Large Turnout of Young People Pledges to Stay Away from Drugs at Ramakrishna Math, Lucknow
Math president Swami Muktinathananda administers the oath to youth, in response to PM Narendra Modi’s call
LUCKNOW: Ramakrishna Math in Niralanagar, Lucknow, is taking part as a partner institution in the nationwide youth drug-de-addiction campaign being run by the Government of India. As part of the drive, young people gathered at the Math today connected virtually with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and took the pledge to participate in the Nasha Mukt Yuva Viksit Bharat Sankalp Abhiyan.
Addressing the gathering, Swami Muktinathananda, president of Ramakrishna Math, said drug addiction has emerged as a serious threat to the country’s young people — one that can destroy a life entirely — and that staying away from it is one of the biggest challenges facing today’s youth.
In his address, he said young people often slip into addiction while chasing pleasure, but the pleasure drugs offer eventually ends in tragedy. Swami Vivekananda, he reminded the audience, had said that service to others is the one path that leads to lasting joy — which is why, he said, young people should choose that path instead.
He went on to say that the emptiness people sometimes feel in life shouldn’t be filled with intoxication, but with a different kind of “high” — one built on service, achievement and knowledge. Even someone living in the simplest of circumstances, he said, can live a life defined by noble thoughts and good deeds.
Speaking as the chief guest, Dr. B.K. Singh pointed to another kind of addiction gripping young people today — the compulsion to make reels just to go viral — and said that this, too, is something youth need to be protected from. Dr. Vishal Singh, meanwhile, urged young people to live balanced lives, take up meditation and yoga, and adopt a disciplined, virtuous lifestyle, saying that doing so would leave them with no need for drugs in the first place.
