Youth Empowerment Alone Can Revive India's Past Glory

Finally It was a moment of satisfaction for me. I myself initiated a number of social projects in many different places across the country but I never did anything to village. This always was my concern. But my concerns were totally taken care on Aug 15th this time. By God's grace, a concerete activity has been initiated. Recently in July when I went to village, I met the headmaster of our Government school in our village and shared my thoughts on how improvements can be brought in in the school and thus how a change can be fueled in the village. Headmaster appreciated my thoughts and asked to put them into implementation.

I have planned "Dr. A P J Abdul Kalama Merit Scholarships" for class toppers of 5th to 10th standard just as as an encouragement to students. Apart from this, I have also planned "Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam Grama Ratna" for the best student of our village for that particular village. The program was successfully conducted. Gram Ratna was a real Gram Ratna this time. This is awarded to a student named Rudrarapu Naresh who come from a very backward family financially. He stood as district topper by scoring 576 marks out of 600 and that too by studying in a Government school. Village youth, public representatives and many villagers have gathered and participated in the independence day ceremony. At the end of the ceremony many present over there appreciated my efforts in coming down from Bangalore to participate in the ceremony and to institute the scholarships for the benefit of our village. Ofcourse this wouldnt have been possible without the support of my freinds in my village.

Many said that the highlight of the program was the following speech that I delivered after flag hoisting. It was a complete extempore. I was alloted 15 mins but it went on for 40 mins. Children have totally enjoyed it. Speech was mainly targeted inducing patriotic feelings and certain moral values among students and to give them a direction towards working foir a better village.

Honorable public representatives of our village who are striving hard towards making this village a model village, Respected head master of our school, Shri Venkat Reddy who is working very hard to create all kinds of facilities to make our school a good learning place, dear youth, students of this school, guests, all the people of our village who have gathered here to participate in this ceremony, each one of you - My whole hearted Namakars to you. Wish you a very happy independence day.

On this auspicious occasion, I would like to start my speech with few patriotic slogans. Let this whole school vibrate with these slogans and let the whole village vibrate with these slogans.

Bharata Mata ki Jai. Vande Matharam. Jai Telangana.

Now the stage has gained a momentum and is set for a good speech. Friends, Today we all have assembled here to celebrate 64th independence day. Celebrating Independence Day doesn’t mean hoisting the flag and enjoying the sweets. August 15th is just not to be considered as another public holiday. There is much more to it. August 15th is a day when all the citizens should meet up in each and every village, every town and every colony and ponder over on what were the conditions before independence, how we have achieved freedom and what was the vision of martyrs and what were the golas that we have set for our independent India in 1947 and whether we have achieved them and if not, how can we achieve them. These are the things which need to be discussed thoroughly on this auspicious day.

Dear students when did our India became Independent? On Aug 15th 1947. From whom? From British. Who ruled us prior to British? Its Mughal emperors. Who ruled prior to Mughals? Its our Indian rulers. Yes that era of Indian rulers is called Swarna Yuga. In that era, there was no violence, no corruption, no injustice, no adharma. People used to lead a happy, peaceful and a prosperous life. It was like a Rama Rajya. In such Rama Rajya, ancient India has progressed in almost all fields - education, science, health, astronomy, sports, literature etc.

It is during this period India has led the whole world as a supreme power. Not like US through its economy but through unique qualities. The major contribution of India through which India became a Jagath guru is through its spirituality. Through its spiritual values India has conquered the whole world. In the field of education, ancient India made a huge progress. Thousands of students from more than hundred different countries have studied more than eighty different degrees in Nalanda and Thakshashila Universities which then existed in today’s Bihar. It’s through these Universities, Univeristies were named as “Universe”ities or “Vishwa” Vidhyalayam. Because students from all over the world have studied the whole universe together, these learning places were called “Vishwavidyalayam” or “Universities”. These terms are still by the whole world even today. In the field of mathematics, it is because of India, today we are able to send satellites into space, it’s because of India today we are able to send rockets into space. It’s only though zero and pi which India invented, all the complex astronomy calculations are possible which otherwise wouldnt have been a possibility. It’s India which has presented the whole world a sweet gift called music. It’s in India, sapthaswaras have taken birth. Swapthaswaras are basis for all kinds of music that we hear today. It is Sanskrit through which majority of European Languages have taken their birth. In today’s software world, It’s Sanskrit which is being used as medium to translate one language into other. In today’s world, scientists and doctors are appreciated for small inventions in medicine but many great inventions were made thousands of years back itself all of which are documented in well known Ayurveda. In this way, by making a mark in almost all fields of human life, India has conquered the whole world. That’s why I called this era as Swarna Yuga.

But today’s India is different. Its all violence, injustice, corruption and adharma which is ruling every where. No peaceful life for people. Numerous problems like Poverty, illiteracy, unemployment etc. are haunting them. One who knows this vast difference between ancient and today’s India would definitely have one question, why such difference between today and ancient India. It’s because ancient India was built on basis of two basic concepts – Knowledge and unselfishness. Our sadhus sacrificed their entire lives to research on all the wonders of this world, the science behind it and documented their findings in form of Vedas and Upanishads. Such findings were not only documented but also were spread among common people. These findings have transformed Indian society to a knowledge society. With this knowledge, people led life with a rational approach and with highest moral and ethical values. This led India to lead the whole world.

But today it’s all selfishness and ignorance everywhere in our country. We see people committing numerous sins. I would like to illustrate this with a small story. There is a person living in a small village in Warangal district. We all know that each one of us who have come to this world have to leave this world at some point or the other. No one is permanent. Similarly this person’s time has come to leave this world and yamadutas have come to take him to yama loka. This person enters yama loka with yama dutas. In the first room that he enters he sees Chitragupta reading out sins committed by different people and different people being boiled in boiling oil. After that he enters the next room. That is a big hall. There he sees a number of wall clocks hanged to the walls. He was surprised and then he says to yama dutas, “In our bhulokha, we generally use only one wall clock. Few rich people who don’t know what do with the surplus money that they have use one clock in each room. But why do you people use so many clocks in a single hall in your yama loka? Then the Chitragupta sitting over there replies saying that clocks of all the countries are put on that wall and that’s why he finds number of clocks. Then this person gets satisfied with Chitragupta’s answer and looks into different clocks. He observes that the minutes hands in each clock are rotating with different speeds. Surprised by this, he asks Chitragupta the reason for different speeds in different clocks. Chitragupta then replies saying that the speeds in different clocks represent the sins being committed in the respective countries. This raised the curiosity in this person to see India’s clock. He then repeatedly requests Chitragupta to show the Indian clock. Chitragupta listens to his request and says that India’s clock is kept in Yama Dharma Raja’s personal room but he would take him to that room since this person has made repeated requests. Chitragupta takes this person to Yama Dharma Raja’s room. As soon as they entered Yama’s room, they felt as if the room is air conditioned. Yama was happily sleeping on his bed and beside his bed, there is a big clock that is seen. And the minutes hand is rotating with such a speed that Yama is using this clock as a fan. Then Chitragupta says to this person that this is the magnitude of the sins being committed in India. So, friends this is how the ground situation looks like In India. One may have doubt why such a great India has become like that. It’s because Indians are put far away from science for centuries by our invaders. It’s because our invaders have destroyed our culture, our traditions and our values during centuries of their rule. During this time, people have lost rationality in their thinking. People lost moral values. People have started practicing superstitions. People have not only become ignorant but also selfish.

Having known the glory of our ancient india, wouldn’t you want to revive the past glory. A loud yes from the audience. Good. Great. Wonderful. This is definitely possible but there is only one means to achieve and that is by empowering the youth and children. Today more than 60% of our Indian population is below 30. And this generation is the future of this country. And therefore I say that It’s only through the empowerment of youth and children, this nation can be empowered. Developing patriotic feelings among youth and children and by inculcating highest moral values and by giving a good education to them can change the fate of this nation. In this process, the role of teacher becomes very important. Teacher is like a good sculptor. Like a sculpture who gives a life to a dead rock by his patience and creativity, a teacher can convert a normal child into a good citizen, a noble person and a great leader through his teacher and through his inspiration. Therefore I say that the role of teachers in reviving the past glory is immense and immeasurable.
At the same time, change is essential in the way learning process is carried out in schools. Instead of taking children to state legislative assemblies, they should be taken to gram panchayats. They should be explained how government functions in a small village. Children I want to ask you if you have ever visited our gram panchayats, if you learnt about the duties of a sarpanch, of panchayat members and if you know if these public representatives are actually performing their duties. If you donot know these how can you grow as good citizens, how can you question your sarpanch. Have you ever visited the Government hospital and found how different equipments function and how doctors use them. Have you ever visited the nearby railway station and have you ever thought why the steel railings don’t move when the trains moves on them? Have you ever gone to fields with your teachers and found why certain crops are not grown in our villages? Learning needs to be made local and practical. That develops curiosity among students and make them ask questions. Questions make the teachers also very enthusiastic to continuously upgrade their knowledge with new concepts and give their best to students.

I want to quote an incident from Kalam’s life at this juncture. As we all know Kalam comes from rameshwar of Tamil nadu. Shri Sivasubramania Iyer was his teacher and he used to teach science in Kalam’s school. He was one of the very good teachers in that school. All the students used to love to attend his class and hear him. One day he was teaching about bird's flight. He drew a diagram of a bird on the blackboard depicting the wings, tail and the body structure with the head. He explained how the birds create the lift and fly. He also explained how they change direction while flying. Nearly for 25 minutes he gave the lecture with various information such as lift, drag, how the birds fly in a formation of 10, 20 or 30. At the end of the class, he wanted to know whether we understood how the birds fly. Kalam said, “I did not understand how the birds fly.” When Kalam said this, the teacher asked the other students whether they understood or not. Many students said that they also did not understand. He did not get upset by our response since he was a committed teacher.

Iyer said that he would take all the students to the sea shore. That evening the whole class was at the sea shore of Rameswaram. They enjoyed the roaring sea waves knocking at the sandy hills in the pleasant evening. Birds were flying with sweet chirping voice. He showed the sea birds in formations of 10 to 20 numbers. We saw the marvelous formations of birds with a purpose and they were all amazed. He showed us the birds and asked us to see that when the birds fly, what they looked like. We saw the wings flapping. He asked students to look at the tail portion with the combination of flapping wings and twisting tail. Students noticed closely and found that the birds in that condition flew in the direction they desired. Then he asked students a question, where the engine is and how it is powered. Bird is powered by its own life and the motivation of what it wants. All these things were explained to students within Fifteen minutes. Students understood the whole bird dynamics from this practical example. How nice it was? The teacher was a great teacher; he could give them a theoretical lesson coupled with a live practical example available in nature. This is real teaching. For Kalam, it was not merely an understanding of how a bird flies. The bird's flight entered into kalam and created a special feeling. From that evening, he thought that his future study has to be with reference to flight and flight systems. That one incident has not changed the fate of Kalam but also the fate of this country. Kalam has not only studied rocket science but also became the president of India. Not just a president of India but also the best president of India. For that matter even Vivekananda has become a maha yogi because of Sri Rama Krishna Pramhamsa. Its only because of the teachings of Sri Rama Krishna, Vivekananda has become a maha Yogi. The whole world got benefited from it. From this we understand that practical learning is essential for a better and quick learning and that a teacher has the power to change the fate of the nation.
So, friends as I said the empowerment of children of youth and children of this nation alone can revive our past glory. If this is done, we won’t be very far from our dream of becoming a supreme power, a supreme power not by the state of our economy but by the state of our values. A supreme power which commands respects from the whole world and not a supreme power which creates fear among people. I am sure we all will see this in the near future. Yes, definitely during our life time.

Dear children I have thought of five principles which I want you to take as pledge and follow in your daily lives. Simple points like these can bring a great change.

1. I will pursue my education with full dedication and hard work and will excel in it.
2. I will constantly endeavor to remove the pain of my suffering brethren.
3. I will plant at least 5 saplings and shall ensure their growth through constant care.
4. I will lead an honest life free from all corruption and will set an example for others to adopt a righteous way of life.
5. I shall always keep myself, my home, my surroundings, neighbourhood and environment clean and tidy.

Children, You are the future citizens of this nation and therefore your future is the nation’s future. I hope you all do well in your lives and make India proud. I wish you all the best.

param vaibhavamne tume tat swaraashtram
samrthaa bhavatwaashishaa tebhrusham

May our victorious organised power of action, by Thy Grace, be wholly capable of protecting our dharma and leading this nation of ours to the highest pinnacle of glory.

Jai Hind
Jai Telangana