Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Boring life

Sometimes, I wonder what is the difference between a rickshaw puller and all these great engineers working in big companies like Microsoft and Amazon. The only visible difference to my mind is chance. The one who pulls rickshaw is no less hard working. He pulls rickshaw almost 8-10 hours a day. He toil hard under burning sun or in the freezing cold. In many ways, his effort requires greater physical and mental will power than the work of a software engineer sitting in air conditioned office.

From my experience, I can say "Environment is great influencer is shaping minds of people". The biggest example is of NRI's working abroad. When in other country, they would think twice before jumping a queue but when they visit India, they become sheep in the herd.

The events of second world war led to two greatest revelation to colonial power. First is Environment can brainwash even the sanest of the mind. Hitler created an environment where the whole nation became complicit to holocaust and imperialism. Even those who were relatively powerful, could not resist his thoughts. The propaganda campaign clouded thinking power of whole generation of rationale animals and brought out the real animalistic instinct. People complied, obliged, obeyed and lay supine in front of Nazi agenda.

Second big revelation was that real asset of future is not minerals or metals. It would instead be man power of the nation. The Empire of future would be empire of minds. With this vision in mind, Colonial power relinquished their claim over colonies. With this, nature of imperialism changed from financial to knowledge imperialism. A trend of brain drain started where western countries poached the best mind of colonies and provided them with an ecosystem where they can fulfill their biological and security needs in wholesome manner. The colonial hangover in colonies ensured that NRI tag would enable fulfillment of esteem needs as well. Thus brain drain sustained itself and spiraled over time. The sense of certainty in their lives lead to belief that they are makers of their destiny.

While there is nothing wrong with this view. It is certainly a very good belief system because this way person can inculcate "can do attitude" and avoid being fatalistic. But this leaves me wondering about "how does the western philosophy explains the factor of chance in people's life?".

Nowadays, I am reading Gita. I read about Karma Yoga. It talks about relinquishing desires in life and working without expectations and desires. This leave me confused about the whole philosophy of pursuing goals and following purpose in life. How can some one work without any desires. I tried. But I don't understand the system. Without desire there is no motivation. The will power is crippled. I understand that I should be unfazed with the end result and rather one should learn from outcome be it success or failure. But having no desire in the first place is perplexing.


Anyway, this was some random compilation of my thoughts. Will write something more substantive next time.






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