The Citizen-yogi is the need of the hour

A good citizen has spiritually expanded; he or she can feel the suffering of fellow countrymen; and it finds expression in the feeling, ‘I have to go and help them.’ 


We have to create more such yogis in our society, not yogis who have renounced actions and live in the Himalayas; a minority of such ascetics is an asset, but a majority of such in any society will lead to decay. Citizenship itself is a type of yoga. 


The citizen-yogi is  more important today. We need millions of citizen-yogis.

(pg-144; Excerpts from “My Life is my Work”)

Citizenship is both freedom and responsibility

Citizenship in a democracy involves, as I said earlier, not only freedom but also responsibility. This sense of social responsibility releases the energies of the citizen for the service of his fellow-citizens, ensuring thereby the all-around development of society and its unity and integrity. If “We, the People of India”, have given ourselves a free constitution, as the preamble to our constitution proclaims, it is again we, the people of India, on whom lies the responsibility to ensure the dignity of the individual and the unity of the nation through hard work and mutual co-operation. In this sphere of practical politics, success depends upon the whole nation living down much of its own obsolete traditions, and assimilating the traditions of the modern West. Such assimilation depends upon the igniting of the Promethean spark in every one of our citizens, making him or her a reservoir of disciplined energy and resource.

This is what is being done in our country since our independence. During the last eighteen years after independence, India has achieved by way of economic development and social transformation more than what she had achieved in the hundred years before independence. This is a proof of the youthful vitality of the nation, and its assimilation of the spirit of energy and progress, action and endeavour, of the modern West. Under the pressure of mounting problems yet remaining to be solved, the nation should not fail to recognize its own solid achievements. Constant self-deprecation saps the vitality of a nation, says Vivekananda, by destroying its faith in itself. Ajnasca asraddadhanasca samsayatna vinasyati — “the ignorant, the faithless, and the doubting come to ruin”, says the Gita (IV. 40).

India has begun translating its ideals into realities
Nation-building in the case of India, we should always remember, means nothing more than forging a new body-politic for her undying soul. That soul had so far been housed in a body inconsistent with its own majesty and glory. No other society in the world has exhibited such a contrast between ideals and realities as India in her spiritual vision and her body-politic. In the poignant words of Vivekananda (Letters of Swami Vivekananda, p.69.)

“No religion on earth preaches the dignity of humanity in such a lofty strain as Hinduism, and no religion on earth treads upon the necks of the poor and the low in such a fashion as Hinduism”.

For the first time in her long history, India has resolved to translate her vision of human excellence into reality by earnestly embarking on the creation of a free and egalitarian society offering opportunities for self-development to every one of her citizens.

“Hitherto, the great fault of our Indian religion has lain in its knowing only two words-renunciation and mukti (salvation). Only “mukti” here! Nothing for the householder!
“But these are the very people whom I want to help ….
“And so strength must come to the nation through education”…

EXTRACTS FROM: Eternal Values for a Changing Society Volume III – Education for Human Excellence; 1 – India's Educational Vision (Pg:12-13; ed. 1995)
This was the address delivered at the Calcutta University Convocation on February 15, 1966.

Enlightened citizens lend new value to their roles

The ordinary citizen only occupies a chair of authority; but the enlightened citizen occupies it and also adorns it. Here we can see the distinction between small men and big men. Small men are not men doing small work, but doing all work with a small mind; and big men are not men doing big work, but doing all work with a big mind and heart. There is no distinction between big and small with respect to work, according to the Gita. That distinction applies to the buddhi or reason behind the work. Some people achieve bigness only by sitting on a big chair of authority and power; some other people impart their own bigness to whatever chair they sit on.

It is the natural bigness, this inherent greatness, with its natural dignity and self respect and respect for others, that comes to man as enlightened citizen, compared to man as a formal citizen, as a mere job-holder and functionary. When we have such enlightened and alert citizens, we shall also automatically have alert parliamentarians, and citizens, and other legislators, alert administrators, alert teachers, and alert working class. That alertness catches the pulse of the urges and aspirations of the people in various fields of national life, and responds to them readily and effectively – be it from a primary school classroom, a university research laboratory, an industrial executive's office, or the government secretariat.

EXTRACTS FROM: Eternal Values for a Changing Society Volume IV - Democracy for Total Human Fulfilment; 1 - Enlightened citizenship and our democracy (Pg:43-44; ed. 1993)
This was the inaugural address at the Symposium on Enlightened Citizenship organized by the Ramakrishna Mission, New Delhi - held on April 27, 1980.

Citizenship Awareness is the missing catalyst in National development

Our country is silently longing for this revolutionary human change. Our people have the intelligence, the talents, the resources, to make their country great in every respect. It needs only that intangible something to trigger and ignite all these into the pure flame of nation-wide human development. Put the fire at the bottom, and let it burn upwards into an Indian nation, said Swami Vivekananda. That triggering something which will effect this miracle is the wide diffusion of enlightened citizenship-awareness in the country. And the nation's education is the heart and artery system for this diffusion. Nothing else can help to achieve it. No political slogans or administrative tricks, or the self-cancelling structural changes fitfully introduced into our education these thirty years, can achieve this miracle. Continued reliance on them will only deepen and prolong the agony of the nation and sharpen its internal tensions and conflicts. They will keep our ailing democracy ailing all the time, like a weak child born with various infantile ailments. If we want to see our infant democracy gain its health and, growing from robust childhood to healthy adulthood, give the blessings of its millennia-old and ever-fresh and luminous visions and experiences to its own people and to the rest of humanity, we have to take immediate energetic steps to treat the maladies afflicting our nation, curatively and preventively. If we have the maladies, let us also realize that we have the remedies also with us. Our philosophy of human growth and development and fulfilment, as given in our Vedanta, can stand rational critical scrutiny in any country in the world. It is a philosophy that invites and welcomes such a critical handling by the keen minds of our country.

EXTRACTS FROM: Eternal Values for a Changing Society Volume IV - Democracy for Total Human Fulfilment; 1 - Enlightened citizenship and our democracy (Pg:41-42; ed. 1993)
This was the inaugural address at the Symposium on Enlightened Citizenship organized by the Ramakrishna Mission, New Delhi - held on April 27, 1980.

Instilling a Citizenship Awareness into Education

Education is the most important field from the long range point of view, for national health and welfare. This field has suffered from the mercenary attitude as much as any other field. The inculcation of the citizenship attitude, and the temper of the social responsibility it involves, into the world of our education, should be given the highest priority by all our political parties. This positive and wholesome influence of the political parties on education in place of the current wholly unwholesome and harmful influence, will have a revolutionary impact on our education. It will strengthen the ever-present positive and elevating influences of the still existing small minority of teachers and students, who are patriotic and dedicated but who now feel suffocated and helpless. We can well imagine what democratic health would come to the nation if a sizeable section, if not all, of our teachers, from the primary to the university levels, would achieve this revolutionary change from the mercenary to the citizenship awareness, and instill the same into all the millions of our students, and instill also into them that love of knowledge and character-excellence, both of which have been serious casualties during these thirty post-freedom years.


EXTRACTS FROM: Eternal Values for a Changing Society Volume IV - Democracy for Total Human Fulfilment; 1 - Enlightened citizenship and our democracy (Pg:40-41; ed. 1993)
This was the inaugural address at the Symposium on Enlightened Citizenship organized by the Ramakrishna Mission, New Delhi - held on April 27, 1980.