RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat used an event in Nagpur to sound an alarm over the growing number of children taking the extreme step of suicide, asking how young minds have become so fragile that a failed exam or a scolding at home now pushes them toward ending their lives. Mohan Bhagwat said that reading scriptures once gave the mind strength, but today the situation has changed so much that children kill themselves after failing their class 12 board exams, and run away from home or take their own lives after being scolded by their parents.
Grandmother's bedtime stories give way to mobile phones and Google
Mohan Bhagwat said mythological and religious stories still exist today, films are still made on them and people still watch them, but the tradition of telling stories at home has broken down. Earlier, grandmothers would sit their grandchildren down and narrate stories, which built emotional strength and values in children. Today, in most homes, grandmothers no longer live with the family, they stay in a separate house, so there is nobody left to tell stories to the grandchildren. Mohan Bhagwat said parents themselves do not remember these stories anymore, so they leave the job to the television or hand it over to what he called Google baba. He said that when a child cries, a mobile phone is thrust into their hands from infancy just to quieten them, which is affecting how children are raised emotionally.
A healthy mind is as essential as a healthy body: Mohan Bhagwat
Mohan Bhagwat said a healthy mind is as important for overall health as a healthy body. When the body deteriorates, he said, it does not just weaken the body, it weakens the mind as well. A person who is physically unwell tends to get angry quickly, he said, pointing to a direct link between physical and mental health.
He went on to say that the mind is the very reason behind a human being's liberation, or moksha, and that whenever a human or any living being is born, its mind is the first thing to take shape. According to Mohan Bhagwat, the mind is built through experience, so good experiences from childhood build a good mind. Positive thinking creates a secure and strong mind, while negative thinking creates a weak and destructive one. He said this journey of the mind continues from birth to the very end of life, with the mind constantly forming and deteriorating along the way.
Psychology came from the West, but India's own tradition is older: Mohan Bhagwat
Mohan Bhagwat clarified that the idea of psychology used today has come from the West, adding that he was not saying this in a negative sense. He said studying and applying modern psychology is a good thing, but questioned whether psychology has yet arrived at a complete and holistic understanding of the mind. He said India has had its own tradition of treating and resolving matters of the mind for centuries.
He said that any field of knowledge only reaches completeness once it is fully developed, and that human welfare follows when knowledge becomes complete. Mohan Bhagwat expressed concern that today every household responsibility is being handed over to institutions, hospitals and the government. He gave the example of home-cooked, healthy food, saying the satisfaction and wellbeing it provides can never come from food eaten outside, because outside food carries no guarantee of health and always falls short in some way. He said people are knowingly adopting an unhealthy way of life.
Self-reliance is declining, minds need to be shaped at home: Mohan Bhagwat
Mohan Bhagwat said that in the modern lifestyle, human self-reliance is steadily declining, forcing people into unhealthy habits out of compulsion. He said that if this situation is to be corrected, every family must once again take up the task of properly shaping their children's minds at home, and only then can the coming generation be saved from steps like suicide.
