Sri Ramakrishna Math : The Vedanta Kesari, January 2003

Suresh is a young student of Delhi, who has just received the news of his performance in the Board exams of Class 12. He studies in one of the prestigious Public schools of Delhi and the results of the Board exams have just been announced. Suresh is devastated. He has failed in the examinations! He finds no reason why his performance has been judged to be so overwhelmingly poor. Unable to contain the burden of failure, his mind is being swayed with the question of whether he should make a permanent departure from this world. He is suddenly reminded of his mentor, Vivek. 'Vivek had been so insistent on picking up life skills,' he murmurs to himself. At no other point of time does Vivek's consistent advice to Suresh, to empower himself with the knowledge of leading an ideal life, seems so relevant as it is today. He had been ignoring Vivek's recommendations to join the Vivekananda Study Circle persistently till date. 'An idealistic life is no longer practical under today's circumstances. I find no relevance of the words of Swami Vivekananda, spoken about a century back, in the context of today's rat race. One needs to be competitive and not idealistic. I have my own ambitions to fulfil and I want to be perceived as a successful professional in society,' he remembers having argued with Vivek every time he brought the issue of mastering life skills as crucial to human development and fulfilment. Vivek, however, had been very patient. He never chose to thrust anything on Suresh, although he knew that if he insisted strongly, Suresh would have joined the Study Circle mechanically. He knew that life itself is a great educator. So, he waited for the moment when the realities of life would dawn on Suresh. Till now, Suresh had been dismissing all propositions of Vivek to understand the essence of the Indian way of life as desultory. But, not any longer. He cannot follow life in the same strain. Posed with a question of life and existence, he desperately needs a solution. And, so he shoots an SOS e-mail to Vivek, who is now seated in the upper echelons of corporate citadel in far-off California.

Vivek responds to Suresh's mail immediately. Since he is online 24 hours a day, he gets across to Suresh instantly. This is what Vivek writes to Suresh in his e-mail:

Your mail brings joy and pain at the same time. Joy, because the stark reality of life has prompted you to question your approach to life; pain, because you are unable to withstand this sudden impact on your life. I think the time has come when we can revisit the life-skills that I have been trying to advocate in your scheme of life for quite some time. Allow me to begin by stating that you are not at fault if you find yourself not adequately equipped to handle the present crisis in which you are unfortunately situated at this juncture of life. The education system, which has trained you in only assimilation of information and facts, has never empowered you with the skills to face life fearlessly and with equanimity. You must be wondering if I am any different, being a product of the same system. Indeed, I have my own challenges to face in my professional world, as well as in my personal life. But, the fact of the matter is that I have been fortunate enough to come in contact with the positive ideas of Swami Vivekananda and consequently with the Vedanta philosophy at an early stage in my life. I have mingled with the followers of this philosophy, observed their lives from close quarters and reshaped my own life after the same model. My friend, I have also learnt from crises in life. What came to my rescue in those moments of despair were the thoughts and ideas of Swami Vivekananda. Like me, many a person of my own generation, who now occupy positions of great economic consequence, has also been influenced by this great personality. I still recall the occasion when the present Worldwide CEO of Mc-Kinsey, Rajat Gupta, after assuming the coveted position, in his first interface with the Indian media, observed that if India has to regenerate herself, she has to take recourse to the ideas and opinions of Swami Vivekananda. You have always been enamoured of the economic muscle of the materialistic world and its power of influence. This admiration drives your ambition to become a successful corporate captain one day. But you must admit that the fuel behind this great economic vehicle is the power of the intellect, the power of ideas. If India today lacks anything, it is this power of ideas. As a nation, we suffer not only from poverty of food, but profoundly from the poverty of ideas. Swami Vivekananda recognised this fact in his scheme of development of the future India and he pointed out that the Indian Universities have failed to produce even one original man, who is capable of independent thinking and willing. That is precisely why he even encouraged his disciples to study Indian philosophy in its original versions and not commentaries by experts. Remember, you cannot ignore the power of thought. Swamiji says that even if you go into a cave and sit in silence, but are seized with an intense thought, that thought will eventually traverse out of the cave till it latches on to the brain of someone. The very power of the thought will influence this fit receptacle to transform that thought into action. No one understands this principle so acutely as do advertisers. I was in your city recently, as you know, for settling an important negotiation with one of our clients. I was pleasantly amused to observe the whole city being enveloped by hoardings that advertised the arrival of Hallo¹ in your city. Wherever one went, one would be swept away by the sheer presence of the advertisement of the Company's fresh offer a Hallo mobile connection. What is the Company trying to achieve through these ubiquitous advertisements? If you step back and ponder for a while, you will understand that it is bombarding your thought world with an idea, till the desire of getting a Hallo connection becomes irresistible. You soon land up in purchasing a Hallo connection. This is harnessing the power of thought! The current consumerist world has full understanding of this principle and they have achieved a high level of material development through application of this principle in education. But, is education complete with thought power or intellectual power? A study of civilisation has the answer to this inquiry.

About a century back, Swami Viveka-nanda had delineated the ideal educational model that India should implement: 'What we need & is to study, independent of foreign control, different branches of the knowledge that is our own, and with it the English language and Western science&. Mere book learning won't do. We want that education by which character is formed, strength of mind is increased, the intellect is expanded, and by which one can stand on one's own feet &. What we want are Western science coupled with Vedanta, brahmacharya as the guiding motto, and also sraddhâ and faith in one's own self.' Unfortunately, the Indian policy experts on education never spared a thought to this face of education. The result is before our eyes to see--ever-increasing number of suicide, depression, juvenile delinquency, murder at the drop of a hat, rape of minors and a plethora of other evils. Your city, Delhi, has just realised that it is unsafe for women. A similar sight, but on a much larger scale, greets us when we re-evaluate the modern materialistic civilisations. Let us suspend our amazement at their opulence and physical comforts for the moment and what do we find? A multitude of challenges and problems at the mental level--high susceptibility to stress, atrocious divorce rates, self-alienation, loneliness and schizophrenia. Something deeper is missing. Tremendous intellectual strength has grown, but this alone has proved to be insufficient for a stable society. Look at the admirable quality of the western society. It is a learning civilisation, ever assiduous in seeking solutions to problems. And they are increasingly turning to the universally applicable thoughts of spiritual India for solutions. While we have learnt to live with problems, the West has learnt to solve problems. But what is the deeper element that is missing in our current educational system? Swami Vivekananda has an answer to this: 'Unless, we base our civilisation on spirituality, civilisation will explode.' We have witnessed the mind-blowing prowess of intellectual development; we are yet to witness the unfoldment of the stupendous capacity of spiritual development. I quote Swami Vivekananda again: 'Teach yourselves, teach everyone, his real nature; call upon the sleeping soul and see how it awakes. Power will come, glory will come, goodness will come, purity will come, and everything that is excellent will come, when this sleeping soul is roused to self-conscious activity.' It is this awakening of the soul-power in us that is the first life-skill, which I wanted to share with you in this mail. The Vedantic declaration that we are all potentially divine beings is not a speculation or intellectual interpolation to adjust to crises in life. It is an experience and a realisation, arising from a deeper psychological inquiry. Even a little spiritual strength will enable us to face the challenges of life with equanimity and calmness. Therefore, the first objective of education should be to direct an individual towards this goal of life and charting avenues to allow each individual to realise this infinite potential, thereby making it kinetic in all walks of life. An individual or a civilisation can create a truly sustainable developmental index only when this Divine consciousness is awakened. This was also the secret of India's glorious past, which witnessed a parallel development of abhyudaya--material abundance and nihshreyasa--spiritual fulfilment.

My dear Suresh, can you postpone your decision for a while and apply your mind to the contents of this mail? In my next mail, I shall write to you about the spectacle of success and how to unleash your hidden potential to convert failures into opportunities of growth. We shall have a close look at how to leverage the power of raga and dvesha, attachment and aversion, to facilitate success. I am sure that this mail and the subsequent ones will serve to help you come out of the present depression and empower you to smile away at your self-imposed failure. I am reminded once again of Swamiji's famous assertion that Vedanta does not acknowledge failures; it only admits errors.