All World
Gayatri Pariwar

Emotional vagrancy is a very common phenomenon among the young today. Many of them in search of true love and warmth keep looking this way or that for a peer or person with whom they could develop loveful bond. The emotional thirst within propels them to run hither and thither and get knocked about repeatedly on the slippery path of life. Psychologist Erwin B. says that this psychological problem of the youth has become so intense and widespread that it has acquired the proportions of a social problem today. Every year numerous boys and girls trapped in the web of emotional seeking fall prey to multiple kinds of psychological complexes and disorders. This not only blunts their talent but also ruins their career. Many gifted minds die midway before blossoming.

Experts of human psyche believe that the roots of this emotional vagrancy lie deeper than what appears superficially. Its causes emanate from their mental make up and familial surroundings. The seed of this emotional thirst are sown in the early childhood itself. The parents generally remain occupied with their own work or engaged in mutual bickering. The tender feelings of the children get bruised and stunted in the process. If the child wants to say something he is scolded and shut up.

This was not so in the past. Small or nuclear families were not so common those days. The occasional scolding by the father or mother would be balanced by the loving indulgence of the grand parents or uncles/aunts.

But the situation has changed now. Not only has the family shrunk in size, parents too have become more self-focused, driven by their own career ambitions. The emotional bond between the two parents has weakened. The father has no time to spare from his office and outside work. The mother, even if she is not an office goer, spends her time in kitty parties and on TV serials. The children’s longing for their time and love remains unfulfilled, and in search for this love they start looking for companions outside. This search pushes them towards adolescent desires prematurely.

With changing times the concept of love too has changed. Love is no longer an increased beating of heart or rising sensation of yore. It has come down to the gross level – to physical touch and gyrations. Nothing is subtle. In the past the love birds used to express their tender feelings through poetic letters and dialogues, but this is no longer so. Now films, serials and the so-called music albums have converted the body into a means of gross sexual indulgence. The truth of today is that the beautiful love which once roamed leisurely in the unbounded expanse of mind sanctified by the sparking purity of heart has crashed down to the physical level of body and hurts itself in the process. The young generation today is neither searching for the purity of love nor bothering about it. The platonic and divine forms of love and its joys have long been lost in the melee of grosser and quicker animal satiation's.

What is even more disturbing is that the culture of consumerism and packaged marketing has not spared even love and has converted this tender sentiment into a commodity. Commercial men are totally imperious to any one’s life or death or progress or decline. They are simply interested in making profit out of this wandering of the young. They have flooded the market with myriad attractive cards and gift items intended to titillate the baser instincts of the youth. Many forms of double meaning slogans and messages are printed on such cards. There is a card available in the market to cater to each and every carnal desire latent in the youth. The purchasers of such items are in lakhs.

In the “love market” SMS has emerged as a new instrument of titillation. The language and tenor of SMS messages is enough to show the deviation that has occurred in the emotional orientation of the youth. Fifty percent of the SMS jokes doing the rounds are downright vulgar. The girls too, not to be left behind, have entered this arena in a big way. They feel free to introduce themselves with “Hi, I am too much chilled and romantic” and other such expressions. The creators of SMS messages have invented their own typical language and vocabulary. It is largely of a nature that can not be expressed in our sober literature.

A survey has been carried out in this field that collected mass of information and statistics. It shows that in the year 2005 the business of mobile borne vulgarity was of half a billion dollars i.e. about Rs. 2300 crore. It was estimated that in the next five years (by the end of year 2010) this would increase to the tune of about five billion dollars or approximately Rs. 23,000 crore. In the modern version of SMS, pictures too are transmitted. The type of scandalous pictures often circulated on this network keep hitting newspapers regularly and the less said about them, the better.

It is a stark reality today that a whole economy of its own kind is being run by the unscrupulous elements who have converted the social problem of youth vagrancy into a highly lucrative business. The business is flourishing by the day. Every day new poisonous tendrils are sprouting. This toxic concoction prepared from wayward young desires is available today in a variety of eye-catching brand names, forms and packs. Its buyers are increasing with every passing day and along side are increasing matching incidents of violence, murder and rape.

The young today, entangled in an emotional warp, are getting more and more self-centered. Their capacity to tackle situations and face stress is weakening. They lose patience fast and their tolerance level is declining. Consequently they are unable to keep in check the strong urges of lust and violence that arise within them occasionally. On the slightest pretext or provocation they resort to violence and even rape. The situation is worsened by the vulgar songs, music and visuals which have become ubiquitous these days-in the air, on the net, on TV and cinema screens, everywhere. These items provide fodder to the youth whose threshold level is already low.

The vagrancy among the youth is as much a truth of the time as of their biological age. This truth has from time to time confronted not only the common men but also the great ones though the latter soon retracted their steps and returned from the unnatural to the natural. In Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography there are many vivid descriptions of his emotional agitation, self-criticism and corporeal impulses. But his deep faith in God ultimately triumphed over all these momentary aberrations and turned him into a great seeker of truth. Similarly the founder of Gurukul Kangri University Swami Sradhanand of the Arya Samaj too had fallen prey to this emotional deviation in his young age but soon emerged unscathed out of this. The deviation in the life of all these great souls was no doubt a result of youthful exuberance and some bad company but their faith in spirituality and a meaningful view of life brought them back onto the righteous path.

The need of the youth today is exactly the same. Lamps should be lit to illuminate the spreading area of darkness in their lives. It would be better if the young themselves start this restoration movement. Poison has been spread and drunk a lot; now streams of nectar need to flow. The mercantile class too should wake up to its social responsibility and join hands. They can incorporate in their professional life pattern components of yoga, health awareness pious and uplifting thoughts and other such noble activities. If serious efforts are made in this direction the youth can be lifted out of the morass of emotional vagrancy and start living a purposeful life of sanity, service and self-control.