DEIVATHIN KURAL # 149 (of Vol 2) Dated 08 Sept 2008

DEIVATHIN KURAL # 149 (of Vol 2) Dated 08 Sept 2008

(These e-mails are translations of talks given by Periyavaal of Kanchi Kamakoti peetam, over a period of some sixty years while he was the pontiff in the earlier part of last century. These have been published in Tamil by Vanadi Padippagam, Chennai, in seven volumes of a thousand pages each, as Deivathin Kural. To day we are proceeding from the middle of page number 996, of volume 2, of the Tamil original. This e-mail is a continuation of Deivathin Kural # 148 (of Vol 2) dated 06 Sept 2008.)
29. A very small percentage of people find their way into a job or profession suited for their individual aptitudes and capabilities. A man with dispassion may find a job requiring high flown rhetoric! An imaginative person capable of going through enormous data base and arrive at a workable plan, may find that he is in a job of brainless physical iteration day in and day out! A person keen on active out door adventure, may well find himself responsible for maintenance of archives of old records! People interested in fine arts such as music and poetry, may be guarding the national border from a forward area bunker! Many of them may not even know or be aware that they are doing the wrong job and what is their preference! Problem is one of the vast gulf between the qualitative requirements for the job and correct/incorrect identification of potential in the selection process!
30. Do not ask me as to how do I know all this? Though I am sitting here in the Matam, all sorts of people come to me with their prayers and wishes. From this, the most pertinent observation I make is that, no body with the right qualifications is in the job suitable for him! That is, the capabilities and qualities of individuals are not necessarily matched to the qualitative requirements of the job!
31. One father comes to me and says, “For my son, we have applied for a seat in the Engineering College. We have also applied for a seat in B.Com. If we do not get the seat in engineering, he has to join B.Com. Engineering course is preferable. Periyavaal should bless us!” Is there any relation to the sort of job one would do with an engineering degree and a degree in B.Com? The boy may end up in one of them depending on many other factors, other than his Guna!
32. Another boy comes to me. “I have passed Intermediate with flying colours. I am wondering whether I should join Medical or do M.A. and then I.A.S.?” Now tell me as to what is the connection between Guna and Karma here? There is a practicing lawyer or industrialist. Then he joins a political party and over time becomes a minister. Then amongst the cabinet of ministers, there are professors, doctors, lawyers and some totally unlettered. Who can say as to what are the Guna-s to be in the minister and the lawyer / engineer / professor? Not only in the high level, this is applicable at lower levels too. Some one says, ‘Sir! I was in the Army. Retired as a L/Nk. Now I am working in the cinema theater.’ Some one else says, ‘After having been a server in a hotel all my life, I am now running a retail shop for under-wears’. The permutation combinations are aplenty!
33. The Government is also mouthing this phrase, ‘socialistic pattern of society’, endlessly. It is their confirmed policy that each should get the sort of job most suited for his aptitudes and capabilities and qualifications! Then they conduct competitive Indian Administrative Service exams. For the sake of research can you please find out as to how they are apportioned to Administrative / Foreign / Police / Customs / Railways and so on? Let me tell you, after some brilliant students get their choices, it is ‘sifaarish and recommendations’. Then it is ‘random relegation’! There is nothing of the individual’s ‘Mano bhava and guna-s’ whatsoever!
34. So, my observation is that, mostly people are not getting into jobs most suited for their aspirations or aptitudes or capabilities. They somehow adjust to the job that they get! Generally, the comparatively easier jobs with more remuneration are preferred. Wherever there is less discomfort, people compete for that. Now a days the trend is, preference for the sort of jobs where there is more opportunities for making money by devious means such as, for favours offered or for ignoring and turning a blind eye to the rules and regulations. Guna and Manobhava are all principles for which people only pay pure lip service!
35. But in the erstwhile arrangement that had been perfected over the centuries in our country, the very work was naturally his by birth. He was endowed with the traditional acumen and expertise for that specific job. Thus the work enabled his individual personal advancement and ennoblement, while being very useful and suitable for the welfare of the society as a whole! Three main qualities of that system stands out clearly! One is acceptance of ones position, status and work. Second, the suitable Guna and aptitude were in-born. Third, the total involvement, sincerity, hardwork and natural acumen that was there, without being asked for! This resulted in such noticeable excellence in what ever the Indian Hindu did. This is not vacuous self praise!
36. The spikes of the far reaches of the Indian society in Science, Medicine, (Ayur Veda, Siddha Vaidyam, Surgery and so on), in Mathematics, Astrology and related areas; the concept of Zero and Universe; the relation between the radius and the circumference in a circle; the principle of Adwaita in Philosophy; the game of Chess; their contribution in Arts and Crafts, Dance and Drama, Sculpture and Literature; really there is no end to Indian contribution to the world in quantity and quality; and it is still continuing! Let alone all this, You have to have really an extremely vast sense of liberality and accommodation to make a wish for universal happiness, such as, “lokhaaha samastaaha sukhino bhavantu I sarve janaaha sukhino bhavantu II”, meaning, ‘let all the worlds be happy and comfortable, let all the people be happy and comfortable’.
37. If nothing else, at least the Indian was not all the time cribbing about somebody else’s luck! The Brahmin with his Veda-s, Anushtana-s, Gayatri Mantra-s and Yagna-s; the Kshatriya with his bows and arrows, riding the horses and elephants and fighting his battles; the Vysya with his trade and commerce across land and overseas; the service sector of Sudra-s with their perseverance and hard work; were all happy with their work and with each other! They were all good at perseverance and hard work. I will touch this point again later!
38. Too much luxury is bad! To-day everybody wants all comforts and luxuries of all sorts. There can be no end to such demands! This is nothing but instigation of ill founded desires. Are people in those countries where everyone has a house, car, fridge, radio, tele-phone and so on; HAPPY? ( In India itself, even the rag-picker has a cell phone today! But is it any indication of the level of happiness?) Are they all happy in US of A? There is maximum disgruntlement there! Murder, loot, suicide, drugs, same sex marriage of gays and lesbians, molestation of young boys and girls are all common occurences there! That too, the identified criminals are Senators, Mayors, Bishops, School Masters, and so on!
(To be continued.)
Sambhomahadeva.