All
life forms want a comfortable and happy life. In case of human beings it
is a sum of two things, personal happiness and better environment.
Personal happiness can be obtained by a variety of ways. One becomes
happy when one is contented or at peace with oneself. We will talk about
how to become happy and contented later on.
Environmental happiness is what I call nation building. It is the
environment which makes you feel happy to live in, work in and just be a
part of it. This environmental happiness also gives us a sense of
belonging, makes us feel proud of our surroundings and gives us a sense
of ownership. If we create a happy environment for our work and living
than we will make this country a great place to live. Each one of us
should work on improving our immediate environment so that it becomes
nice and cheerful. Then we will be genuinely proud to be a part of it.
For environmental happiness and nation building we need excellent young
people like you.
How can youth participate in nation building
(personal work)?
First accept that whatever we are today is because of the country and
society. Hence we should give something back to the society. Gratitude
is the essence of being human. I believe that the whole purpose of our
existence is to increase personal and societal infrastructure. Personal
infrastructure includes health, happiness and general well being. By
improving our personal "infrastructure" we become better human beings
and it helps in our evolution. By giving back to the society so that its
"infrastructure" increases we help in mankind�s evolution. Both these
activities when done simultaneously give us a great joy and
satisfaction.
One should keep aside half an hour per day (only 2% of the time) for
society work. It is almost 200 hours/year. This is substantial time for
society and the work can add up year after year.
For nation building you can work on anything in which you interact with
the surrounding and can help make it better. Thus work of helping needy
students, cleaning the surroundings, energy saving etc. can all be part
of your work for society.
Just trying to conserve energy in whatever way you can will be a great
way of helping society. Keep a daily log of the energy consumed and how
you can save it. Even thinking about improving your surroundings,
writing about it and telling others is society work. Follow the mantra
"act locally think nationally" and you will help in societal
improvement.
However in all these things be very active and this activity will give
you a positive frame of mind. Develop a "can do" approach. Everything is
possible with a strong will and a good aptitude. At young age the mind
is very active and hence you should be bubbling with ideas. Best ideas
are the maximum ideas. The more ideas you have the higher is the chance
of producing a great idea.
Be positive in your approach. Rise above the negative things and make
them irrelevant. This is how nature works. It evolves by branching out
and only that branch, which interacts properly with the environment,
survives and evolves. The other branch, which does not, withers away.
Thus nature never suppresses the other branch � it becomes automatically
irrelevant. This is a higher mode of development where the whole system
is upgraded and lifted up. Learn to follow nature in everything you do.
It has evolved though millions of years and hence has great design
templates to copy and emulate.
Don�t worry about the outcome. Positive things will happen if you are
honest and conscientious in your work. You are doing the society work
for your benefit namely discipline and discovery. Besides you will also
feel tremendous satisfaction in helping others. Every work you do will
help you learn new things and will help in increasing your
"infrastructure". If you have this attitude then any work you do becomes
enjoyable. Never say "what is in it for me". That is a negative
attitude.
How can you help the society (institutional
effort)?
Around 60% of our rural population live in very primitive conditions.
They have no electricity and their lives are in darkness. They use
inefficient kerosene lanterns for light and primitive and ancient
biomass cook stoves for cooking. Modern technology somehow has not
touched their lives. Besides the poor quality of end product, the
devices used by them create tremendous household pollution. Thus there
are estimates that around 1.5 million deaths per year in rural areas are
attributable to inhaling smoke from the inefficient and primitive
biomass stoves.
Without these people getting into the mainstream, environment cannot be
improved. Around 54% of India�s population is below 25 years of age and
most of them live in rural areas and are unemployed. Creation of rural
enterprises is the best way to create wealth, improve their quality of
life and bring these people into mainstream of development.
I am sure you will all go and become important people in your own
enterprises, in corporate, Government and other sectors. In whichever
sector you go use your considerable clout to help the rural population
increase their quality of life. Even if you go abroad think how you can
create conditions to improve the lives of these people. This is your
contribution to the society.
In order that you understand what rural population needs and how they
can be helped it is necessary that you spend some time in becoming
familiar with their plight. The best way to do so is to spend a year or
so with rural based NGOs. By spending time with NGOs you will achieve
two things. Firstly you will understand the problem of rural India and
secondly you will know how these NGOs work. Later on this knowledge may
help you in starting your own NGO.
You all are in the age group of 20-25 years. Spending one or two years
in rural areas will hardly be noticed by you later but the experience
will be extremely rewarding and it will attach you firmly to the roots
of the society. This time spent in rural areas is also your contribution
to the society because I am sure that young and bright students like you
will think very hard on the problems that you will encounter during your
stay. And I do hope that these experiences will stay with you the rest
of your life so that when you have the resources and a chance you will
do something about them.
Thus for some of you who will go in the corporate area think how you can
help in creating rural enterprises by creating venture funds. For some
of you who will go into R&D think about how you can develop technologies
to create better devices for rural areas and for some of you who might
go in Government service the whole range of activities will be open to
you for helping the rural population.
How to create personal Happiness?
However for an individual to work for the society it is necessary that
he should be secure and happy. And now I will discuss about happiness.
Happiness is a state of mind. You start feeling happy when you become
internally secure. Deep thought or Sanyam helps in creating
internal calmness and security. When you become honest with yourself and
try to understand yourself or the spirit you start becoming internally
secure. Deep thought, Sanyam or Yoga helps you focus on a
particular subject for a long time. This concentration helps the mind
get calm and makes it extremely powerful. A powerful mind can move
mountains.
This internal security also helps us become less greedy for materials
and resources. This is the genesis of spirituality and sustainability.
With the reduction or removal of greed the individual becomes happy. A
happy individual can then give back to society both knowledge and
resources. This is the essence of nation building.
Thus if we all work together for creating happiness in our personal
lives and for nation building then India can teach the world a new way
towards sustainable living.
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