People fall into two broad categories. One feels old is gold. The other wants to fully imitate the American lifestyle. Each is true, but the truth in each is partial. Neither can be accepted in toto. It is eternally true that times are changing and with the changing times, man too changes in his dress, appearance, speech, food, etc., known as lifestyle. It is impossible to resist the modern way of life. It is equally impossible now to live as we lived a hundred or two hundred years ago. That is not the end. There is more.

Democracy is a benevolent force gradually spreading all over the world. Fareed Zakaria has published a book that pleads for liberty, as it is liberty that gives life to democracy. Public apathy slowly leads to slavery. Public awareness step by step leads to liberty and democracy. After the advent of the Consumer Forum there is an administrative apparatus to which you can go for remedy. When a telegram comes to Pondy from Delhi in one hour, the telegraph office takes four to five hours for delivery. Sometimes it is done the next day.

Facts are given by the senses, as we see an object such as a pen. Ideas emanate from the mind. It collects the facts given to us by the senses, coordinates them and draws the essence from them as an Idea. A college degree may give us a job is not a mere fact. It is an idea, drawn from the experience of various people. Original Ideas are there in a small number. An ethical treatise like Thirukural is based on thirteen or fourteen such original ideas. They originate neither from the senses, nor from the mind.

Nehru decided to appoint Sastri as a Member of the Cabinet without portfolio and Nanda was disturbed as the palm leaf astrology - nadi josyam - said it would ruin the nation. Nehru laughed and asked if 500 years earlier they had predicted what was to happen the next morning. God's creation is known as Prakriti. It is in Time and ruled by the force of Time. Seers have been there all over the world who have had a full insight into the past and future of Time. Sri Aurobindo says that if the exact moment of birth is known, astrology can predict precisely.

In a school where there are no exams and no marks are awarded, every boy is likely to feel he is above average. Many will consider themselves at the top. The scores in the exam put each boy in his real position. The enormous advance in the field of medicine is among other things due to the measurement of temperature, pulse, sugar level, blood pressure and a score of other things. Credit rating has almost become a science where the credit agencies exactly know the credit worthiness of individuals.

Those who fidget are nervous. Some people listen wide-eyed and intensely with great interest. They are the ones who can accomplish. In big companies, it is important to recruit the right person. When a wrong man is discovered after several years of service, it causes a problem. The most important 'recruitment' is to select a wife or husband. In our country, still it is done by the parents to a great extent. In the West, for the youth, it is very important. A man's qualities are revealed only when an occasion arises. Often it happens after years.

One who undertakes an enterprise is an entrepreneur. Pioneer, adventurer, explorer, initiator, and leader are other allied words to entrepreneur. I wish to distinguish the word entrepreneur from other similar words and show how a nation's wealth grows out of it. As soon as a young man completes his education, he looks for a job. If he gets it, he becomes a salaried employee. Not many people have the courage to go in for self-employment. Today not even 5% of young educated men will opt for self-employment on their own.

For over a year I have been writing in this column about invoking the Spirit. But every letter I receive asks how to invoke the Spirit. I wrote a long article on it and sent it to the questioners. Many caught the idea. Many more are still in doubt. When you want to go to the post office, you walk. It is an act of the body. Negotiations are conducted at the level of feelings. It is a vital act. Sometime when you don't understand something, you close the book and think. It is a mental act of thinking. Spirit is of Silence.

There was a dull boy in a rich house. He was enamoured of an employment. In a local school he was employed as an attendant in the laboratory. Being a wealthy boy, he had access to every big officer and every VIP of the town. He was not inclined to work. Later rules changed, he became a clerk, known as a writer of the school. The headmaster, the office and others had several jobs to be done in the many local offices. These jobs used to be pending for months for want of access to the chief of the office. This boy had an easy access to all of them.

A lady moved to Pondicherry from Kerala and rented a house. Close to her office, an apartment complex arose. She had no idea of shifting in view of various problems. A young man was constantly speaking, "This complex is coming up for you. It is God's Grace. Don't raise all your normal questions. Book an apartment here." By all those around him who knew his impractical propensities and as they saw the multiple problems in the move, it was taken as the Wisdom of the unwise. Some time later she rented an apartment in that complex, somewhat compelled by circumstances.