Editorial

What is the significance of the 12th January? -- The date on which we are commencing the Website of Children’s University.

It is not an accident that free India chose to immortalise this date as Youth Day, that is the birthday of Swami Vivekananda, whose very image is that of a vibrant young man, of an unshakeable colossus of strength in which the ever-flowing youthfulness vibrates triumphantly. Swami Vivekananda is a glance of Shiva that burns with the fire of renunciation and concentration, -- that burns with love that unites the East and the West, the old and the new, and breaks narrowness of exclusivism so as to synthesise all that is of value for the fullness and manifestation of perfection that is potentially present in everyone.

Swami Vivekananda had the youthful daring to ask that question, which was central to the synthesis of science and spirituality, the theme that had just begun in the 19th Century, which has been debated in the 20th Century, and which promises to be embraced in the 21st Century because that is likely to be the centre of the issue of the new world which must be built during this century. And the youths of today have, therefore, to ask that very question once again and demand and work out the consequences of the answer to that question.

“Have you seen God?” – This was the question of Swami Vivekananda, and this question vibrated with the earnestness of a scientist who wants to build his knowledge on the anvil of “seeing” – on the anvil of experience.

And it was a great fortune of India that it had just became renascent to receive unhesitatingly the answer from a Teacher, who had covered in his being a great realisation of God of which one had read in the Veda, in the Upanishads, in the Gita, in the Tantra, in Sri Rama, in Sri Krishna. In that Teacher Sri Ramakrishna was gathered the tapasya of whole of the best of India which was to burst forth into a great and unprecedented future.

The significance of 12th January is the significance of Swami Vivekananda. It is the significance of the need for God-realisation -- the need that has to become the central to the youth of India, of the youth of the 21st Century. We can derive from the life of Swami Vivekananda the great message for the youth: “Do not remain satisfied with anything that is short of God’s realisation, and do not remain satisfied with something that is short of dynamism of God-realisation. And let us break the bonds and boundaries that cause the conflicts of religions.

Yes, the youth of today should, like Swami Vivekananda, ask earnestly the question: “Have you seen God?” But let them not remain merely with questioning. The questioning must turn into a quest, and it must demand an answer. Let the youth of today be not arrested like those who profess to inquire but refuse to inquire or like those who wait for the answers to come from others and shoot them down lest they are obliged to undertake more than Herculean labour of realising God and manifesting God in physical life. This vigorous and relentless quest should be the hallmark of the youth of today and it is into this youthfulness which children of today and tomorrow need to grow.

Children’s University is University for children, and it is at the service of all the children. And this service must begin with the salute to Swami Vivekananda, the dynamo from where springs of endless quest, and youthful vigour of realisation flow on endlessly.

It is with this salute that the Children’s University places itself in the hands of the entire field of education: on this day, the 12th January, the Youth Day, -- the birthday of Swami Vivekananda.

Mrs. Jayanti S.Ravi
Chief Executive Officer
Children's University