May 2007 - Vivekananda Kendra Prakashan

Vishwa Mahakavi Ravindra Nath
Tagore has given us probably the
grandest vision that any Indian youth
can have. Let me quote as the concluding
words for this essay his famous Vision
of free India: -
“Where the mind is without fear and
the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world is not broken up into
fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where the words come out from the
depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its
arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has
not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of deaf
habit
Where the mind is lead forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my father,
let my country awake.”
The question today is are we really
without fear Is knowledge free
Is the world not fragmented Do
words come from the depth of truth Has
reason not lost its way
Is India occupying, among the comity
of nations, the position she deserves by
virtue of her natural and human
resources, cultural heritage and talents
Is she a successful player in the
international politics or is she being
slowly pushed into being a pawn in the
chessboard of international diplomacy
Is the glow on the face of Metropolitan
India genuine or is it painted Or is it
even tainted by the blood and tears of the
suicide–prone farmers of rural India
With Kailas in the North already lost to
us, with Arunachal in the East, the land
of rising sun coming under the cloud of
border disputes, with Kashmir in the
West under perpetual turmoil and the
Mythological Ramasethu near
Rameswaram in the South being
wantonly destroyed by our planners, can
we call India a safe, self-conscious and
self-respecting nation
It is for the present generation of
India’s Youth to find positive answers
to these great questions. Let us always
remember Pandit Nehru’s oft- repeated
quote: - “ Who lives if India dies And
who dies if India lives”
P.Parameswaran
YUVA BHARATI - May 2007
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