Is there a need to build spirituality among youths and how can it be done ?

From: ameet

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Question from Amit Prabhu. Is there a need to build spirituality among youths and how can it be done? Answer. Yes, there is definitely.
Because youth is the time when we are subjected to the most dangerous attacks of our mind and senses. And that is the time when the passions that are triggered by the body and mind can mislead us terribly. And in fact, the modern consumerist materialist culture fuels these passions all the more.
And that’s why it misleads us further. And we see young people who are intelligent, who are talented, who have the potential to become wonderful human beings and valuable assets for the nation and the world, they sometimes become addicted and almost press the self-destruction button because of succumbing to bad habits. And this is happening with greater and greater frequency now.
So at the least lofty level, at the most utilitarian level, to protect people from self-destructive habits, they need to be given a higher happiness. And spirituality is the way to get a higher happiness and a higher vision and purpose of life, which frees people from the compulsive drives for self-defeating pleasures. So that’s at the most basic level where spirituality is needed.
But at a greater level, youth is the time when we have the greatest energy. And when we understand the ultimate purpose of life, we have the maximum energy to fulfill that purpose. So youth is the time when we are at a formative stage in our mental, intellectual and behavioral patterns.
So at that time we are able to harmonize our thought, thinking and living with the underlying truths of life. That we are not the body, we are the soul. That real happiness comes by loving God.
Then this can create a foundation for us to live effectively throughout our life. And we can not only achieve the ultimate goal of life, but live in a way that inspires many other people also to achieve that ultimate goal of life. And this will have a tremendous benefit.
Spirituality as a fringe benefit also enhances morality in society. Because if people are focused on cultivating spiritual happiness, and they have realized that material enjoyments don’t give real happiness, then lust, anger, greed, which express itself in society as sexual abuses, as the huge problem of corruption and as violence, they will all become substantially curved. And we will have a rising of morality.
So for these purposes, firstly to save people from self-destruction and to help people lead a meaningful and purposeful productive life that is also beneficial in raising social morality. There is a dire need of spirituality in society today. And how can spirituality be built? The first and foremost principle is to associate with spiritually minded people.
So wherever we are, we can look for similar spiritually minded people, especially devotees who are connected with the authentic traditions that are coming down from time immemorial, which are teaching not just shallow spirituality, but which are teaching time-honored spiritual principles that are based on scriptures. So when we connect with devotees who are trying to mold their lives according to Bhagavad Gita, and then we ourselves mold our lives accordingly and inspire others to do the same by distributing books, by arranging and inviting them for programs, by distributing prasadam, then we can all do this. And now the Krishna Consciousness Movement is doing its part to make spirituality available to youth through various youth centers.
And if we can connect ourselves with youth centers and enable others to get connected with whatever youth centers are near our colleges or near where we are staying, then each one of us can contribute in a small but extremely significant way for furthering the spiritual reawakening within society.