Questioner (An engineering student) : Acharya Ji, what made you inclined towards Spirituality, after education from premier institutions like IIT-D and IIM-A?
Acharya Prashant (AP): A couple of decades ago, I was on that side where you all are sitting now, in another engineering college, IIT-Delhi. We too used to take a lot of things lightly. We too would fool around in lot of sessions, tutorials, lab sessions. But we also knew what is not trivial, not casual.
Once in a while, such a thing happens, and then we should be awake to the happening.
We will be together.
So, one of the members of your organizing committee, immediately asked this question, when he met me. His question was: “After IIT, after IIM, after Civil Services, and after a few years of successful corporate life, why this?”
I said, “Let me first look at the anatomy of your question.” Your question pre-supposes, assumes, a couple of things. The first is: Education gives you a few specific directions to move in. And that is why you are surprised, even shocked, that someone is breaching those directions, violating those directions.
Before we discuss the breach of violation, it is more important that we see whether education is supposed to be a liberating force, or a constraining force.
If you look at people who are not educated, you will find them captivated, you will find them option-less; we could even say, ‘enslaved’. They can say, “Because we are not educated, because we did not have that kind of luck, or merit, so we are forced to take up just these kind of jobs. Our spectrum of choices is very narrow.” That is what a person with little luck, or ability, or understanding would say.
Now, if you go into an institution of higher learning, even a couple of such institutions, then you would say, “I cannot find the entire life open for me. I cannot see that all kinds of possibilities and opportunities open up for me, irrespective of the direction they come from. Then what is the use of such education?”
Is education there to widen your choices, or is it there to constrain your already narrowed down choices?
If the purpose of education is to liberate, then why should you feel that after your educational degrees you must follow a particular kind of script? Why must you move in only pre-determined directions?
The questioner is surprised at me taking a particular direction. I am surprised that why do you do, what you do.
When I was a consultant, in corporate sector, then I would go for the campus hiring to the best of institutions. And it would be quite amusing, as well as insightful to observe them.
So, four hundred students from fourth year would have applied for the same job. And if you ask them, “Why have you applied for the same job?,” half of them would directly say that this particular job is their dream job. And other half would indirectly imply this job is their dream job.
I would listen to them with patience. But at some point during the discussion, I would start laughing. I would ask them, “How is it possible that all four hundred of you have the same dream? Is there any individuality, or are all of you meant to follow the same current?”
Now, what is more surprising: that intelligent, empowered students, are all following the trend, or that a few break away? Breaking away should be the norm, breaking away should be the trend. Breaking away should not be the exception.
In fact, I should be the one, who should turn around, and ask the premier students in the premier campuses, in the country and the world, “How is it possible that after all your education, you constrain yourself to a narrow pattern of working and living? How is it not possible that you branch out in all directions? How is it so, that an already chained life, becomes all the more chained after going to an IIT, or an IIM?”
A fellow, who has not had the best of education, would say, “I can accept any job. I can start any kind of business, because I do not have any background in anything.” But I have seen, not only as a matter of principle, but actually practically, that unfortunately it so happens, that we become even more constrained, limited in our decision-making, because we have been empowered with an elite degree.
That must not happen. That assumption is invalid.
If life has given you power, use it to blossom, use it branch out. Use it to express all your creativity. Do not feel pressurised. Do not feel limited. You are not obliged to follow the trend.
You must, first of all, try to gain maximum clarity, as to what is right. And then, the only remaining task is to commit yourself wholeheartedly to what is right.
Know what is right. Do what is right. Nothing else matters.
Most people do not know what is right. Obviously, they lead their lives in ignorance, in darkness – a drunken kind of living. And then, there are others. Others, who have the intellectual capacity to know what is right. And it is absolutely tragic, that such people in spite of knowing what is right, do not ‘do’ the right.
Now, this would be very impotent life.
One could have been forgiven, had one been totally in the dark, had one not known at all what to do. But, if you know, and still do not ‘do’, then your life itself is a punishment. You would be leading an incomplete, and compulsorily blind life.
A man with eyes, who has been forced to act blind, his suffering is limitless.
So, please get the first assumption out of your mind. If you will go into it, if you will question it, then it will be easy for you to surmount it.
The second assumption that you have is – that somehow technical or managerial work is superior, in it’s class and dimension, compared to Humanities, and especially compared to Wisdom and Spirituality. No, if such is the opinion that you carry, then this opinion is misplaced.
I understand why this opinion gets the better of us. It is because, whatever happens in the field of Science and Technology, is quite tangible, quite direct, quite measurable, and precise. Whereas, what happens in the field of mind, in the field of words, rather than numbers, is intangible. Often hazy.
But just because something is intangible, it does not mean that it is valueless. It only means that it’s value is subtle. Something may have a gross value, (referring to a bottle kept on the table, in front) this may have a gross value, but there are other things that have a subtle value – things like Joy, things like Understanding.
I can hold this bottle in my hand, I cannot hold Understanding in my hand.
You cannot hold Love in your hand. You cannot hold Clarity in your hand. Just because there are certain things, that are not material enough to be formed, to be weighed, to be experienced through senses, it does not mean that they are valueless.
You are right now listening to me. Even ‘listening’ cannot be held like this bottle. But then, if you are listening, you very well know the value of listening.
All education, all civilization, all progress and advancement, is for welfare. And what is ‘welfare’? That which gives man Peace.
Yes, material welfare does give man Peace, and is quite important. But there is another more important, and dimensionally higher component of welfare that needs to be addressed. As engineers, you work for welfare – others’ welfare, and your own welfare. Spirituality too aims at welfare. And what spirituality can accomplish, the other fields of human endeavor cannot.
So it becomes obvious now, why one can move into the field of understanding life, if that can be called ‘a field’ at all. Life itself is the field, because it is a terrific field, because it is the most important field. Because that work is more important than the work of an engineer, or a manager.
That does not belittle the work of the scientist. It’s only to say, that – the work of the scientist is ultimately to bring welfare and peace to man.
Science addresses only that, which is measurable, numerable, experiencable, perceivable through senses. And there is a lot that involves human welfare, but cannot be the material subject of any science, any technology, any mathematics. That must be addressed. Otherwise, science will remain blind. Otherwise, the products of science, the entire area and produce of science, will be channelized only towards devastation.
