When Swami Vivekananda called the youth…
Swami Vivekananda travelled across the country. He invited the youth to sacrifice and work for uplifting the poor, as it was their duty to society: “who cares whether there is a heaven or a hell, who cares if there a soul or not, who cares if there is an unchangeable or not? Here is the world, and it is full of misery. Go out into it as Buddha did, and struggle to lessen it or die in the attempt. Forget yourselves; this is the first lesson to be learnt, whether you are a theist or an atheist, whether you are an agnostic or a Vedantist, a Christian or a Mohammaden.” Of course, sacrificing one's personal desires and aspirations and going out and serving the poor is not easy. There would be many who would oppose and ridicule. In a letter to one of his disciples, Vivekananda writes that passing through this test is important. It is the school that steels us and makes us strong: “I have been ridiculed, distrusted, and have suffered for my sympathy for the very men who scoff and