1. The Big Dreams in Life

What happens when the big dreams get fulfilled? What happens when you become rich and famous? Will you attain an enduring state of fulfilment? Will you then be able to live happily ever after? Or, will there be some something vital missing, something that you need to address now, when you are young and full of life? Is there not a deep truth in the old saying of Jesus: What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?

When I pose these basic questions to the students, they feel uncomfortable — but usually not sufficiently to question seriously their direction in life. The majority are too heavily “programmed”; one cannot really blame them for their strong sense of insecurity and discomfort, and inability to address the question. There appears to be too much at stake in the rat race of life, and it takes considerable courage, even just to pause and reflect, especially when one has travelled far and got ahead in the race. It becomes even more difficult, if not impossible, as one grows older. The dreams of our brightest and best students are ones that have been consciously and unconsciously ingrained in them by our social conditioning, by parents and teachers. Their dreams are but a faithful reflection of the prevailing materialistic world-view.

Is this the best our education can offer today? Are we not completely evading certain key issues in life?