by Wadanasaluge Ramyamala
National Youth Award ceremony organised by the Ministry of Youth
Affairs recently held at the Mahaweli Center Auditorium encourages the
young people in the country to be more constructive and creative.
Although with the highest rate of suicides among the young population in
a country like Sri Lanka the future lies in educating them on living a
life of joy and wisdom.
It’s all about life, love and law.The most praised, coveted and
glorified period in human life is youth. Ever since the birth of a
child, he is prepared for his prime time.
 Youth is known for its zeal, freshness and enthusiasm. It is the
spring of one’s lifetime. A child grows into a young person with the aim
of making it big in life. Often, he grows up believing that professional
satisfaction is the key to health, wealth, happiness and other
achievements. Getting a good job therefore becomes the driving force for
most youngsters.
With scarce resources and too many to feed, competition has become
the natural law in the world. The youth have to vie for limited seats in
educational institutions and job openings. They have to prove their
mettle at each and every step before they can finally settle in.
The result is that while a small percentage of toppers are rewarded,
the others are hopeless. When the only aim which is instilled in a
person from childhood is not achieved it often leads to frustration, low
self esteem and lack of vision. Many being to identify their quality of
life with their earnings and status. Their vision is limited to this
one-dimensional growth.
However, it is often seen that despite excelling professionally, many
people suffer in personal or social life. In other words, despite
achieving professional well-being, happiness and holistic contentment
still remain distant dreams. It happens this way because while
Intelligence Quotient is stressed upon all the time. Emotional Quotient
and Spiritual Quotient are never prepared for. A person remains largely
untrained for meeting personal challenges.
We live in an imperfect world today and there arise many situations
in which a person’s values are tested. A youth gathers from the
available sources of information around him and judges the situation.
Lack of proper direction coupled with growing distractions of a changing
lifestyle promoted by media adds more confusion to his mental tussle.In
this tussle, many youngsters find it convenient to compromise on their
values. There are still many who try to maintain basic ethical codes.
When they are faced with tougher challenges at every step without any
proper guiding force, their conscience starts to get cluttered. Either
life seems a struggle to them or they replace higher values like honesty
and compassion with superficial ones like adjustment and teamwork and
good manners.
It is well-known that the values are vital for life. However, it not
as well-known that all values are rooted in spirituality. The innate
values of the soul - peace, power, love and bliss - are the source of
all other positive values. Unless a youth is spiritual, these values
cannot be acquired or experienced.
In present times therefore, it can be said that the youth are
experiencing a spiritual crisis. They are not acquained with the right
spiritual guiding force that could help them to a fruitful and
resourceful experience, a period that they can look back with
satisfaction instead of a time of regret.
Youth of today need an experience of peace, love, care and happiness.
This can only be gained by understanding the true human being, the true
self. |
