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00:00We have noticed that most of the Indian students tend to choose the fields like computer science
00:05which are mostly driven by the job prospects and societal approvals.
00:11So why do we as a society often tend to follow the herd mentality and prioritize our safe careers?
00:20We are not really educated. We are vocationally trained. Why? Because the purpose was placements.
00:24Because we are coming from a poor past. We have been deprived of bread for just so long that
00:30everything has to be about bread and butter. Everything. So anything that you do people will
00:35ask what is it for? How can there be any kind of development if all that you need is money?
00:44I fully well understand that with empty stomach you cannot proceed towards higher causes. So money
00:49is needed. You need clothes. You need food. You need medical support. All those things are
00:54I understand. But many of us have surpassed those conditions by long and yet we behave as if we are
01:04still living in the 1950s. So we keep on accumulating and our lives do not become rich.
01:15Question is like we both are PhD students and I am researching in financial planning and he is
01:21researching in engineering education. And we have noticed that most of the Indian students who are
01:27in abroad especially in the US tend to choose the fields like computer science which are mostly driven
01:34by the job prospects and societal approvals. And in contrast like fields like humanities or core sciences
01:42or social sciences we can see there are very few Indians. Though these fields attract a lot of students
01:50from many other countries. So why do we as a society often tend to follow the herd mentality and
01:56prioritize our safe careers over the real interests? And how can we as individuals break free from this
02:04conditioning and to make choices which are aligned with our true calling? So we would be very grateful if
02:11you could provide your insights on it. So what you see and experience for long
02:22becomes not just your habit but your truth.
02:25We in the field of wisdom literature call the truth as that which is everywhere. Don't we? Omnipresent,
02:49Kutasthendantaryami. Everywhere. It is often read in the reverse. Truth is everywhere and the way the ego reads is
03:06that which is everywhere will be the truth. So if something is seen everywhere it becomes your truth.
03:19Are you getting it? That's the way the inner thing works. If you see something for very long,
03:29experience it for very long, it becomes your truth. India has seen poverty and deprivation for very long.
03:43Very long.
03:49So bread and basic mortal concerns, they have become the truth. And what is the truth? The highest.
04:09That becomes your highest concern.
04:11That becomes your highest concern. Basic safety. Will I have food on the table tonight?
04:24Will I have food on the table tonight? Will I have food on the table next year? Those things.
04:44Let us continue for very long.
04:46Centuries. It becomes culture. And we have had a long history of equating culture with the
05:05truth. Culture means reality. That's what it is.
05:08Now the curious thing here is that the fats are no more as bleak today as they were 50 years or 100 years
05:22back. Today you are not so very malnourished, not so deprived or desolate.
05:33But the habit having become the truth is carrying a momentum that won't easily be lost.
05:51So it has become a part of rather the center
05:56of popular social wisdom that education has to be about bread winning.
06:09Do you see this? We have been deprived of bread for just so long that everything has to be about
06:14bread and butter. Everything. Why are you climbing up that hill? What will you get out of it? What is that fellow
06:28asking? Is there money in it? Because we have experienced the lack of money for just too long. So anything that you do,
06:38people will ask, people will ask, what is it for? You hear what they are saying? They are asking,
06:45is there money in it? And there is a point there. Because there was no money for centuries.
06:55There was no money. And there were terrible famines.
06:59Not just before independence, but even for almost two decades after independence.
07:11You getting it? So it has become a part of received wisdom and accepted truth.
07:18Everything has to be about money. Money. Let me give you a cute example, a sweet example.
07:34In some of the poorest parts of the country,
07:39money. Still if you get good delicious food to eat, they will say it is very meatha.
08:00Now it could be a salty dish. It could be a dish involving not even a grain of sugar.
08:07But still to praise it, it would be said meatha. You see the reason? There was no sugar. Sugar was so scarce.
08:27That sugar itself became the symbol of some kind of prosperity or abundance.
08:38or goodness.
08:44It became a synonym. If something is good,
08:47then it is sugary. So whatever is good,
08:52is being carried down in culture as meatha, sugary.
08:58Habit, mind you, becomes your personal truth, which is dangerous. Because those situations no longer exist.
09:11The situations of scarcity.
09:13We behave as if they do. I was having a long winding conversation with one of my batchmates.
09:28Oh, he has returned from your place to India.
09:30India. And it was about what's going on in India and what's going on with Trump and his party there.
09:40India. So he was displaying a reluctance to accept that people can
09:56people can look beyond their immediate Dal Ruti needs
10:01and worry for a larger purpose like climate change.
10:13He said, you know, because there was inflation and the common American worries
10:18a lot about the prices because the previous government just couldn't control inflation.
10:24India. They don't worry about climate change because
10:30And I said, but that's not the way history behaves.
10:33He said, can you name even one incident in history
10:37when people have looked beyond their narrow concerns?
10:42And it was astonishing for him to say this to me.
10:47Their concerns and worked for a larger purpose.
10:54Why did,
11:02it did not occur to him?
11:05Because even though we both come from IIT, yet
11:08our education has been just vocational.
11:17I meet my batchmates and
11:19it's often irritating to them when I say IIT left us
11:24high and dry and uneducated.
11:28Uneducated. We said just we are glorified mechanics.
11:33We are not really educated. We are vocationally trained.
11:37Why? Because the purpose was placements. Why? Because we are coming from a poor past.
11:49So, the greatest accomplishment is if you can somehow get placed and start earning money to put
11:54food to eat. And that is sufficient.
11:58So, as many tech courses as possible. Proceed.
12:06So that you can embellish your CV
12:09and get the fattest package possible.
12:13Tech, tech, tech, tech, tech, tech.
12:15And even that tech is outdated and obsolete.
12:21The fact is the kind of machines we were trained on
12:28but were not being used in industry since like two decades or something and we knew about it and the
12:34teachers too knew that.
12:36So, the technology you have been trained on is outdated and apart from technology you have been
12:45educated about nothing. So, you have de facto walked out of campus uneducated.
12:55That's not comfortable to hear. Especially if your identity itself is tied to that tag.
13:01That's how things are. And we didn't realize that when we were in campus.
13:11That we are being trained just to earn bread for ourselves and the family and be happy about that.
13:20It's in hindsight today, like 25 years later, I can see that what we were trained on was not
13:28sufficient. I could see that in fact, just a few years after passing out or at least begin to see that.
13:39When I started Advaita Life Education, the syllabus contained a lot of knowledge of
13:50current events, general awareness, history, some philosophy.
13:58these things. Things that you just don't get exposed to.
14:04Why don't you get exposed to them? Because the knowledge of history won't fetch you
14:09money. Won't fetch you money.
14:16So, after 10th, nobody wants to study history
14:22or geography. The fact is, we don't know history because
14:28we are scrambling after vocational courses where some money can be had.
14:37So, we don't study history. So, we don't know history.
14:40So, WhatsApp history becomes history.
14:44Do you see what's going on? Do you understand why India is in such a precarious position today?
14:49Why all kinds of misinformation about history find fertile ground in our minds?
14:59Because we don't know history. And you have to go deeper into it and ask yourself,
15:04but why don't we know history? Because history never got us any money.
15:09So much of the religious corruption that is there and superstition and all kinds of social divides,
15:23they proceed in the name of religion. Why does that happen? You know the single biggest reason?
15:33We don't know Sanskrit. And our texts are in Sanskrit.
15:42And why don't we know Sanskrit? Because there is no money there.
15:46When you are getting married, don't you want to know what the Pandit is saying?
16:06And what if he is uttering some mischief?
16:08A Pandit like me would indeed do that.
16:17And happily chuckle within these two fools.
16:23They don't even know I am uttering santhabanta jokes in Sanskrit.
16:28How can there be any kind of development if all that you need is money?
16:45And I am not anti-money.
16:49I fully well understand that with empty stomach you cannot proceed towards higher causes.
16:56So money is needed, you need clothes, you need food, you need nutritious food,
17:03you need medical support, you need a place to live, you need a vehicle to move on.
17:15All those things I understand.
17:18But many of us have surpassed those conditions
17:26by long.
17:29And yet we behave as if we are still living in the 1950s.
17:44So we keep on accumulating.
17:46And our lives do not become rich.
17:49How can your life be rich if you do not know history?
17:57With money you can travel to Italy.
18:00But if you know nothing about Italy,
18:01all you will say is you know so much water in between buildings.
18:07Why do not they drain it out?
18:10Must be damaging the foundations of the buildings.
18:15This place is just like Mumbai.
18:20Water is accumulating all the time.
18:21When did it rain here yesterday night?
18:23Not knowing science in a proper way.
18:36Not knowing science in a proper way.
18:38You are a CA.
18:41How much science do you know?
18:42Please tell me.
18:45Though you will earn money.
18:47What will you understand of the world?
18:49Somebody will say.
18:53NASA has sent a satellite.
18:56And that satellite is clicking pics on Diwali night.
19:07And that CA earning several lakhs a month would be forwarding this
19:12to other CA's.
19:19Where is richness in life?
19:20Can there be richness in life without purposeless knowledge?
19:27Without knowledge that's not aimed at just survival?
19:33Not that survival is not important.
19:36We have agreed on that already.
19:41But somebody who is already earning a few lakhs a month,
19:45shouldn't that person now focus on richness of life?
19:51Where is that?
19:57You will burn money and get a fancy watch for yourself.
20:00And you won't even know why it costs so much.
20:05Think of the stupidity.
20:09There is this watch costing 10 lakhs.
20:12There is another one.
20:13The price is priced at just how much?
20:185,000?
20:19Let's say.
20:20Both are showing exactly the same time.
20:24Right now?
20:24After an hour?
20:25After 7 days?
20:27After 30 days?
20:28After 1 year?
20:29Tell me why this one is priced at 5k and this one at 10?
20:32You don't know.
20:35Your money has made you even more stupid.
20:37Are you getting it?
20:47When you buy something expensive, it's alright.
20:49You have money.
20:50You can buy things.
20:51But do you know why that thing is expensive?
20:53If not, how did you make the decision?
21:07America is alsoç‚ivo.
21:10Do you have any kind of ideas to help you either?
21:12Or is it or is the reason for turn?
21:13No.
21:13There is no idea who is selling for you.
21:14Or is it or the reason why you want to bakim statt?
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