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The 12th of January, the birthday of Swami Vivekananda according to the English calendar, has been declared by the Government of India as the National Youth Day “as it was felt that the philosophy of Swamiji and the ideals for which he lived and worked could be a great source of inspiration for the Indian youth.”The Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission have been organizing various functions in different parts of the country to give a correct lead to the youth of the land to translate Swamiji’s lofty ideals into practice.

The late Swami Vireswaranandaji,President of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission,though a nonagenarian,was very youthful in spirit and took active interest in all youth movements.We have great pleasure in presenting here the English translation of his stirring appeal to the youth to rebuild India.This message in Bengali was distributed as a booklet on the occasion of the first National Youth Day celebrated on 12 January 1985 at the Belur Math,the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Order.The second part of the booklet carries the English version of Swami Vireswaranandaji’s benedictory speech to a gathering of more than 5,000 young men and women assembled at the Belur Math to celebrate the first National Youth Day.Incidentally,this was his last public speech before he entered into Mahasamadhi on 13 March 1985.