Focus of education & preaching must be on imbibing commitment to our respective duties, Kartavya-palan

1. Schooling and preaching today is creating self-centered educated people focused only on the short-term, temporary goals for pleasure and money and society as a whole is in a chaotic state of purposelessness!

Effectiveness in work and life: Whether we’re aware or not, every single ‘choice, thought, word, action, motive’, every moment, is “karma, work” and each “work” has its simultaneous consequences both externally, and internally on our Mind, as an “impression, Samskara”, which enslaves us and governs our subsequent choices and “work’.

Thus, from childhood all parenting, preaching, teachings, must be consciously directed to make us aware of this reality and educate, train and inspire us to strive to be more and more selfless! Unless we are made aware of this truth from a young age, how can we be inspired to fulfil our duties and strive to see that our daily interactions and professional work leads not only to worldly prosperity but also for inner growth towards Perfection.

The unique and grand Vision of Indian culture: ‘Yogaha karmashu kaushalam – yoga is Skill (i.e. selfless kartavya-palan) in work’; i.e. Karma Yogi as GOI has now envisioned. Academia and Preaching must teach us to reflect and introspect: Is my daily “work” improving my mind? Is my work, teaching, preaching making me a good, better, human being? Is it maximizing my potential for perfection and bliss? Am I growing in feelings of love, care and concern for more and more?

As leaders of societies our vision must be to create systems and people who will strive both for inner growth towards ‘perfection’; and for quality and perfection in work, done with evenness of mind, for the good of society.

2. Each living-being, Jiva+atma, is potentially divine; just as a ‘seed’ has the potential to create a forest. Identified with body-mind, we are all limited and separate and are bound to be self-centered, narrow and petty minded. It is only when we learn and practice identifying more and more with divinity, Conscious-Self within, will we grow towards feelings of ‘apanapan’, Oneness, with more and more. The Self within is the source of consciousness, peace, bliss, ananda. Body-mind keep changing and decaying but as Self, we’re all One and Fulfilled! Ignorantly we seek ‘limited’ happiness mixed with unhappiness outside because the mind is designed to see ‘outside’!

All our respective religious worship, prayers, meditations etc. help improve quality of thoughts flowing in the mind, reduce quantity of unwanted thoughts, and direct them towards our highest God-wards ideal. A Jivatma wishes to be healthy and happy, ‘swastha’, which literally means ‘to be established in its own Self’, which is of the swaroopa of ananda. Therefore, Yoga and all religions when sincerely practiced, purify the mind and build the ability to directly experience the peace, fulfilment, already within us (as consciousness, divinity, spirit, life, Perfection)!

3. The more we learn to be selfless, fulfil our duties, work for good of all, the more we expand and purify our mind and feel and experience peace, fulfilment, oneness, with more and more. We learn to love all equally, see the one divine Self in all creation, though seemingly separated as body-minds. This is the ideal of all Religions and Yoga.

This is the direction and the goal of human evolution – to grow in feelings of Oneness with more and more, till we can feel One with the whole creation. This is the highest and best vision. Therefore, our common goal is to walk-the-talk towards Oneness, by controlling nature, external and internal (our mind), “Perfection”, “Freedom”. Work when done in the spirit of ‘Yogaha karmashu kaushalam’, supported through Lif-Skills or as our respective religious practices like prayers, meditation, self-study, etc. leads to highest human ‘Perfection’,

This ideal of work must be taught by academia and preaching. We must learn to work with compassion, Sarvabhoota hite rataah, i.e. engaged in the happiness and welfare of all beings. An ordinary person looks after its own physical and mental needs, but the educated-religious Srestha, must learn to feel One with all, and learn to serve societal interests. The Srestha, must be inspired during schooling and preaching to remain on the critical path towards human ‘Perfection’.

Mahabharat gives examples of a housewife who served her family dispassionately and a butcher who performed this seemingly ugly duty without attachment and aversion and both rose in yoga towards perfection, superior to a monk who was performing austerities!

Our past tendencies and desires goad us into action and as we act, we sow the seeds of future actions. All Karma can be good or bad. Work is an opportunity to manifest and experience the infinite Perfection, divinity, already within. The purpose of Work is ‘Chitta-suddhi’, purification of mind; not just to Earn & Enjoy.

While fulfilling our duties and in and through our daily actions we can practice and develop this inner and higher dimension of work which then becomes Karma-Yoga, i.e. Growth through work itself towards the highest human perfection.

The Teachers and Preachers are the guide and mentors of society. They must be themselves striving towards love for all equally and must constantly reflect, are we helping societies to awaken Viveka, discerning-intellect, and build powers of mind viz. self-control, will-power, etc. to ‘know’ and to ‘strive’ to walk towards the long-term universal, common good. “It is better for a city to be governed by a ‘good’ man than by good laws”. “There is no greatness without goodness”.