We love to talk of Swami Vivekananda as a youth icon. And I am asserting that were he to be here today, it is the youth that would resist him the most. When he returned from the United States, a huge procession greeted him, right at the port. But when he asked for just a hundred people who could be his soldiers, he was denied. Nobody wants to accept a Swami Vivekananda. He was resisted then, he would be resisted even today.
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Questioner: Sir, what do you think is a major difference in youth engagement from Swami Vivekananda's time to today? Is it easier now, or is it more difficult, or are the challenges the same? I would request you to please throw some light on this.
Acharya Prashant: You see, the youth is always in a peculiar condition. And the peculiar condition is that the body, in a short span of time; let’s say, six to seven years, attains almost a sudden maturity. If you consider the lifespan of a human being to be seventy-five to eighty years on an average, six or seven years is almost sudden, and you are a very changed biological being at eighteen compared to what you were at twelve. Right? It just happens, and you have attained biological maturity, which means you can do a lot of things that adults can. Also, you have energy comparable to other, more grown-up adults; let’s say, those who are thirty to thirty-five years old.
And all that has just happened when you were passing through your formal schooling and college or university education. Suddenly, you find yourself a grown-up adult. Now, life has not yet given you too many years to gather experience from, but it has given you the energy to shake things up, the power to procreate, and the responsibility to build systems, engage with systems, earn for yourself, all these things suddenly come to you.
