Youth, students to celebrate Swami Vivekananda’s legacy at Maha Kumbh 2025

Prayagraj (UP), PTI: The Maha Kumbh 2025 at Prayagraj is set to witness a “Yuva Maha Kumbh”, a mega gathering of youth and students from across the country bound by a common thread: Swami Vivekananda, whose birth anniversary on January 12 is celebrated as National Youth Day. This initiative to mobilise the student community has been undertaken by the Vivekananda Kendra, established in 1972, with its first UP chapter opening in 2006 in Lucknow. The Kendra’s motto of ‘Man Making and Nation Building’ is at its core.

“From January 20, the Vivekananda Kendra will hold a Yuva Maha Kumbh at the mega Maha Kumbh. The gathering will include youth and students undergraduate, postgraduate, engineering and management students, teachers and those preparing for competitive exams. They will participate in a day-long workshop where the takeaway from Swami Vivekananda’s thoughts will be discussed and disseminated,” Deep Narayan Pandey (38) head of the Kendra’s Lucknow chapter, told PTI. “We will meditate and discuss Swamiji’s thoughts and how he envisioned the India or Bharat, of the future,” Pandey added.

It is interesting to note that Vivekananda last visited Prayagraj shortly after his visit to Varanasi in December 1889. The fact that the Maha Kumbh at Prayagraj now coincides with his birth anniversary makes the occasion even more special for those inspired by the visionary. “We will also discuss and analyse the wisdom ingrained in Swamiji’s teachings in his books,” Pandey said, adding that the various aspects of the Vivekananda Kendra include teaching underprivileged children and imparting values to young minds in the age of nuclear families. The Vivekananda Kendra is currently operating from several centres in UP, including Prayagraj, which figured prominently in Vivekananda’s thoughts. This is evident in a letter Vivekananda wrote from London on November 20, 1896, to Alasinga Perumal, one of his prominent disciples in Chennai (then Madras).

“My present plan of work is to start two centres, one in Calcutta and the other in Madras, to train young preachers. I have enough funds to start the one in Calcutta, which, being the scene of Sri Ramakrishna’s lifework, demands my first attention. As for the Madras one, I expect to get funds in India. We will begin work with these three centres; and later on, we will expand to Bombay and Allahabad. From these points, if the Lord is pleased, we will not only invade India, but send bands of preachers to every country in the world. That should be our first duty,” Swami Vivekananda had written in his letter. Swami Vivekananda’s guru, Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa, also visited Prayagraj, although it is ot nown if the two ever visited the Kumbh Mela.