Role of Spirituality for today’s Dynamic Youth
After Baby Boomers, Generation X, we Millennials are building and progressing this world. We are going to hand over this responsibility to Generation Z soon.
With an increase in the standard of living and earnings, we have started focusing on our environment and how to become more productive, more focused, more powerful and more responsible. We are more concerned about our fellow beings, our climate, innovations and using resources carefully. We have built industries and organizations that have pulled the whole world to the next civilization and have created many jobs for the people to engage in.
With the advancement in Science, Technology, Economics, and literature, Millenials have gotten strong mentally and physically. But, it has cost us a prize. Due to rapid growth in technology and a huge demand, while doing our best, we sometimes face issues like Depression, Hypertension, Diabetes, heart attack. It’s not only Health that has gone down the hill but also moral stature.
The race to be next millionaire or the next Billionaire has forced people to take humanity and justice for granted. So, if we are to hand over this world to our successors, how can we hand over a better world? Well, the answer is Spirituality! Most people when hearing the word “Spirituality”, imagine a person wearing robes and sitting in meditation all the time. But that’s not entirely true. Spirituality is not defined by how you look but how you behave or what you do. Yes, meditation is a way to attend spirituality but it’s not the only way.
A spiritual person knows what good and bad is and accordingly takes the decision which becomes beneficial for the greater good. A businessman with a spiritual attitude always take decisions that are a win-win for him and his clients. A spiritual scientist doesn’t invent things that blow up the world in a second. A spiritual administrator commands in a way that makes his subordinates feel powerful and confident.
In India, we can find many such examples of spiritual yet practical and powerful personalities. One such person was Chanakya. Today the whole world knows who Chanakya is, he was a kingmaker. In his, each advises, each action we can see wisdom and spirituality. In his book Arthashatra he speaks of “Anvikshiki”, the quality of being curious and questioning. By this attitude, anyone can be a discoverer, inventor, philosopher. According to him a king or administrator should be spiritual since his work dealing with people who are both good and sinner. Without this attitude, they can't make the right decisions. Chanakya used to call them “Rajasrshi” — A king with attitude as a Saint.
The very first chapter of Arthashatra is named विनयाधिकारिक (VinayAdhikArik) — “Concerning Education”. At the beginning, Chanakya states that the objective of Arthashastra is to groom the Prince to righteously rule and protect his kingdom. He then talks about the 4 types of knowledge (vidyas) that should comprise a Prince’s education. These are आन्वीक्षिकी (AnvIkshikI) loosely translated as Practical Philosophy, वेदत्रयी (vedatrayI) -> the understanding of vedas to understand Dharma, वार्ता (vArtA) -> knowledge of trade and economics and दंडनीति -> political science and law.
Of the four, he places significant emphasis on Anvikshiki. Chanakya says AnvIkshikI is the lamp illuminating all knowledge and the means of all actions. It is the foundation of all dharmas.
प्रदीपः सर्वविद्यानाम् उपायः सर्वकर्मणाम् ।
आश्रयः सर्वधर्माणां शश्वद् आन्वीक्ष्हिकी मता ||
Anvikshiki, he explains has three aspects — SAnkhya (सांख्य), Yog (योग) and LokAyat (लोकायत) or Charvak (चार्वाक). Sankhya, Yog and LokAyat (Charvak) belong to different schools of philosophy in Indian knowledge systems.
So you might think why Chankya while trying to make a king (Chandragupta) was keen on teaching Philosophy?
The answer is we see Chanakya’s stress on philosophy when we refer to the Sanskrit term for Philosophy -> “Darshan” (दर्श् — to see) which literally translates as “seeing” or even better” perceiving”. Right perception and understanding of the situation is key to decision making. A clouded perception can only hinder decision making. Hence Chanakya says that learning the art of perception/thinking is one of the most important aspects of education.
Another such personality was Swami Vivekananda. He has deep knowledge of various subjects yet was fully aware of the spiritual world. He was not lazy, he was a powerhouse of will power and determinism. According to him “LAzyness is equivalent to death”. His speech can inspire any person from any part of the world. He was a strong supporter of youth, to him the youth has the power to change the course of history.
A person may be a sportsman, a Software Engineer, a Doctor, a Teacher or just a family member, being spiritual give him/her the strength to fight any difficult situations and emerge as a winner. Now there are lots of knowledge and material out there as how to be a spiritual person, but the simplest way to achieve this is to let the “Ego” vanish and connect with the deeper level with another human and society, to realize that there is one supreme consciousness that is both far and near every person.
This is to realize that the omnipresent, loving being (God) is in every particle of this universe and other universes of all other dimensions, that we all are somehow connected and our actions can influence our as well as millions of others lives.