Kundapura: 'Youth Not Moving in Gandhi's Path, but on M G Road' - Shivacharya Swamji

Kundapura, Oct 05, 2013:
To mark Oct 2, the birth anniversary of Gandhiji and former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, the Rotary Club organized a lecture on 'Gandhi, Shastri and Dharma' in the Rotary Laxminarasimha Kala Mandir on Wednesday evening.

The degradation of family values and disorientation of today's youth were well depicted by the main speaker, Dr Shivananda Shivacharya Mahaswamiji of Tumkur. He said that the present-day younger generation were on M G Road and not going in Gandhi's path, which reminded the audience of Page-3 culture. 

He said that it was easy to swim with or against the current. But it always hard to swim against influence and power. Both Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri, who shared their birthdays with each other on Oct 2, belonged to the latter category. In spite of being in politics, they were never sullied by its mud and dirt.
He rued that fact that the present day's youth were more on M G Road than being in Gandhi's path. The splendour of M G Road was overwhelming the Gandhi path. "Our minds have involuntarily gone western. Our times are overawed by observance of various 'Days'. The destruction of a total concept of family has been responsible for it. The idea of family has been merely a husband and wife being together," he lamented.

The Swamiji termed Gandhi and Shastri as the greatest souls the country had produced and were virtual political sages. He asserted that one Gandhiji was several times superior to a thousand Swamijis. Gandhiji's childhood had shown clear signs of his nobility, he added.

Speaking further he said that to Indians, Gandhi did not appear to be a political person. If he had been a politician, he would not have turned into Bapuji. Shastri's birthday had coincided with Gandhi's birthday. Shastri's birthday may have lost its importance in the powerful stream of Gandhi's birthday. But a pearl would always be a pearl, he described.
Rotary club president Shiriyara Gopalakrishna Shetty presided over the function.

[IMAGE via Mangalorean] 
[SOURCE: http://www.mangalorean.com/news.php?newstype=broadcast&broadcastid=429436]