Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) celebrated 147th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda as National Youth Day. The organisation took out a vehicle rally from Lord Venkateshwar Wedding Point to Araghar Chowk in Dehradun on January 12, which later culminated at DAV College. Uttarakhand Chief Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ flagged off the rally. Addressing the youth Dr Nishank said the youth must take inspiration from Swami Vivekanand who gave the message of peace, compassion and brotherhood. He said Swami Vivekananda stunned the world with his speech in Chicago where he provided a spiritual interface about India to the west.
He said India always guided the world and acted as vishvaguru. He hoped that the country would achieve the same glory once again, if the future generation of the country makes sincere efforts in this direction. People in the modern world needed to be freed from the shackles and bonds of materialism, and it was only India that could do so by the means of spiritualism.
He said the people ought not to become slave to circumstances, instead, they should change and mould the circumstances as per their will and might. “We should always be ready to accept the challenges and should overcome the difficulties we come across in our lives. Running away from the struggles of life is cowardice and one should try to emerge victorious in every battle of life,” he added.
Dr Nishank said Uttarakhand has been the birthplace of Sanskrit language and all the Vedas, Upanishads, Aranyaks, and Ayush were written in Sanskrit. The state government has given Sanskrit the status of second official language. The Navbharat Sangh also felicitated the Dr Nishank for having declared Sanskrit the second official language. It may be noted that Uttarakhand has become the first state in the country to declare Sanskrit the second official language. Rajpur MLA Ganesh Joshi, BJP leader Vinay Goyal, City BJP president Shri Puneet Mittal, president of Navbharat Sangh Shri Hari Bhandari and other dignitaries were also present on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion national executive member of ABVP Shri Aditya Chauhan said the organisation draws inspiration from Swami Vivekananda and aims to inculcate the values envisaged by him. “We celebrate Swami Vivekananda’s birth anniversary every year and this year also we decided to observe it as National Youth Day.
(FOC)
