Safe Careers, Loveless Lives
Questioner: Namaste Acharya Ji. It is nice to meet you. So I would like to introduce ourselves. I am Ravisha. I am Varun and we both are PhD students at the University of Georgia here in the US. Like, for the last two years, Varun was listening to you on YouTube, and since day one, I was very reluctant to listen to you or even see you on YouTube. It was like, I can't hear him. But he persuaded me over a year, and through his persistence, when we came to the US, I started listening to you with an open mindset, and I started liking you — your words, the way you speak, and something went inside.
Very recently, I decided to join the Gita community. It was from the past three months that I have joined it, and we left our well-settled jobs in India, and we are in our mid-30s, married. So, it was like, everybody was against us, like, "Why, in your mid-30s, are you going to the US pursuing something different, which people don't do much, and just have a baby before going there?" So, it was like, we were like, "No, we can't do this." And I joined the Gita community and started listening to you now while going to classes and coming back, while going to the gym, I continuously listen to you.
Question is, like, we both are PhD students, and I'm researching in financial planning, and he is researching in engineering education. And we have noticed that most of the Indian students who are abroad, especially in the US, tend to choose fields like computer science, which are mostly driven by job prospects and societal approval. In contrast, fields like humanities or core sciences or social sciences, we can see there are very few Indians, though these fields attract a lot of students from other countries.
So why do we, as a society, often tend to follow the herd mentality and prioritize our safe careers over the real interests, and how can we, as individuals, break free from this conditioning and make choices aligned with our true calling? So we would be very grateful if you could provide your insights on it.
Acharya Prashant: So, what you see and experience for long becomes not just your habit, but your truth. We, in the field of wisdom literature, call the truth as that which is everywhere. Don't we? Omnipresent (everywhere). It’s often read in reverse: "Truth is everywhere," and the way the ego reads is, "That which is everywhere will be the truth." So, if something is seen everywhere, it becomes your truth. Are you getting it? That's the way the inner thing works.
If you see something for very long, experience it for very long, it becomes your truth. India has seen poverty and deprivation for a very long time, very long. So, bread and basic mortal concerns, they have become the truth. And what is the truth? — The highest, that becomes your highest concern: basic safety. Will I have food on the table tonight? Will I have something over my head next year? Those things, that have continued for a very long time, centuries, it becomes culture.
And we have had a long history of equating culture with the truth, or true culture means reality. That’s what it is. Now, the curious thing here is that the facts are no more as bleak today as they were 50 years or 100 years back. Today, you are not so very malnourished, not so deprived or desolate. But the habit, having become the truth, is carrying a momentum that won’t easily be lost. So, it has become a part of, rather, the center of popular social wisdom that education has to be about breadwinning.
Do you see this? We have been deprived of bread for just so long that everything has to be about bread and butter. Everything. Why are you climbing up that hill? What will you get out of it? What is that fellow asking? Is there money in it? Because we have experienced the lack of money for just too long. So, anything that you do, people will ask, "What is it for?" You hear what they’re saying? They’re asking, "Is there money in it?" And there’s a point there, because there was no money for centuries.
There was no money, and there were terrible famines, not just before independence, but even for almost two decades after independence. Are you getting it? So, it has become a part of received wisdom and accepted truth. Everything has to be about money. Money.
Let me give you a cute example, a sweet example. In some of the poorest parts of the country, still, if you get good, delicious food to eat, they will say it is very "meetha." Now, it could be a salty dish. It could be a dish involving not even a grain of sugar. Still, to praise it, it would be said, "meetha." Do you see the reason? There was no sugar. Sugar was so scarce that sugar itself became the symbol of some kind of prosperity or abundance or goodness. It became a synonym. If something is good, then it is sugary. So, whatever is good is being carried down in culture as "meetha"—sugary.
Habit, mind you, becomes your personal truth, which is dangerous because those situations no longer exist, the situations of scarcity, and yet we behave as if they do.
I was having a long, winding conversation with one of my batchmates. Oh, he has returned from your place to India, and it was about what’s going on in India and what’s going on with Trump and his party there. So, he was displaying reluctance to accept that people can look beyond their immediate Dal-roti needs and worry for a larger purpose, like climate change. He said, "You know, because there was inflation, and the common American worries a lot about the prices, because the previous government just couldn’t control inflation. They don’t worry about climate change."
I said, "But that’s not the way history behaves."
He said, "Can you name even one incident in history when people have looked beyond their narrow concerns and worked for a larger purpose?" And it was astonishing for him to say this to me. Their concerns and worked for a larger purpose? Why did it not occur to him? Because even though we both come from IIT, yet our education has been just vocational.
I meet my batchmates, and it’s often irritating to them when I say, 'IIT left us high and dry and uneducated. We’re uneducated!' We’re just glorified mechanics. We’re not really educated. We’re vocationally trained. Why? Because the purpose was placements. Why? Because we are coming from a poor past. So, the greatest accomplishment is if you can somehow get placed and start earning money to put food to it and that is sufficient. So, as many tech courses as possible proceed, so that you can embellish your CV and get the fattest package possible. Tech, tech, tech. And even that tech is outdated and obsolete.
The fact is, the kind of machines we were trained on were not being used in industry for like two decades or something, and we knew about it, and the teachers too knew that. So, the technology you have been trained on is outdated, and apart from technology, you have been educated about nothing. So, you have de-facto walked out of campus uneducated. That’s not comfortable to hear, especially if your identity itself is tied to that tag. That’s how things are, and we didn’t realize that when we were on campus, that we were being trained just to earn bread for ourselves and the family and be happy about that.
It’s in hindsight today, like 25 years later, that I can see that what we were trained on was not sufficient. I could see that, in fact, just a few years after passing out, or at least begin to see that, when I started Advait Life Education, the syllabus contained a lot of knowledge of current events, general awareness, history, some philosophy. These things, things that you just don’t get exposed to. Why don’t you get exposed to them? Because the knowledge of history won’t fetch you money.
So, after 10th, nobody wants to study history or geography. The fact is, we don’t know history because we are scrambling after vocational courses where some money can be had. So, we don’t study history. So, we don’t know history. So, WhatsApp history becomes history. Do you see what’s going on? Do you understand why India is in such a precarious position today? Why do all kinds of misinformation about history find fertile ground in our minds? Because we don’t know history. And you have to go deeper into it and ask yourself, but why don’t we know history? Because history never got us any money.
Similarly, so much of the religious corruption that is there, superstition, and all kinds of social divides, proceed in the name of religion. Why does that happen? You know the single biggest reason? We don’t know Sanskrit, and our texts are in Sanskrit. And why don’t we know Sanskrit? Because there is no money there.
When you are getting married, don’t you want to know what the pandit is saying? And what if he’s uttering some mischief? A pandit like me would indeed do that and happily chuckle within these two fools. They don’t even know I’m uttering 'Santa-Banta' jokes in Sanskrit.
How can there be any kind of development if all that you need is money? And I’m not anti-money. I fully well understand that with an empty stomach, you cannot proceed towards higher causes. So, money is needed. You need clothes. You need food. You need nutritious food. You need medical support. You need a place to live. You need a vehicle to move on. And all those things, I understand.
But many of us have surpassed those conditions by a long. And yet we behave as if we are still living in the 1950s. So, we keep on accumulating, and our lives do not become rich. How can your life be rich if you do not know history? With money, you can travel to Italy. But if you know nothing about Italy, all you will say is, "You know, so much water in between buildings. Why don’t they drain it out? Must be damaging the foundations of the buildings." This place is just like Mumbai. Water is accumulating all the time. When did it rain here? Yesterday night? See.
Tell me, without knowledge, without understanding anything, not knowing science in a proper way, you are a CA, how much science do you know, please tell me? Though you’ll learn money, but you know, what will you understand of the world? Somebody will say, "No, NASA has sent a satellite, and that satellite is clicking pics on Diwali night." And that CA, earning several lakhs a month, would be forwarding this to other CAs. Where is the richness in life? Can there be richness in life without purposeless knowledge? Without knowledge that’s not aimed at just survival? Not that survival is not important. We have agreed on that already.
But somebody who is already earning a few lakhs a month, shouldn’t that person now focus on the richness of life? Where is that? You’ll burn money and get a fancy watch for yourself, and you won’t even know why it costs so much. Think of the stupidity. There’s this watch costing 10 lakhs. There is another one priced at just, how much? 5,000. Let’s say both are showing exactly the same time. Right now, after an hour, after 7 days, after 30 days, after 1 year, tell me, why is this one priced at 5K, and this one at 10 lakhs? You don’t know. Your money has made you even more stupid. Are you getting it?
When you buy something expensive, it’s all right. You have money, you can buy things. But do you know why that thing is expensive? If not, how did you make the decision?
One of our friends here, you know, we were arranging meals for one of the community gatherings, Gita community gatherings. So around 1,000 people were expected — thousand or more. Yeah. In fact, 1,500-1,700 at Gautam Buddha University that was last year. So, the fellow approaches a caterer, a vendor, and gets us a quote, and the quote is something like, you know, one plate, we were ordering ready-made plates for everybody, so 1,500 plates, it said one plate for 200 rupees. He said, "So many plates, and still, he’s asking 200, but why? What’s on the plate?" He said, "This, this, this.”
I said "No, No these are all normal parts of the Indian meal. Why is it so expensive? He said — "This is Pulao." So? “Isme Cashew hai.” Cashew, how much? How many pieces? Finally, we sealed the deal at half the price, sans the cashew, and nobody seemed to mind. He's there. (looking towards the person discussed here in the incident.)
Are you educated? You walked out de-facto illiterate from IIT. Are you getting it? Because the entire purpose of education was to just get money, and not too much money. When I look back at the kind of packages we were offered, they were pretty ordinary. But still, they appeared humongous when compared with the situation that the youth outside the campus faced.
Today, when you look at those packages, you say there’s nothing in it. Why were you crazy after IIT and this? Because there were still people who were dying of hunger, dying of hunger, and in our collective memory, that’s gotten in and become embedded. Even today, parents scold their kids and say –“Bukha marega” No, nobody is going to die of hunger. Please, that’s not happening anymore — but that thing is still there. Are you getting it? Get rid of that fear.
Your bottom line stands secured, and that's the entire purpose of civilization and governance: to give you a basic minimum social security so that you don't have to worry about your basic carnal existence. At least that's been taken care of. Even in India, we are coming to that situation where that has been taken care of — at least for the segment you belong to, or most of you belong to. You're not going to die of hunger, you're not going to be stranded on the streets. You're all right. Relax.
And when you know you are all right, then you can proceed towards things of higher value. Otherwise, you'll be left just wondering, afraid, about “Oh my God…agar mai beghar ho gayi to” And that makes you so narrow, so petty. You cannot think of bigger things. Larger causes get lost on you. You're always afraid of small things. That's what is happening to India, and it is pretty unnecessary — at least for the segment that is factually financially liberated now. And you come from that segment. And you come from that segment.
How can you do anything meaningful in life if 80% of what you think is about money and survival? Money will override everything.
And we don't even think of money. Many of us still think in terms of food — roti, dal, roti. Come on. You're educated. You are young. You have some IQ. You are intelligent. You won't starve. You won't starve. Even in the jungle, beings don't starve. Why would you starve? Get that fear out of your mind.
There is this beautiful thing from the Sermon on the Mount. Goes something like: the birds have nests, and lions have dens — that’s not verbatim; you may go and check for the exact thing —and fish have water. Only man is homeless. They don't care about where they would find shelter, and they find. They are well-sheltered. Only man is the one wondering all the time about shelter.
What do you go to the US for? I don't think you go to the US to study the rich history and culture of the land or to partake in its pristine natural beauties. Do you do that? When one says US, what comes to mind? The fact is it's one of the most scenic countries in the world, with many kinds of climate zones. You have warm weather, you also have snow and ice. You even have deserts, and you have magnificent forests. And you have Alaska. And you have beaches, and you have mountains. There is so much there — and most of that is untouched still and well-preserved.
But that doesn't come to mind, does it? What comes to mind is Wall Street, East Coast and West Coast, tech or finance — that's all. Everything in between does not matter. Are you getting it? I'm not deprecating money, but once you have a reasonable degree of it, grow out of it.
Money is an enabler, not the purpose of life. It allows you to live more fully. It cannot become life itself.
What will you become? Technicians and consultants who are more affordable, therefore more employable in the global market — cheap kind of labor? No. Is that what life is for? Learn some skills so that somebody may hire you? The low-cost backyard of the world?
Little innovation, little research. You know about IIT. You hear of IIM. And the one name that doesn't get the respect it deserves is IISc, because for very long it didn't have any placement department at all. It dealt in pure sciences—basic sciences.
Do you know of very important news related to IISc? See, it happened just yesterday, or rather today morning. It's an important piece. Why would you know? It's IISc. No placements, no glamour, no headlines: "Mr. X from there gets a package of X or Y crores." So when the government has ensured that the IITs and IIMs proliferate — there were five each of them till just 30 years back, and now I suppose there are 25 each of them — but IISc has remained at one. Who cares about basic sciences? Who cares about fundamental research?
But that's what moves the world, by the way. And mind you, that's also where big money lies. The path that we have chosen gives easy but little money. If money is what you want, even that cannot come by just being a technician.
Solid breakthroughs in science are needed. You know the kind of profit General Electric makes? Who was the founder?
Questioner: Thomas Edison.
Acharya Prashant: Who was the founder in the first place? He was a scientist, dealing in pure sciences. Because he had the science, so he could make the profits. So we won't even make the profits. All we'll have is a sustenance-kind of salary and a survival-kind of existence. And you'll be happy with that: “At least we are not starving.” Does it make any sense?
This is a thing unknown to us because we do not see it around us. And as we said in the beginning: truth is everywhere — and mischievously, that translates into “What is everywhere is the truth.” And in India, what is everywhere is mediocrity. So mediocrity has become our truth.
We don't feel ashamed of being in fields we have no passion for. Ask the common man: “What relationship do you have with your work?” And he'll gape at you. He’ll say, “Relationship? Work is to get a salary, not to have a relationship.” Are you getting it? Nobody is ashamed of not being committed to the thing he loves. And that's the one thing you should be truly ashamed of. Firstly, of having nothing to truly fall in love with. Secondly, if you have something in front of you that deserves to be truly loved, why are you still indifferent? Why are you still not absolutely committed?
This is what one should be ashamed of. But we have become such mediocre people. We are not ashamed of anything. We go to jobs we don't love. We live lives that we internally hate, and yet we carry on, don't we?
We steal from our jobs, don't we? And we don't despise ourselves for that. Give the ordinary worker a chance to abstain or steal or dodge work, and see what he does. Half a chance and he'll grab it, because he hates his work. Why do you still have to be in that work if you hate it? And if you are in the right kind of work, can you still hate it? What can be said about you?
This nation needs love. I say it often: we are very loveless people. We have feelings. We have very little love.
Questioner: Thank you Acharya Ji.
