Career Choice And Worldly Happiness

Following is a conversation between Swamiji and some devotees where Swamiji clarifies the questions posed by the devotees related to choosing one’s career and worldly life.

 

Shri Bharath: Padanamaskaram Swamiji! I am Bharath from Amrita School of Engineering. My question is related to Pravrutti. Swamiji, I am going to finish MTech in two months and I have to find a Job. It has always been my desire to work in Aerospace Industry. By your grace I have confidence in myself that I will be able to become good engineer. But the problem is I don't want to work for that industry anymore. Actually I have lost my desire to work as an engineer itself because nowadays engineering is mostly used for increasing the comforts for humans which leads to unsustainable world. I believe it is ok if somebody wants to innovate something provided it is used only when it is needed. All the companies who sell anything see only if their customers has the money to buy or not. They don't bother if they really need it or not. For example if a person want to buy a car just for the sake of prestige he is very well allowed to buy if he has money but he actually doesn't need it at all. Nikhil sir told me that you wouldn't travel in AC coaches even when you can buy tickets to travel in AC coaches. You only prefer to travel in sleeper coaches. From this it is very clear that we shouldn't try to live a luxurious life. But we watch a movie also in a AC theatre! All these ideas of mine lead to following questions. Swamiji, I request You to kindly answer these questions which will help me a lot in my life.

Bharath (Q1): Is it ok to work for such companies who are responsible for causing unsustainability in the world?

Swami: O Learned and Devoted Servants of God! If you do not work, somebody else will work in your place considering the present rate of unemployment. So, even if you do not work, it will not serve any purpose. If you want to achieve your aim of a sustainable world, propagate the spiritual knowledge related to this point and impress it on the minds of the people. The problem is that nobody is worried about the welfare of society. They forget that, after all, they are members of society. This crucial point must be stressed and used for the good purpose of bringing in people, some selflessness and a sense of responsibility towards society because every soul is inherently selfish. Environmental science is already doing this job and it is purely a point of science in the path of pravrutti.

Bharath (Q2): We humans already have the necessary technology for even living a luxurious life. So, should we stop doing engineering? If not, how can we use engineering to create a better world? Is space exploration really necessary for humans?

Swami: Again, this point is about bringing a change in society, which is the subject of pravrutti. It is not the subject of nivrutti, which is about bringing a change in an individual alone and is purely personal. Hence, propagating the concept to the public is the only way. Space exploration is the scientific research that attempts to study items in space. There is no use of such research in nivrutti because the scriptures say that the upper worlds cannot be seen by human beings due to the will of God. Thus, space research belongs only to pravrutti. Science does not bother about God and is confined to the present life alone. Scientific rationality is confined only to physical knowledge. Even though there are several genuine miracles happening in this world, science does not bother about them. Atheists attempt to examine these miracles like scientists. But they differ from the silent scientists in their invariable strong negation of the miracles at the end of their investigation. Unless miracles are accepted, scientists and atheists will not believe in the existence of the unimaginable God. A scientist may become a believer in God, but an atheist will never believe. For believers in God, miracles are not necessary since they follow the advanced knowledge of nivrutti.

 

Bharath (Q3): Like me, many youngsters have different kinds of passions. Please tell me what is meant by interest and what is meant by passion. Should there be any restrictions in developing our interests?

 

Swami: An attraction to an item is interest. When the same interest intensifies, it becomes passion. If the fruit of the attraction to that item brings welfare to the soul, then having a passion will give more benefit than having a mere interest. But if the fruit is harmful to the soul, even having an interest for it must be avoided.

Bharath (Q4): Since I lost interest in engineering I have become very lazy. I have wasted a lot of precious time and even now I am wasting time. When I try to analyze the reasons for my laziness, I find that it is not only the loss of interest but also something else. Please tell me the different reasons why a person becomes lazy and how to overcome it.

Swami: Laziness is the most dangerous disease because it not only spoils one’s mental health, but also one’s physical health. Even if you stop mental work, you should never stop physical work, which is doing some physical exercises, at least. The body must have perfect health and you must give top most priority to this point. A sound mind always needs a sound body. Only a sound mind can understand the real spiritual knowledge, which is helpful for the welfare of the soul forever.

Bharath (Q5): Many students are forced by their parents to study something or to do something they are not interested in doing. I have even seen students committing suicide because they were asked to do something which they never liked and as a result they had failed miserably. In that case, should students listen to their parents? In my case though, I was not interested in doing an M.Tech. I still listened to my father and did it. As a result, I have got this divine knowledge from You. You gave me Nikhil sir as my teacher, who helped me understand this knowledge by patiently answering all my questions. So, by listening to my father, even though I did not like what he told me to do, something good happened to me.

Swami replied: Parents are always wiser than their children because parents have more worldly knowledge than the children. Worldly knowledge is also a fundamental necessity. Suppose, you are planning to present a devotional drama to the public to develop their devotion to God. To perform the drama, a stage is essential. So, you must have all the knowledge of the stage too. The devotional drama is your spiritual effort. Maintaining yourself in the world i.e. securing your livelihood, is the stage. Worldly knowledge is the knowledge of the stage. If you are very rich and if you are interested in spiritual knowledge, it is good. You need not struggle to maintain yourself in the world. You can only concentrate on the spiritual effort which leads to the permanent welfare of the soul. It is certainly far far more important than merely the welfare of the body. But if you are poor, then as the first step, you should concentrate on the welfare of the body, which is securing your livelihood. Even if you are a middle class person, you should concentrate on the welfare of the body in the first step. This is because, your limited savings might not be sufficient for your lifetime since the value of money might fall steeply in the future.

As regards education, even if you do not have any interest in a subject, you have to develop interest in it since it is helpful for your profession. You should choose a field of study which has better career prospects so that you may get good employment and develop interest in that field. Even if a man is forced to marry a certain woman, he must develop interest in his wife, once the marriage has taken place. He married her under inevitable circumstances. If the circumstances had not been inevitable, he could have married the girl he loved very much.

Similarly, in order to maintain yourself in the world, which is the basic stage for the spiritual effort, you have to study the subject in which you have no natural interest. After entering in to the subject, you must show your interest in it to the climax. You should not withdraw from the subject saying that you have no natural interest in it. It would be just like saying to your wife that you do not love her because you were forced to marry her under inevitable circumstances! It would be real injustice. Until you are well-settled in life, you must continue your interest in that subject and in the profession related to that subject. Once you are established in your profession, you can pursue your interest in another subject of your choice. But please do not extend this concept to the example of marriage that I gave you. It was only a simile. You cannot say that after getting married, you will also continue your interest in your lover on the side! A simile can be applied to a concept only in a limited manner.

Shri Nivedhan: What are all the ways of being happy in life?

Swami: You must actually see the other side of the coin. Instead of asking how one can be happy in life, you must ask how the happiness can continue forever. If you take the case of worldly pleasures, the happiness is not continuous and moreover, it ultimately ends in unhappiness alone. Temporary happiness, which finally ends up in sorrow, is not desirable at all! On the other hand, the Gita describes eternal happiness. It says that the happiness which comes after some initial unhappiness during the stage when one makes efforts, alone is eternal (Yattadagre vishamiva…). You must not only see your need of happiness in the present but also in the future. Some people give importance to their happiness in their old age. They work hard earn and save enough money for their old age. They also take care of their health through good exercise and food habits. These people accept some discomfort in the present, so that they can be happy during their old age. But it is not enough. It is even more important to make efforts to ensure your happiness after death. Merely focusing on your happiness during the temporary period of this life, is not wise.

If you concentrate on God, you will be happy now, you will be happy in your old age and you will be happy even after death. God is the best and only way for getting eternal happiness. His grace can be attained through spiritual knowledge and devotion. You can realize this perfectly once you study spiritual knowledge completely. You must be very careful in choosing the means of getting temporary happiness or the means of getting permanent happiness. It is most important to analyze your own goal very very carefully. You must decide whether you are seeking temporary happiness or permanent happiness.

Laxmi Thrylokya: Padhanamaskaram Swamiji! I'm happy to get your blessings in choosing my career. Career is one thing I love the most in life for which I invested time, money and energy since childhood. Everything else used to be in second priority. Making huge money and earning good name were the prime goals of my life. Now, after meeting Amma (Mata Amritanandamayi Devi) and reading your discourses, I realized that I was running in wrong direction because right goal is the God. I feel blessed to have learnt the truth but a lot of tension has developed in my mind. I had to go through a series of bad dreams and sad emotions for some time. I want to continue this spiritual journey no matter what. Please forgive me for everything and give me situations to learn and grow. I'm not sure if my intellect can draw correct lesson from the incident I have gone through. Kindly tell me how to learn a lesson from incidents in life. I also want to know if every incident in life is a lesson or just some are lessons. My serious confusion right now is about the possibility of pursuing and progressing in the spiritual journey after taking up a career in Civil Services. I want to stand for justice and excercise honesty in duty. I want to make efforts in changing the Indian education system. I want to do many more things but now I'm scared that I may get lost in the Spiritual path doing such things. Even if I get into Civil Services, I may commit sins with wrong decisions due to limited knowledge and lack of overall background. Humans have limited intellect. Please tell me what is the eligibility for humans to perform administrative role in the society as Civil Servants or Politicians. Anyhow, we know that only God is deserving to receive our selfless service. Every human in society is selfish and cannot protect me anyways. My goal of life must be to please God and I want to progress in Spiritual path fastly. I request you to Kindly tell me directly what to do with my life. Your answer might give me pain right now but I feel that is better than wasting time in going wrong way and repenting later. Please navigate me in right direction. Thank you.

Swami: Please read the answer given by Me to Question No. 5 of Shri Bharath mentioned above.