Guiding the Youth

 

Photo Credit: Sahaj Yoga Victoria

Guiding the Youth

The youth are more alive than us, more idealistic than us and more inspired than us. If the world was guided by the young, the world would be a better place to live. Because they are in a certain level of high-energy compared to the other part of the humanity, it is just that every little thing that they do is slightly exaggerated. If something constructive has to happen in the world, it has to be by the youth. If something destructive has to happen in the world, it too has to be by the youth.

Actually, it would be wonderful if this world were guided by little children because they’re closer to life than anybody else. After all, everything we wish to do is for human well-being. Human well-being means human happiness. If we look at our children and ourselves, our children are definitely a lot happier than we are. This being the case, children should be consultants on life and not us oldies. We are carried away by our thoughts and emotions; they’re much closer to life. If only the world learned from children rather than trying to teach children, the world would be a beautiful place.

A teacher is not the best means of transmission when it comes to pure information. A book is better, the internet is even better. Only if the teacher’s role is to inspire people to learn and to create a thirst for knowledge, only then a teacher’s role has something to give. If he’s just trying to transmit information, the other means of transmission are better than a human being because a human being can always misinterpret. Making the whole education system purely informational has caused enormous damage. The time of life when we’re youthful, when we’re capable of many things, unfortunately goes waste simply because the necessary inspiration is not there.

It’s like nurturing a plant, if we want it to bear fruit, we have to nurture it every day, we have to water it every day, and we have to take care of it every day. If this dedication is shown by adults, the youth will do miraculous things. Only because such dedication is missing in the general population, the youth seem to be disoriented - they don’t know what to do and they are doing their own things. Because everybody is working on short-term goals, the youth also work on short-term goals.

One big thing that needs to happen with the youth and with everybody is that their identification with humanity should not be limited to just themselves, it should include a larger society and a larger world around them. Unfortunately, this is missing in education. Modern education is constantly training people to only think about themselves and nothing but themselves. The whole process of science is only about how to use everything for our comfort and well-being. Initially, we use the planet, then the trees and plants, then the animals, then of course the human beings also. We exploit everybody to our benefit and comfort. This attitude has been deeply set with the process of modern education.

As we are investing our time, resources and energies in transmitting informative knowledge, we have to invest a certain amount of time, energy and resources to inspire the youth. If this happens then the world would become a truly beautiful place.