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 scorn. Well, my boy, this is the school of misery, which is also the school for great souls and prophets for the cultivation of sympathy, of patience, and, above all, of an indomitable iron will which quakes not even if the universe be pulverised at our feet.”

But if we persist, despite whatever opposition, ultimately people will see the righteousness of our cause and accept it.

“Each work has to pass through these stages – ridicule, opposition, and then acceptance. Those who think ahead of their time are sure to be misunderstood”

Vivekananda was confident that the youth of India would accept the challenge and join him in thousands for this cause of serving mankind

“I know for certain that India requires the sacrifice of her highest and best, and I sincerely hope that it will be your good fortune to be one of them.
...A few young men have jumped in the breach, have sacrificed themselves. They are a few; we want a few thousands of such as they, and they will come.”


Vivekananda's whole life was a saga of relentless effort to create awareness and mobilise the young men and women of India to sacrifice, go out among the masses, uplift them, organise them, and build a new society that would be free from all kinds of exploitation. He was confident about it.

“Believe me, from the shedding of our lifeblood will arise gigantic, heroic workers and warriors of God who will revolutionise the whole world.”