Adolescence is a passage from childhood to adulthood. Like all passages, this transition can be pleasant or painful, smooth or stormy, tranquil or turbulent. The experience of this passage depends upon a number of factors — heredity and upbringing during early years, the basic constitution and endowment, and the extent of leap intended from the background from which the child’s personality is emerging and the kind of future that is shaping itself in his thoughts, feelings, even dreams and fantasies. When the passage is successful through whatever stormy or smooth experiences one has, the emergence of an adult who is responsible and reasonable, aware of his goals and the steps he intends to take in arriving at it, has a fairly correct estimate of his strengths and weaknesses and is able to combine his dream or fantasy life with the real world in a mature way without losing hold on either. For, while it is true that each one is here to realise his dreams, it is equally and truer that the world in its totality is moving towards expressing its own dreams of life. The two may not always match. Often the person who is dreaming far ahead of the world’s march finds himself caught up in a struggle. In such situations, some may completely lose contact with the outer realities of life and shut themselves off in a private dream-world. Or else, as happens more often, one shuts off the dream-world completely, forgets or barters it in an attempt to adjust and accommodate the practical necessities of life.
But true maturity comes through an ability to integrate the two and even enrich each other by their contact. The sign of maturity is neither an exclusive practical outlook nor is it an exclusive living in the dream-world of our own. The real stamp of adulthood is the ability to adapt the two to each other. An adult should be able, on the one hand, to adapt his inner life to the framework in which he is operating. On the other, he should be able to infuse a certain degree of change, to the extent it is possible, in the framework he inhabits so that he can mould it to the demands of his dreams. Naturally, this is an ongoing process. Even, in the beginning, it is the first adaptation that is necessary unless in a rare and exceptionally strong individual, a Vivekananda or, at another extreme, a Napoleon, who can force their dreams upon the world and even when they withdraw and much of their effect is erased, something continues to quiver in the world’s heart as a stamp of their memory and influence. But most of us need to first pass through the frame or the existing system before we become strong and knowledgeable enough to change it. It is the mythical swan picturised in the Vedas whose one foot is on the earth and the other in the sky.
Two Kinds of Knowledge
It can be said that every individual needs to be equipped with two kinds of knowledge and power. The first, more important, even fundamental and indispensable is self-knowledge and self-mastery. The other that gains greater and greater importance as we transit and move out from the generally ‘safe and secure, protective, familiar and predictable’ childhood environment to the world at large, is world-knowledge and world-mastery. The two are of course interdependent and since it is an occult truth that the world and all the forces and energies that move are in a way present in a concealed or overt way in each individual, the first thing we must start with is self-knowledge and self-mastery, to the extent that we can successfully complete it.
Self-Knowledge
Through self-knowledge, we become aware of our own possibilities and potential, difficulties and limitations. In a way, it helps us to take account of our own house, the dwelling-place we constantly carry with us. For just as there are a physical space and a physical house that we physically dwell in, there is also a psychological space, a mind space and a heart space, even a life space that we live in. This psychological house is built by our thoughts and feelings. It is given strength by our will and motives. Its atmosphere and the fragrance within and around it, is created by our attitudes. This house, like our physical space, can be either large or small, with few or many doors and windows, high-roofed or low, beautiful or ugly, harmoniously furnished or disorganised. Its immediate surroundings too, which is our personal atmosphere, may be harmonious and pleasant or ugly and unpleasant.
The other and more important aspect of self-knowledge is to consciously discover one’s true identity. Before stepping into adolescence, our identity is given to us by the circumstances of birth and heredity. During adolescence, a little window opens for us to discover ourselves, as to who we are other than the identity we have automatically received stamped from parents and society. This is the deeper reason for the revolt that we see during adolescence, a revolt against parents, a revolt against society, a revolt against the established norms and values. Alongside this, there is an urge to experiment, an urge to cross the lines and the set boundaries, an urge to reach out towards the Unknown, to dare the impossible, to feel life not through books, dogmas and rules but by direct experience. It is part of growing up, of self-discovery.
But it is here that the challenge arises.
The Rôle-Model
Children transiting through adolescence need a rôle model or a mentor other than their parents. The rôle model could be a member of the family or a teacher or a close family friend. Or, if none of this is possible, then a real-life (not reel-life) person, or else a hero picked up from one of the classics. Idolising someone is a natural psychological need during adolescence. They are quite at loss, in a state of confusion, a little unsure about the choices. They need someone whom they can emulate, someone who can love and understand them unconditionally, someone with whom they can share and discuss their problems unconditionally, without judgments and preconceived notions, least of all without labelling. It may be a tough calling, but there is no other. It is rare for parents to fit into this rôle, being too close for comfort. But if they can do so, it would be wonderful. But, as the saying goes, it is difficult for a plant to grow under the shade of a giant tree. It is never a good thing if adolescents simply continue their family legacy. They may do so after making a conscious choice as an adult. But to simply inherit it and slip into it is not good from the point of view of maturing into adulthood.
Warped Identity
It is here that one has to be careful. Adolescence, like all transitional periods is a phase of confusion. Due to hormonal imbalances and other subtle causes, there is also an additional sensitivity. It is, in short, quite a vulnerable phase. An emphasis by parents to force-fit into their conception of what is good, of hastily judging all that does not conform to one’s own ideas as bad or evil, may lead not only to strong revolt against all values but also to a negative role playing as if to fulfil the prophesy.
Another problem, especially in the absence of a rôle-model, is that the adolescent is easily carried away by reel personalities, the cinema, (now currently YouTube media icons) and proceeds to start emulating them.
Cross-currents of Time
Genuine rôle-models are missing these days because the Age itself is undergoing a transition and the old values are being broken, while the new type of ideals is yet to appear. On the other hand, there are plenty of misleading examples. There is even a wave that denies any kind of identity or rather lets an individual assume any kind of identity based on fancies and impulses. Society and culture are going through a flux, a churning and mixing, all over the world, to bring out a new composite culture, a wider and synthetic way of life, a unified personality fusing and assimilating differences and throwing up something new and unprecedented. All these currents and cross-currents are moulding the human towards a new world-personality by breaking the past moulds, pure types and fixed forms, through which humanity has evolved so far. This is creating difficulty for those who are accustomed to personality types as fixed. What we are witnessing now, and are likely to witness more and more, are wider and fluid personalities, difficult to fix into formal defining characteristics. The pure types of the previous ages are hardly to be seen now. The Time-Spirit has broken them and to try reviving these is going to be frustrating and counter-evolutionary.
A Question of Values 
There is much talk these days about value education for the adolescence. Laudable though these various efforts are, nothing can however replace the power of a living example. This is sadly missing these days. The great historical figures too no more help, because one of the side-effects of the democratic spirit is that the sense of greatness has been lost. All are equal, all are the same has blurred and blunted all possible distinction between the high and noble types of humanity and the average crude types of humanity.
In any case, values are best inculcated during childhood. During adolescence, it has to be done through dialogue and discussion on rational premises. The adolescent needs to be led to discover his own true self, his own unique values and strength, his svadharma, so to speak. The Age of belief and authority is over. Even reason may or may not work. It is a new subjective age we have entered and the personal views, feelings, thoughts and temperament of the adolescent must be accepted and taken into consideration. He has to be gradually helped in navigating through it towards his true identity. One way is to discover his highest thought, the idea that moves him most, the highest he can conceive; all these should become a central point around which one needs to organise one’s emerging personality and nature.
The Sign of Adulthood
The sign of adulthood is to arrive at the new balance between life as a child lived under the care as well as shadow of the parents and life in the world with its unique challenges. It is here that the rôle of parents, childhood and of significant others during the growing-up period cannot be ignored. A strong and good foundation of trust, mutual respect, love and care, a good base of knowledge about life and the world, a happy and healthy world-view, a confidence in taking on the challenges of life, helps greatly. These can be through stories, discussions, influence of significant elders, especially their state of consciousness and most importantly through example. A twisted and warped self-view and world-view makes it difficult to grow up into strong, straight and healthy adults. Adulthood is not about financial independence or biological reproductivity. It is not a number or age-group when one can do whatever one feels like. Its sign is the development of the ability to discern between what is good and what is not and, along with this discernment, a reasonable mastery over one’s movements and thoughts and emotions. Adulthood is neither about a blind following of family customs and traditions, nor is it about blind imitation of modernity and fashion. It is about assuming responsibility for one’s actions. This implies a sufficient discernment to make the right choices as well as the will to follow upon the choices. A mature human being does not blame others for the choices he has made should they lead to contrary results than expected. Instead, he introspects and looks within to see what went into his choice and if there is something to learn and grow from the experience. Assuming responsibility for one’s actions and making responsible choices are a very important aspect of growing into adulthood.
Evolution Fast Forward
It is perhaps getting accelerated in our present age. Mankind has entered a subjective age, where the individual and his thoughts and feelings matter. He is no more simply a part of the system, — social, religious or otherwise. He exists independent of the society and the milieu. He has his own thoughts, a right to his feelings and actions, even if these do not conform to social standards. The old social order sees this as revolt and believes it to be going the wrong way. But this is, in its essence, a breaking-away from the past. The past with all its merits had its own flaws and the deep discontent simmering as an undercurrent in humanity for long has erupted in the youth of today. But apart from that, in India, there exists the idea of the Time-Spirit and its demand, Yugadharma. This allows for evolution in the collective march of mankind. This evolution is always forward in its end-result, but the breaking- away of the well-preserved past destabilises the society and temporarily things seem to slide backwards. Even we may see a generation or two that is in a confused state. They have no past to hold onto and equally no clarity of the future from which to seek support. In other words, the transition that youth are experiencing today is a double transition. Apart from the normal transition from childhood to adulthood, which creates its own challenges and difficulties, they are also transiting through the twilight of an Age. This may well lead to a few washout generations that are neither here nor there. While parents and elders tend to blame it on the generation itself, actually they are acting under the impulsion of the Time-Spirit and as a result, the deeper forces involved. These are forces of disintegration as well as of a new creation that become very active during the change over from one epoch of Time to another. It is not just a generational shift we are experiencing but a civilisational one.
The Double Pull
It is a civilisational shift that mankind is facing now. It is not easy for children to navigate through this tectonic shift that mankind is going through right now. In a desperate bid to keep them on track, the past is trying everything within its rule-book such as, for example, the revival of religion, the revival of old ways of thought and life, the re-storing of old wine in a new bottle, return to Nature, etc. While many of these efforts are well-meaning, they are still unlikely to be of any help, since they are not in sync with the demands of the Time-Spirit. They do not touch the core, which is the main catalyst for the change. On the other hand, there are all kinds of fanciful things in the name of ‘New Age’. There are all kinds of new trends, new ways of dressing, new habits, new modes of living, even new words, almost a new language. There are also new challenges such as the social media and AI. These we shall explore in the next issue.
