Our Children, Our Future -14. Swami Chinmayananda

28/03/2017.

Lastly, it is not sufficient only that the children be trained in the higher values of life. We must teach them to have the courage and heroism to live upto their convictions. That is another very important thing in India today. It is not that we actually have no intellectuals – we do; but unfortunately they are all impotent. Impotent intellectuals and congenital idiots are equally useful to the society. Meaning, they are not useful at all.

Nobody has got the guts to think independently and to declare to the government what they are thinking. They are very eloquent in the coffee-houses, restaurants, etc., but will they tell the government? Never! Why? Because they are afraid that if they stand against the direction in which the world is going round and declare with logical reasoning how the present policies are wrong, their security will be in jeopardy. Think. When you are afraid, that intellectualism is no intellectualism at all.

In a country like Russia where we know that if you say one word against the government you will be prosecuted mercilessly – yet, how many dissidents are rising there? They are called honest intellectuals. A real intellectual cannot keep quiet when he sees an injustice, and he doesn’t care what the consequences are!

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