National Youth Day: 5 reasons why Swami Vivekananda’s speech resonates

Swami Vivekananda’s name is synonymous with a globally visible and ubiquitously relatable tenet of Hindu philosophy. Even for the unversed, even today, when one has to call to action a quick but decisively impenetrable argument of what in a broad brushstroke is deemed “Hinduism”, one leans on Swamiji’s quintessential speech. With humility, he establishes elevated consciousness He uses the word “thank you/thanks” more than four times in the first four sentences of his speech and simultaneously he establishes without ambiguity that he is the most ancient order and the mother of all religions. He speaks of “tolerance”, but he accords “respect” While showing how he belongs to a country that has the honour of giving refuge in its “bosom” wholeheartedly to anyone who has suffered persecution, he reiterates how he, and his order, believe that all paths lead to the Universal One, of all persons “wending their way to the same goal”, thus according to affirmation and deference to religions and spiritual world orders that cursorily would be at odds with each other. Swami Vivekananda quotes “a wonderful” doctrine from it during the course of his speech, especially one that, yet again stresses the importance of religious tolerance and the underlying unity in all philosophical strains reiterates the inherent inclusivity that pervades his belief system and his country.