The Master Builder of Our Nation)

[Guest guest]

EDUCATION MUST REACH THE POOR

He understood the people's problem immediately. He said: "Opening free schools in the villages was not the solution because the poor boys would rather go to help their fathers in the fields or otherwise try to make a living, than attend the school. If the mountain does not come to Mohammad, Mohammad must go to the mountain. If the poor boy cannot come to education, education must go to him. There are thousands of single-minded, self-sacrificing sanyasins in our own country, going from village to village, teaching religion. If some of them can be organized as teachers of secular things also, they will go from place to place, from door to door, not only preaching but teaching also."

 

A HUNDRED THOUSAND MEN AND WOMEN

Swamiji attached great importance to the performance of one's duty. Though difficult to define duty in an objective way he said, "Any action that makes us go upward is good action , and is our duty; any action that makes us go downward is evil and is not our duty. One universally accepted idea has been summed up in the words of our Rishis thus: "Do not injure any being; not injuring any being is virtue; injuring any being is sin". He knew that a band of sanyasins alone won't be able to carry on this immense work. He wanted that 'a hundred thousand men and women fired with the zeal of holiness, fortified with eternal faith in the Lord and nerved to lion's courage by their sympathy for the poor and the fallen and the down-trodden, will go over the length and breadth of the land, preaching the gospel of salvation, the gospel of help, the gospel of social raising up, the gospel of equality". His advice to young men was to 'be strong and manly'. Once he asked: "Is there no one amongst you who can give your life for the service of others? Let the study of Vedanta and the practice of meditation be left over to the future life. Let this body be dedicated to the service of others. If you want to find God, serve Man". This last sentence became a dictum of Swamiji.

 

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