There is nothing greater than idealism in human life, especially in youth. Not many are idealistic, even in youth. Employment for men, marriage for women are the ideals that possess youth. If someone is idealistic during his education, it will be because of what he read or an elder whom he adores. It is a noble sentiment, though short-lived. As soon as he enters the job, he witnesses how life is organised around the necessities of life. While in the college, his own life necessities are taken care of by his parents.

The post war period was known as the period of the Cold War. All over the world, it was a period when pollution slowly gathered into a veritable evil resulting in smog in the air, acid rain, DDT in vegetables and in water. Life was threatened at its very roots. Then emerged the movement of the environmentalists. Many things of revolutionary character emerged. The most important thing was the world discovered that science is for the people and not science for science's sake.  When a part usurps the status of the whole, the part has the tendency to become evil.

Demming became famous in the field of management as an upholder of Quality. No one paid heed to him in the USA. So, he migrated to Japan, and made the Japanese industry challenge the US. After that, the US industrialists sought him. Demming said, "Quality is not difficult to achieve, but to convince the management is difficult." The industrialist, the CEO, the Board all do not want to change, but want the Quality of the product to rise. The truth is the Quality of the product is the Quality of the management. As you are, so is the product.

Health is very important for all, but no one thinks of it until he falls ill. When we are ill, we only think of getting rid of our illness, and do not so much consider restoring our health. It is a sovereign right of our being healthy and therefore it never constitutes a problem in our mind until we are forty or sixty. Nehru had to fill up his nomination form for election to the Lok Sabha. Coming to the column of profession, he exclaimed, "Profession, what shall I say, shall I say Prime Minister?" He knew as long as he was alive he would be the Prime Minister of this country.

The bhakta dances and sings, while the Jnani never indulges in those extravagances. In the eyes of the Jnani, the bhakta is immature. Karmayoga is a serious yoga, but the Jnani frowns on it too, rather smiles in ridicule. In his view, work is for the child soul while the mature soul of the Jnani needs no work. It is true Mind is a superior plane to the emotions of bhaktiyoga and the vitality of karmayoga. But Lord Krishna would not approve of the supercilious attitude of the Jnani.

Friends World College in New York was a college with a new ideal started by the Quakers. Some twenty years ago it was in trouble. Its President was a Quaker and a Vice-President of the American Management Association. The President invited us to help the management of the college with some useful ideas. When their brochure arrived in Pondicherry, friends here exclaimed that their office and other places needed a good dose of cleaning. Some Americans took exception to that statement on the plea that American business premises were always spotlessly clean.

Men in public life neglect their families. Often their children are disappointing. Mahatma Gandhiji was known to have created a strong second level of leadership in the Congress. He was known to have created spirited men out of men of straw. Yet his own children had not come up to the mark. This is understandable in the nature of things. Their onerous public duties do not permit them time to devote to their own children. This is true of several leaders in India and in the world.

The human heart longs for a chain of comedy. Life is a practical reality, not an endless comedy. The child wishes only a glorious happy sequence. Fairy tales provide them copiously. Life is not without a rare possibility of such comedies. A perceptive author, averse to the tragic side of life, captures that vibration and ends the story with several weddings. Critics frown on them for fairy story endings. Shakespeare wrote 400 years ago. He wrote several comedies. The life realities he wanted to give the world came out as his four tragedies.

The Gita declares we should not be attached to the fruits of our work. It talks about desire. Desire is to be given up. Further, the Gita pleads for the shedding of the ego. Finally, the Gita exhorts us to surrender all our dharmas - sarvadharma - and come to Him. These are all the several stages of perfection according to the Gita. The Lord takes upon Himself the duty of leading jivatma to moksha when he treads this path.

Mind thinks, body acts. The act yields results. This is not how Man has created our civilisation. He worked, his body learnt. That alone was the route Man knew in earlier millennia. As years passed, the human mind awoke. It began to think. The thinking of the Mind that was awake inspired the Mind. One man's thinking provoked an opposition from other men. The collective killed the pioneering thinker, offering him hemlock or throwing him behind bars.