What do each of these quotations convey to you in the present context?

"Learn everything that is good…

Question

What do each of these quotations convey to you in the present context?

"Learn everything that is good from others, but bring it in, and in your own way absorb it, do not become others." — Swami Vivekananda

Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

Vivekananda's quotation calls for selective assimilation: learn the good from every source, but adapt it to one's own context instead of imitating others. The Constitution, borrowed from Britain, the US and Ireland yet adapted to Indian conditions, shows the principle at work.

**Introduction**

Swami Vivekananda spoke of India's spiritual gifts at Chicago in 1893, yet urged Indians to learn science and organisation from the West. The quotation distils that balance: absorb good ideas on one's own terms, without losing oneself.

**What the Quotation Conveys**

SKETCH: spectrum | Responding to Outside Ideas
left: Isolation
right: Imitation
- Rejecting all things foreign
- Selective assimilation
- Copying without thought

1. **Openness to learning**: Goodness has no nationality, so rejecting a good idea for its origin is prejudice, not pride.
2. **Assimilation, not imitation**: Ideas must be fitted to one's own context, as Vivekananda fused Vedanta with organised service in the Ramakrishna Mission (1897), guided by **moral autonomy** rather than copying. Gandhi agreed: let all cultures blow through my house, but I refuse to be blown off my feet.

**Relevance in the Present Context**

1. **Nation-building**: The Constitution borrowed from Britain, the US and Ireland, and Ambedkar defended it because each borrowing was adapted to Indian conditions.
2. **Technology and economy**: India built UPI on its own design and now runs it in several countries, much as Meiji Japan paired "Japanese spirit" with "Western technique".
3. **Education**: NEP 2020 welcomes global universities while promoting mother-tongue teaching and Indian knowledge systems.
4. **Youth and identity**: Against the pull of social media to copy lifestyles and opinions wholesale, **critical thinking** lets the young adopt global good without cultural self-erasure or blind rejection.

**Conclusion**

The quotation charts a middle path between isolation and imitation. For a civil servant it means adopting global best practice with contextual wisdom, so that India learns from the world while remaining itself.

What do each of these quotations convey to you in the present context? "Learn everything that is good from others, but bring it in, and in your own way absorb it, do not become others." — Swami Vivekananda

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