How to Incorporate Spirituality in a Busy Life | Swami Sarvapriyananda | RKM, Siliguri

0:00 Om asatoma sadgamaya tamasoma jyotir gamaya mrityorma amritam gamaya Om shanti shanti shanti. Om lead us from the unreal to the real, lead us from darkness into light, lead us from death to immortality. Om peace peace peace. Respected principal Dr. Sanjay Kumar Malik um respected Swami Vishudharananda ji Maharaj, respected

0:47 Swami Mahatapananda ji Maharaj, other revered monks who are present here members of the faculty of the staff of North Bengal Medical College um guests and most of all dear students. It gives me a great pleasure to be here at your esteemed institution and in this beautiful auditorium, this large capacious auditorium with such a large audience here. Um it's wonderful to be here surrounded by so many doctors. I've never been in auditorium full of doctors. I remember once How many of you do not understand Bengali? Raise your hands. Some who do not understand Bengali. So I have to see how much Bengali I use and I

1:32 don't use. Okay, a very few. Okay, I'll mostly uh I'll use English but a little bit of Bengali. Akbar which look at the I give a talk or the auditorium was full of police. Should the police? And this is another one that auditorium is full of doctors and medical students. How many of you are students? Raise your hands. Oh, so many. The majority of students. Wonderful to see um students here in large numbers. You know, when I saw the numbers of students here, it was just struck with um the first thought that came to my mind is Do you know there are so many Indian students who go abroad because they don't get a seat in a medical college like you have? Obviously because of your caliber

2:17 scholastic caliber, but there are many who do not get a chance to study here. There's a huge demand for seats in medical colleges. Among them there are students right now, right now, Indians, young boys and girls like you in Ukraine where the war is going on. You know, they were brought back, airlifted back. Um I think a couple of years back. But then the war dragged on. So they have to continue their studies. So they went back to Ukraine. And they are there now. And I know personally I know them and I get reports of what life is like. I know one of the toughest academic courses in the world is when you study to become a doctor like you are all

3:02 doing. So you have to be congratulated for that. But it can become even tougher even worse. Imagine the life you have plus if it is on top of that if it is a war zone and that too in a foreign country and it's winter. And this this is literally reports from young Indian boys and girls studying there right now, which I am personally I know. It is minus 20 and the heating goes off. Minus 20, no heating. Electricity goes off. You cannot sleep at night because you know don't know when the next wave of drones and missiles is going to come,

3:48 Russian drones and missiles are going to hit. They have got internet app to track when it when the wave next wave of missiles is coming. So they have to go into the bunker and hide there. And then they have to go to the class next day and attend classes and go to the lab. And in a foreign country in which they don't know the language also. In many cases and in fact to go to a certain level after that you have to learn the language, Ukrainian language there. So it can become worse. I was saying that it's a privilege to be studying here, number one. And yes, it's a tough life. I have no doubt because I've heard so much from medical students. Many of our friends amongst know that there are many monks who are doctors, right? So we have many monks who are doctors or medically qualified doctors. We have we know about

4:35 how tough it is to become a doctor. It's a hard love profession, difficult profession. How hard life is as a medical college student. It's a privilege number one and number two, there are others like you, just like you who are who have an even much tougher life and yet they are doing it. So it is possible to do it. It's possible. It's not impossible. If you look around in your own batch, in your own cohort and you will find there are some who are able to cope with it. It's a good idea to learn what what's called nowadays best practices. It's a good idea to observe them. How do they manage their academic workload? How do they manage their health? How do they manage other

5:21 pressures from family? And learn and adapt from that also. It's it's a very interesting study. Personally I love visiting academic institutions. So in the United States, here in India and I've been in the United States for the last 10 years and I have seen I have visited many academic institutions, especially colleges, not a medical college like this. Although I was in the Harvard Medical College recently, just a few weeks ago a few um a couple of months ago. But mostly I've been into other general academic the colleges. So the first thing I want to tell you is something I observed here in India and in the West also in the best colleges and among the best scholars who are students, researchers, uh professors,

6:08 faculty members one quality I observed, common across the world, here and there. And that quality is called concentration. Focus. In Indian languages we call it ekagrata. Focus. This is the first thing I want to touch upon here. One thing which will help you to cope with the heavy academic pressure is this capacity for focus. I remember I attended a book talk. So this is in Boston at Harvard University. Um lot of all the best scholars in the world would come to launch their books. It's prestigious to launch your book and give a book talk at Harvard University. They have a small bookshop also. Every day almost there is a book talk. New

6:53 book is being launched and the author gives a talk there. One of those talks I would I would make it a point to attend these talks as many as I could. One of these talks was given by Paul Steinhardt. I've forgotten name exactly. He's a physicist and he worked with crystals. Name of the book I remember, the second kind of impossible, the second kind of impossible. He searched for a crystal with a particular structure and he found it. 30 years of searching for one particular kind of crystal. Anyway, in the question answer session I asked him everybody was asking technical questions, but I asked him, "Professor, you have worked with Nobel laureates." If I'm not wrong, he's himself a Nobel laureate or something. I'm not very sure. Um you have worked with Nobel laureates.

7:40 You are your yourself a world-class researcher. Among all these people you have worked with and you have come across, what's the common quality among these top-class academics in the world?" And his answer I still remember his answer. "Did you not hear how I searched for 30 years for one crystal? If the research question which I have, if I can get an answer to that by I I'm ready to he says he pointed to the the walls of the auditorium. I am ready to to break through the walls of this auditorium to get to the other side if that will give me the answer to my question." So the one this driving focus, this I have seen everywhere. Swami Vivekananda, he said the

8:28 difference between an ordinary person and a great person lies in the degree of concentration. I used to think, is this all? Between an ordinary person and a great person, so many differences are there. But Swami Vivekananda said it's the degree of concentration. We all have the same we all have these minds. We have the capacity for concentration, but some can focus more and some cannot focus. This this ability to focus is central for success in any endeavor. Whether it be academics to get your medical degree or later on for success in your profession or in relationships with others, this ability to focus ability to concentrate. Swami Vivekananda, of course, we know if

9:13 you have read his life story, famous stories are there. He had a phenomenal power of focus, phenomenal power of concentration. The one of the most well-known stories is Encyclopedia Britannica at that time, the early edition, you know, big big books, leather bound books and all. Had come to Belur Math. He was sitting and reading. His disciple Sharatchandra, he came to his room, saw all those books and he said to Swami Vivekananda, "Swamiji, it's impossible for a one human being to read all these books in one lifetime." And you know the story. Swami Vivekananda said, "What are you saying? I've already finished nine volumes. I'm on the 10th volume. And you can ask me any question from those nine volumes." And then Sharatchandra, to his credit, actually went and picked out here and there and opened the books those volumes

9:59 and asked questions from here and there and to his astonishment Swami Vivekananda answered all the questions and sometimes remarkably down to the comma and the full stop in the same language. And then he asked Swami Vivekananda how is it possible for a human being to do this? And Swami Vivekananda said anybody can do it with purity and concentration of mind anybody can do that. I don't know if anybody can do that but this much I know I've done a little bit of study of the subject myself of the the subject of concentration and focus. I know this much whatever our power of concentration we can improve it. Maybe we cannot become like Swami Vivekananda but we can definitely improve it and it will help us in our personal lives. America now the hero is Elon Musk.

10:49 Everybody knows Tesla that the car they don't know that the actually Tesla the scientist after whom the car is named. Tesla was actually a personal friend of Swami Vivekananda. In the world Parliament of religions at that time it was the Columbian Exposition Edison was there demonstrating electricity Tesla was there and they had a pavilion and when Swami Vivekananda would speak Tesla would shut down his pavilion. He would come and stand at the back of the audience wait for Vivekananda's speech and then leave go back to his pavilion. Later on they had a correspondence with each other. Tesla was also known for his famous powers of concentration. In America if you speak about Tesla they'll immediately have to tell them not the car the scientist.

11:34 Vivekananda that even Elon Musk I was reading that he also has phenomenal powers of concentration. As a school child he actually read the entire entire Encyclopedia Britannica. Maybe he doesn't remember it like Swami Vivekananda but the point here is phenomenal capacity of concentration is there and we can all improve our powers of concentration focus and it helps us in our in our day-to-day life especially in academics. This I've seen. students in IITs I've seen students I used to go to library and sit there to study but also to watch other students. I was not a student there as invited to

12:19 speak I would go there. I've done the same thing in say for example Harvard University I'd go and sit and study and watch the students studying and the same thing I've noticed the ability to maintain a tremendous concentration hour after hour after hour. This is very important today especially today more than other times because now the power of distraction has become much more. And that's because of this device which is there in our pockets. So these devices I don't know if you've seen a documentary called the social dilemma I think the name of the documentary worth watching. What this social media is doing to our

13:04 power of concentration. These devices are now being devised to they're being designed to provide maximum distraction. So there's some there's a concept called the attention economy. Attention economy means that they these companies Facebook and other companies etc. and all they want us to devote more and more attention to those platforms. Why? Simple answer always answer is dollars. So they'll get more money. But how do they do that? The internet content seems to be free. There's a saying if the content is free then you are the product. If you're getting something for free don't think that it's free. You are being sold. One might think how am I being sold? Your attention is being sold. Your time

13:50 is being sold. The advertising companies it seems they pay these social media companies millions and billions of dollars the more visits you they get on their pages or on their platforms. So what they have what have they done? They use psychologists to make these devices addictive. How do they make it addictive? By breaking your power of concentration. So you will notice these devices once in a while they'll be you know like a ding or something would have they have a ding or something watch me. You know one message has come one update has come and every time we want to see what is going on there. Not that it's important 99% of the time it's not important at all. But the idea is the more you look at it

14:37 and then you go back to doing what you were doing a kind of addiction develops to it. How do you know what is the test? What's the test? The test is if I shut up the mobile phone and keep it aside do I feel uneasy? Do I feel I'm missing something? There's a word term FOMO huh? Fear of missing out. Now they've replaced it another word JOMO joy of missing out. But fear of missing out am I missing something important? Am I missing something interesting? If you feel like that when the mobile phone is shut up shut down then we are already addicted. It is a kind of a soft addiction. If it is a hard addiction like a drug then immediately society will ban it and there'll be laws and regulation and the

15:25 detoxification although there is already mobile detoxification is there. There are camps. But soft addiction it comes unnoticed. And so large numbers of us here also many of us we have this soft addiction to this. And behind it is of course generating revenue for these companies. But it comes at a terrible price. We often hear and we also say technology is neutral it depends on how you use it. It's like a cliche we repeat it. But this technology is not neutral. It's not neutral. One psychologist said I mean in America that in your house you have cabinets which full of liquor you would those who drink liquor you lock it when children are there in the

16:11 house. You have cabinets of guns Americans to pagol at this maximum number of psychiatrists in the world and lawyers in the world. My the karap or case together in the two actually I mean maximum. So you many people have guns. But they lock the guns because children are there in the house. So why is it if technology is neutral it does not matter but some technology is dangerous. That's why it is locked. And the psychiatrist he said that this technology is also dangerous. It is addictive to us but much more so to the undeveloped minds of children. And so there's a now a movement actually there's a movement in US in New York you'll be surprised to know. Two months last month or a month before

16:58 this children when now they go to school in New York if it's a government school state state run school then they have to submit their they have to relinquish their mobile phones when they enter the school it's put in a locker and the whole day they have to remain without mobile phone and then when they go their mobile phones are given back to them. And Australia I think this news many of us may have read that they have banned social media participation for anybody below the age of 16. It's banned across Australia. Of course case is going on and all that but anyway slowly a realization is coming that this is very damaging to our power of attention power of focus. On the other hand the importance of focus has increased a

17:43 lot. Cal Newport who is a professor of psychology I think of management he's written a book called deep work deep work and he says in this age in which we are living in this age of social media and you know the interconnected world the value of deep work work done with concentration has become much more because fewer and fewer have that capacity to disconnect themselves from everything and focus on one thing. So if you have that capacity then you have become more valuable in this day and age. And they point out high achievers of any sort in academics in science in philosophy in art any kind of high achiever in sports

18:28 in business any kind of high achiever they don't use this. They minimize it. Of course use it for work you can't you can't stop using it today fortunately unfortunately we are all plugged in but they are not addicted to it. They are they are focused take their attention away from it and focus on their work. So the importance of deep work if you're interested look up that book Cal Newport deep work the value of focus in this modern world is much more than earlier because very few people have it now. There was a psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi he passed away a couple of years two three years ago. He's well known for his work on

19:14 concentration. He was a youngster in in Austria in Vienna after Second World War. And he says how he became interested in this. He says that one day as a young student he was free he didn't have anything to do. There were two options. One was movie cinema hall another was there was some public lecture was going on. He said movie requires money public lecture was free so he decided I'll go to the public lecture because he was poor. And the public lecture was given by none other than Carl Jung the famous disciple of Sigmund Freud. And this young man Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, he says that I was immediately hooked. I was fascinated by psychology. And then he became a psychologist. And he says

19:59 his whole life's endeavor was what is the best moment of a human being's life? The highest point of human flourishing. What are the peak experiences of our lives? So, that's what he wanted to study, the best experiences of human life. And he found something amazing. He found that in these high these peak experiences, they were all characterized by something he named flow. He wrote a book, Flow, f l o w. If you look it up, it's a classic. It's worth reading. If you're interested in that the question of attention or focus or concentration, please read that book. He found our best moments, the peak moments of our lives, are marked by engagement. By

20:45 intense concentration and focus on a challenging task. He found that he noticed something that when the task is challenging and your capacity is up to doing that just at that moment that boundary where your capacity and the difficulty of the task are one in the same, then you have this maximum engagement and you have a very good experience, a peak experience, a very satisfying and nourishing experience. He gave examples. For example, a tennis player. A tennis player at the beginning when he starts he or she starts learning tennis, it's difficult. So, you have to just practice enough to just serve once, to return one one serve or one ball from the other side. That's enough. You feel I have

21:31 done something. But after sometime when you become you learn how to play, it'll become boring. If you keep on just serving or returning a serve, then you want to play a game against another player. The challenge has been increased. When you become an expert player, it'll be boring for you to play against an ordinary player. You want to play with another expert player. So, he said this is the the basic idea of that book, Flow. That how to achieve intense concentration is a match between our capacity and the difficulty of the task. If the task is difficult and our capacity is up to it, this is my maximum capacity. If the task is as difficult as this, you will attain flow. It's understandable. Imagine you are playing tabla. You are a

22:18 expert player. So, the difficult rhythms which you play one after another, sometimes musicians know this that they get a flow sometimes. They get into That's where he got the term flow from musicians. But that does not come at the beginning. That comes after long practice. Then a sense of flow comes. Musicians can feel that. But he found it is common across all professions. And you'll be interested to know among them he studied surgeons, doctors performing difficult surgery. Which is taking you to the limit of your capacity. Then a state of flow comes where he says there are many characteristics. Intense concentration is one. And then time dilation or distortion. Lot of hours and hours can go by. You don't feel it. Afterwards you'll feel

23:05 exhausted, but at that time you feel three, four, five, six hour long surgery. You're completely focused on it. And you're in a state of flow. And these are Later on when you look back on your life, you say that those moments were some of the best moments of my life. I felt most alive at that time. You or your sense of of ego also disappears. That I am doing this. If a tabla player is playing very well, getting the flow, if he feels I am playing this, immediately it'll be spoiled. The sense of ego drops away. So, like that some seven, eight, nine characteristics he has given of the state of flow. Students like you. How can you benefit from this? So, the basic idea I will tell you. He says

23:51 that when the challenge and the skill are matched, then you get flow, maximum concentration. If the challenge is too high and the skills are not up to that level, you will get anxiety. Difficult and I can't do it. That's what many students feel. Because it's a tough course. I know you have cleared medical exams and all all that and entrance exams and all that have come here. But then when you come here, you get a shock. That you feel can I do this? And that is the sign of a good student in a good institute. You feel that there's a certain imposter syndrome, which means I don't belong here. This is too difficult for me. I heard this from students at Harvard. I heard the students from students at MIT. I don't belong here. Although they are

24:37 brilliant brilliant kids. I remember when I was a student, I attended one particular institute for studies after college but postgraduate level. And first month there was an examination. They used to call it quizzes. And a quiz in which most of us, including me myself, we all failed. And I was shocked. I never failed in my life. And then the one of the seniors told us, this is precisely the reason they do they do this. In one the first one month or two months, you're put into such a difficult position, you're bound to fail. And it gives you a shock. They are sure you're all good students and you will rise to the challenge. So, what you have to do is if the level of difficulty is this high and my

25:22 skills are low, I have got anxiety, you break down that level of difficulty and take it in modules. Which part is troubling me? Take up that that subject, that chapter, or that section, that activity, that lab work. Take that up and do it separately. Focus on that so that your skills are upgraded. The goal is to upgrade your skills to match the level of difficulty. The goal is to break down the level of difficulty so that it matches the level of your skills. If your skills are too high and the difficulty is much lower, you will get bored. You'll get bored. Sometimes you see that. Expert faculty members, they come, teach in the class as if no interest at all.

26:08 And their lack of interest is unfortunately transmitted to the students also. But why don't they have interest? Because they've been teaching it 10, 20, 30, 40 years. I know one one professor, not a medical science professor, but English professor. What she does is every year she throws away her notes. So, she starts afresh every year preparing for the same course. So, she also keeps fresh. Similarly, you have to keep the challenge up. If you you're feeling bored with your task, you increase the challenge so that the challenge matches your high skill. Again, you will feel that that flow. So, this is I hope I've gotten the message across. The basic message is this. If you want intense concentration, look for a match

26:54 of high challenge and high skill. Both are there. If you have to get the feeling that if I put in my best, I can tackle this task, then you will get intense concentration. Swami Vivekananda gave a very interesting um um sutra a formula for concentration. He said, "Do whatever you're doing with the fullest possible attention." So, concentration is a habit of life. It can't be turned on on and off. I have seen some wonderful people, extraordinarily brilliant. One of our friends, he was uh um all India second. Another tough examination is the joint entrance examination, IIT joint entrance entrance

27:40 examination. So, you're in the medical profession, they are in the engineering profession. So, that examination, one of the toughest examinations in the world. And this friend of ours with whom we all know, he was all India second. All India second. He's a monk now. He's all India second in that IIT joint entrance examination and also brilliant afterwards, before that and after that also, brilliant academic one of the most brilliant academic careers. But one thing I've noticed about him personally is not just while studying, at every moment of life he has a focus. He's not practicing it. It's a kind of habit for him to intensely focus on whatever he's doing. So, this develop this habit of focus. Vivekananda says, "Do whatever you're doing with the fullest possible attention."

28:26 One might say, "If I'm studying, I will study with full attention. If But why suppose I am relaxing, I'm talking with my friends, I'm watching Netflix, why do I need full attention?" Because Vivekananda says, "Remember, it is the same mind. You have only one mind." One of our senior monks said to a group of youngsters like you. He said, "Suppose your dad is shaving with a blade. You take that blade and you sharpen your pencil with it. Will your dad be able to shave with that blade?" He said, "No." "Why not?" It has lost its edge. The blade has lost its edge. Similarly, the mind, you have only one mind. If I wanted to concentrate during studies or work or lab work or in on in

29:14 the you know, on my rounds in the hospital, the rest of the day if I don't have the habit of focusing, when I need the power of focus, at that time also the mind will not focus. So, this second thing, first is flow. A skill and challenge, balance it. Second is let us develop the habit of doing whatever we are doing with the fullest possible attention. I'll move on to another subject now, even more important. So, first remember focus, something that will help us. Concentration, the power of focus, concentration. We all have it and whatever we have, we can develop it a little more.

30:00 I was invited by uh there's a body in America called the APA, the American Psychiatric Association. Very powerful body. As I said, largest number of psychiatrists in the world. So, American Psychiatric Association. Um the two bodies. Both are called APA, American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association. And both hate each other. So, the psychologist will say that those fellows, psychiatrists, they don't understand anything about the human mind. They just prescribe medicines. And the psychiatrist will say I will kill you if you don't know. Because so they have great rivalry among each other. The American Psychiatric Association, they organized a seminar, a

30:47 workshop for leaders of religion and psychiatrists conference in Washington, D.C. I was a participant there. And one of the leaders from a different from a church, he asked the psychiatrist, "So, till now you considered religion to be a pathology? You religious religious holy after 14 years it's something to treat. Now, why are you calling us for a conference? Are you So, the answer was very uh very instructive. The psychiatrist, some of the top psychiatrists in United States were there, heads of different big hospitals in United States. One of them said, "It's not that we are subscribing to religion or believing in religion, but the data, you cannot argue with the data. We are facing a mental health crisis."

31:33 This was just after COVID. "We are facing a mental health crisis in this country. And although they have the largest number of psychiatrists in the world, they said there's a big gap, they still need 30 to 40,000 more psychiatrists now. So, there's a mental health crisis in our country. And we noticed from the data that those who have a deep connection with spirituality, with religion in any form, they mostly they were Christian churches Christians Jews Muslims you know, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, whatever. In whatever form. If you have a if you are a if you are practicing spirituality in some form, then your the data shows you have a greater resilience, a greater immunity to mental illnesses, and if a person does get mental illness, there's more

32:19 resilience there. Clear differences there. So, they said just based on data, this is the one thing that I would like to share with all of you. I know I'm not supposed to speak out religion, but I'm a monk, what can I do? I notice that those who have a deep faith in God in some form, you may be a Hindu or a Muslim or Christian or Sikh in some form. If you have a genuine personal, private, internally a faith in God, a belief in God, a dependence on God, it helps. It helps greatly. It's a difficult profession what you have chosen. I know many doctors, not only among the

33:05 monks here, our my brother monks, there are many doctors, but many doctors, especially in the United States, a lot of Indian doctors are there. Lots and lots of Indian doctors. And they talk about the difficulties of that life. This young lady who just graduated from medical college in um United States, Indian. And she was saying that she was an intern during COVID times. And that was the first wave of COVID in United States. And she was describing how they had 24-hour duty cycles in full protective gear in those places where one after another patients were dying, they would just show the iPad of the and

33:51 they were the Zoom call with the relatives because the relatives not allowed to come. And last goodbye patient and patient dies. She said no time even to even to grieve or to wonder anything. Our whole thing was quickly empty the bed because other patients are waiting outside. And this is not even a doctor. She's an intern. And she that was the common experience throughout the United States, nobody speaks about it. Other doctors told me how many doctors and nurses died during COVID. Enormous strain is there on the caregiver. Yes, we talk about the suffering of the patient, but what about the suffering of the doctor and nurses? There's there's tremendous stress among doctors and nurses and for many many reasons. Even now, uh this problem

34:36 luckily has not come to India. India has its own different dimension. There's tremendous work pressure because of the huge volume of of patients. But in America also, they all talk about I there's absolutely there's they take taking away our satisfaction in helping others. Why? You cannot your time is being clocked. You cannot talk a little more. They have a concept called billable hours. So, the insurance companies, they will charge so much. And the more number of patients you see, the more billable hours you generate, the more the insurance companies will make money. If you as a doctor, they were telling me, and insurance companies in US will become angry with me to say they don't talk about it openly. They

35:22 were telling me, the doctors were telling me, "We get pressure from the hospital administrators because they are getting pressure from the insurance companies. Why are you talking unnecessarily with the patient? Why are you trying to be nice, friendly with the Just see the the pathology reports on your computer, prescribe you." Sometimes they don't even look at the patient. I mean so many interesting reports the doctors were sharing. That's why they're thinking of replacing the doctors with robots, with AI infused robots. One of the worst things you can do is the patient has died and you have to give in the news to the relatives. So, they are saying now robot will come and tell the relatives patient is dead and go away. No doctor will not come in front.

36:07 >> [laughter] >> This is the this is the problem. Some of the senior most psychiatrists in that conference also told me that before this new system of insurance global insurance came in, actually our profession was more rewarding because we could establish at our own pace we could see patients. We had our own practice and we could establish a relationship with the patient. Remember, even under these circumstances, very difficult circumstances, there and on the other way here, your profession is one of the best professions to help people. The profession of you as a doctor. People who come to you are in pain. They are suffering. One doctor said she works in a hospital in one of the poorer areas of

36:53 New York. She said, "I feel completely frustrated, Swamiji, because I know this patient comes in, their problem is drug addiction. So, I treat them and then I let them go. I know they will be back in 15 days, they'll be back again. Drug overdose again. Because there is I can treat them and leave them on the street, but then there's no support there. The lifestyle that got them in this position, the first place, that same lifestyle is there. They themselves don't care. Even then, when that patient comes to you in with pain, with suffering, you are in a crucial position as a doctor or a nurse to be of help to them. One of the greatest sources of satisfaction in human life is being able to help another person. We think that we will be happy if we

37:40 work for ourselves. I me myself, all my efforts towards myself, to work for myself, I should be happy. It seems logical. If I try to make myself happy, then I should be happy. But if you look at the data, if you look around and look at your our own lives and look at others, how many people are happy? How many people are happy? They don't know what to do. Young people, middle-aged people, and certainly older people. So, >> [laughter] >> why are we not happy? This is our main project to make ourselves happy. Why are we not happy? Here is a great secret that altruism, working for the welfare of others, working to remove the suffering of others, working to make

38:26 others happy makes you happy immediately. This this takes some time to learn. It requires a little maturity to learn. But once you have learned this lesson, this secret, try it. That I am here to help. I am here, my attitude is what can I do for you? Swami Ranganathananda ji, who was the president of our order several years back, he put spirituality into the simplest terms. He said, "What is spirituality? When I close my eyes in meditation, I get peace within. When I open my eyes, my attitude is what can I do for you?" And that is spirituality. Now, look at what we do. When I close my eyes, oh key or shanti Maharaj, so many thoughts come up. I was better before I meditated. When I start

39:11 meditating, my mind has become very restless. It's not that your mind has become very restless while meditating. Actually, our mind is restless. When I meditate, I notice it for the first time. Otherwise, I don't notice it. The moment I'm free, and I this is what I do. And when we look open our eyes and we look outside, our attitude is not what can I do for you? Our attitude is what can I get from you? So, no wonder that we don't have peace in our lives. No wonder that we are not happy. You are in a position from now on itself to be of help to others. It's a question of change in attitude. That's all. You might say

40:00 to that level then then I can help I become a top level doctor then I can help others. No, no, no, no. You can help right now. You can help right now. It's a change in attitude. I remember I was telling the Swamis when I became a monk more than 30 years ago a very senior Swamiji a very revered Swamiji of our order who worked with doctors for a long time many years. There is a hospital in Calcutta called Seva Pratishthan run by the monks established by the monks and one of the doctors who worked there and one of the Swamijis who worked there for many years Swami Gahananandaji. He had come and we were young monks we had just come to become monks 30 years ago. One night he called all these youngsters together and he asked us to Sadhus can I help you

40:45 why do you want to become monks? What is the reason? And we all tried to give some answer. Somebody said Shanti chai I want peace in life. Somebody said I want a very good you know high and noble life. Somebody said I want to realize God. I want this I want that. And then he said he looked at us and he said in he's a man of very few words. He said in Bengali he said um Shaba beta such a few days ago all of you have come to you want something. I want this kind of life I want that. None of you have all come here to get something. Have you not come here to give something? At that time I did not understand this answer. I did not really like the answer also. I thought we are new youngsters newcomers what can we give?

41:32 But over time over the years I realized he was right. It's a question of change in Whatever we wanted. You want peace in life you want happiness in life. You want God realization and enlightenment also. All of that will come through the change in this attitude that I am here to give. You immediately become a very powerful person. Because you are here to give. You are not here as a beggar. You are here as a giver. Simple teaching when Sri Ramakrishna before he passed away he called Ma Sharada and told her that when I am gone you'll be alone. Never hot but never do this. Always always be in the position of of a giver. Swami Vivekananda he wrote a poem

42:19 that give give and never look back. Whoever looks back his ocean dwindles to a drop. So this it's basically he's talking about this attitude of giving. You are uniquely placed as trainee doctors and future doctors to be in this attitude of giving. You will never be at a loss. I can guarantee this to you. You will never be at a loss. You will have people you will money definitely will get. And uh recognition in society recognition by your parents by your patients by other people recognition by your peers who are

43:06 your colleagues and by your seniors everything that you want and more than that you will get if we have this attitude of giving rather than taking. Sri Ramakrishna says how much will you get what value is it if you get everything in life? He says you put a series of zeros together the total value is zero. But you put one before all those zeros and the every zero gets a value. So that one is that spiritual attitude. The attitude that I I have enough. I am satisfied. I am crypto. I am here to give. Don't change your Facebook status now I am here to give. Let us try it a little bit in our lives and we will see it immediately gives

43:52 tremendous results. Whatever you want in life you will get by this attitude. So these are three things that I wanted to say to you I've I think I've said what I wanted to say. One is the tremendous importance the power of focus of concentration I got the power the power of that. Second is if you can a deep belief faith surrender to God in whatever form whatever religion you follow. It's a great help to you. You will face difficult circumstances. Fortunately or unfortunately I think that the it's a great profession that you've chosen but a difficult position profession. I mean the key I have seen our

44:38 Ramakrishna Mission we have many many kinds of ashrams. I have mostly been in the ashrams which are schools or colleges education and it's very nice because you're always dealing with young people. But there are other ashrams which are hospitals. So I go to those ashrams and I can clearly see the difference. School college atmosphere is a joyous atmosphere because children are there youngsters are there they're learning playing and the hospital atmospheres are atmospheres of seriousness and struggle. You will face this. You will face obviously you will face day in and day out life and death situations. Develop a this what Sri Ramakrishna would say Kunti there's a pillar. Little children play they hold on to the

45:25 pillar and swing round and round and they delight in that feeling but they're very careful not to let go of the pillar because if they let go of the pillar they know they will fall and hurt themselves. Similarly we should also have I want to do what I have to do Kunti. And the pillar don't make that pillar money. Don't make that pillar your romantic partner husband or wife. Don't make that pillar what many Indians do. Children. Pillar of my life is children. Costa Bobby. Make the pillar something spiritual. A God in whatever form you worship it should be entirely internal entirely private. Hold on to that. In moments of crisis intensely pray and surrender for yourself and for your patients and

46:13 for the the relatives of your patients. Pray for them. Pray for their welfare. With an open heart pray for them. You will you will see how much help will come how much strength will come in life. So this is second thing deep faith love surrender uh to God. And the third thing is this attitude of I am here to give not to take. Remember you will never be at a loss never. Beginning to end you will get much more than you had ever expected in your life. I have seen such people in different professions who have the attitude of giving. They never feel that they have lost anything in life. They always feel that we have got much more than we deserved. We are perfectly happy ourselves and

46:58 they are of great benefit to the organization to the hospital to the family to the department and of course to the patients and the the relatives of the patients. I pray to the Lord the God of all religions to shower blessings on all of us to protect us to inspire us and to give us strength in this life. Om Shanti Shanti Shanti Hari Om Tat Sat Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. Thank you so much. Thank you. >> [applause]