Are You Being Responsible?

17 Apr 2015 Bangalore, India

The Youth Leadership Program (YLTP) is very essential for our country today. The world is astonished at the great achievements of our youth leaders from the YLTP program.
One of the Yuvacharyas after completing his YLTP, went back to his village in Orissa and brought an end to the practice of defecating in the open. He made arrangements for constructing proper toilets in every home there. All this was done by just one Yuvacharya in a matter of just one and a half month. It was such a great success that officials from the World Bank came to see the village. And then they called him to Delhi and asked him, 'How did you manage to achieve this in such a short time?' Our Yuvacharya explained ;We achieved this by motivating each and every person in the village to join the cause, and inspired everyone'.
When you become a source of inspiration, then you can do great things and bring about a lot of good change in the society and the world. You all should keep moving forward with this sense of enthusiasm and confidence.

We all want that the people around us should be more responsible and sincere, but then we ourselves also should work in that very same way.

 

Wherever you find that great work has happened in India, whether it is in Maharashtra, Gujarat or the North-east, it has all been done by our Yuvacharyas. They have worked towards reviving many dried up rivers and streams, they have worked towards creating awareness towards personal hygiene and sanitation of the environment. People in the villages have all agreed that these Yuvacharya should be elected as the leaders of the village. In around 196 villages in India, our Yuvacharyas have been elected to the post of the Village President because of the good work they have done. Some of our Yuvacharyas have been elected into the Village Panchayats at many places. Why is this so? It is because they have won the hearts of the people. All of you here can do that. But when is that possible? You can win over the hearts of people when you win over your own mind. What do you need to do for that? You need to do your sadhana (spiritual practices) regularly.
There is a proverb in Hindi which says that you can win over the whole world when you win over your own mind. This is the eternal truth.
We all have to become Karma Yogis (here meaning to become steadfast and sincere in action without being attached to results and outcomes).

We had arranged a meeting of some government officers here a while ago, as one of the Central Ministers had approached me to come and address them. I told him, 'Please ask your officers – ‘What kind of a driver would you like to keep? Would you like them to be Karma Yogis or not?''
They all said in one voice, 'Yes Gurudev, we would want them to be Karma Yogis'. They said, 'We would not want an irresponsible driver. We want someone who takes responsibility'.
Then I asked them, 'What kind of teachers do you want for your own children? A responsible or an irresponsible one?'

You can win over the hearts of people when you win over your own mind.

 

Again they said, 'Yes we would want responsible teachers for our children'.
Next I asked them, 'What kind of doctors would you prefer? Would you want sincere responsible doctors or those who are irresponsible and careless, and who simply charge money and discharge patients without proper treatment?'
They said, 'Gurudev, we obviously want responsible doctors'.
Then I said, 'Now I have nothing further to ask. See, when you want all the people around you to be so responsible and capable like Karma Yogis, then you should reflect deeply on whether you also display the same behaviour?'
People who were asleep or not paying attention, immediately sat up and became alert when they heard this, as if they got a sudden electric shock. They all felt a surge of enthusiasm.
I told them, 'Do you know that when you delay the processing of many important files, that hurts the progress of our country?' They agreed to this.
Then I asked them, 'Will you all now take responsibility for this?'
See, we all want that the people around us should be more responsible and sincere, but then we ourselves also should work in that very same way. We play many roles in our life, but do we play each role intelligently and with a sense of responsibility? This is what we need to really ask ourselves.

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