Remembering Swami Vivekananda for inspiring millions on this National Youth Day, we certainly need a monk like him in a place filled with phony godmen. He is pertinent even today to the entire mankind and not just youth for his preaching on love, youth, hard work and tolerance. His modern outlook on religion, caste, women and nations amazes everyone.

We find that in almost every religion the three primary things which we have in the worship of God — forms or symbols, names, God-men. India is famous for many things but spiritualism in the form of godmen stands out. We have swamis who live luxurious lives to babas sitting at every nook and corner. Swami Vivekananda was intellectual sound to understand that the degradation of Hinduism is due to priests. According to him Priests act as middlemen in religion without any divine authority. He also said “Man is to become divine by realizing the divine. Idols or temples or churches or books are only the supports — the helps — of his spiritual childhood. But on and on he must progress.” With Ram mandir in manifesto of BJP, we surely are progressing.

Be it Patels in Gujarat or Kapus in Andhra Pradesh, reservation for castes have stirred our country in the recent past. In fact, Supreme Court had to give a ruling not to seek votes in the name of caste and religion. Swami Vivekananda’s message for such caste wars – “it is no use fighting among the castes. What good will it do? It will divide us all the more, weaken us all the more, degrade us all the more. In religion there is no caste; caste is simply a social institution.”

The shameful mass molestation in Bengaluru, the horrible incidents of rape almost every day in the country shows how well we are empowering our women. Recently a court allowed women to carry small knifes while travelling in Delhi metro. According to Swami Vivekananda, the best thermometer to the progress of a nation is its treatment of its women. He was of the view that the idea of perfect womanhood is perfect independence. Women are waiting for perfect independence since forever now and the day is not anywhere in sight yet.

Here is to America, which has to face an epidemic called Donald Trump soon, Swami Vivekananda appreciated America’s greatness– “I am a Hindu. I am sitting in my own little well and thinking that the whole world is my little well. The Christian sits in his little well and thinks the whole world is his well. The Mohammedan sits in his little well and thinks that is the whole world. I have to thank you of America for the great attempt you are making to break down the barriers of this little world of ours, and hope that, in the future, the Lord will help you to accomplish your purpose.”

Ironically September 11 marks two things in history of world, the famous Chicago speech by Swami Vivekananda and the terror attack on the twin towers. Swami concluded his Chicago speech by saying “Upon the banner of every religion will soon be written — in spite of resistance — ‘Help and not Fight’, ‘Assimilation and not Destruction’, ‘Harmony and Peace, and not Dissension”