Character: The Fruit of a Socially Oriented Will

Today, we have in our youths the manifestation of high emotional energy. This is the essential raw material of all character. But it is only the raw material. It needs processing to produce character. This rich emotional energy, disciplined and controlled by a socially oriented moral will, and directed to socially useful channels of action, is character-efficiency, according to Vivekananda. Where that emotional energy resource is less, the resulting character will be of a lower order. Where that energy is more, the resulting character will also be of a higher order. Herein lies the significance of education for human growth and fulfilment, individual and collective.

That high educational possibility is before us all today. Let our universities be the centres from which these energies will emerge and radiate throughout the nation. To play this vital role, they need to convert themselves into dynamic and dedicated centres of constructive and creative thinking. Let us, students and teachers and managements in our educational institutions, learn to sit and discuss across the table, calmly and purposefully, the problems that affect and afflict our nation as well as our education. We shall thus release a new energy into the bloodsteam and nervous system of our nation, and then witness joyfully its march, with steady steps, to all-round prosperity and progress.

EXTRACTS FROM: Eternal Values for a Changing Society Volume III – Education for Human Excellence; 14 – Education and Human Development (Pg:200-201; ed. 1995)
This was the convocation address at the Gauhati University on March 28, 1972.