Who does not like success? Human beings are driven to succeed from early childhood. Parents celebrate when their toddler learns to stand up, speak its first words and go to school. Then, in school, from studies to sports, children compete, and by the time they become adolescents, their personalities are formed around it. They are winners or losers in the early games of life. The bright ones attend professional schools, while the rest join local colleges where they study science, commerce, or arts with few plans or prospects.

The Civil Services Exam has become a fixation with some bright students. More than a million take the nationwide preliminary exams. Some 10,000 to 20,000 clear it and join the fray for 1000 positions. Another few thousand get into the police and forest service through this exam. The film, ‘12th Fail’, brings out this saga, which repeats itself yearly, in an engaging manner. Despite the daunting odds, the candidates show remarkable perseverance, making multiple attempts to secure a position. A candidate can make six attempts till 32 years of age. For socially disadvantaged people, the age is 37. In a new trend that started a decade ago, engineering and medical graduates are also competing for civil service and coming out winners. About 2/3rd of the candidates selected are from among them, a testament to their unwavering determination that should inspire us all.

However, I am not talking about those who succeed but those who fail. How do they fare in their lives? What do the millions of youth without the label of a doctor or an engineer do? Many of them are yet to graduate. Which livelihoods do they seek, and what does the system offer them? Government jobs have lost their lustre long ago, and most youth depend on private jobs. Is the Indian economy able to generate enough jobs for its extensive and expanding young population? This failure of the system to create livelihoods gives an individual who failed in early life a double whammy. So, when we celebrate economic growth – the GDP rising, the SENSEX climbing, India poised to become the world’s third-biggest economy at 5 trillion dollars – where and of what type are the livelihoods for the multitudes? Is this a jobless growth built on cuts-commissions-profits? We must shift our focus to a more inclusive and sustainable economic growth model that ensures opportunities for all.

My generation was taught in school that India is an agricultural economy. Despite the hype and hoopla of the IT revolution, agriculture remains the backbone of India’s economy, even though its GDP share is decreasing. In rural areas, six of 10 people are peasants. The last census held in 2011 found 120 million farmers in the country, a quarter of the half–a–billion working Indians. There are also equal or more people raising livestock, fishery, forestry and agricultural supply chains. India is making enough food to feed its people for a long time. Getting economic power into the hands of the vast rural poor is now the problem, not making sure there is enough food. The challenge is how millions of people stuck with their small holdings can get more gainful vocations. Their holdings can be consolidated into more extensive ones to create more productive farms,replicating the Milk Revolution.

There is a sordid paradox. On the one hand, the government machinery controls food prices to satisfy the urban population, who eventually elect the ruling class. If a farmer has to buy a motorcycle, he pays globally comparative prices; why should he make food available to the modern and industrial sectors at the world’s lowest prices? On the other hand, global commodity trading firms have taken control of the cost of agricultural produce. While enough wheat and rice is produced, India has a steady supply deficit in pulses of a million metric tons annually. Edible oils also fall short of the demand. This shortage is bridged by imports. Why are Indian farmers not encouraged and supported to grow pulses and oilseeds in a mission mode, banning all imports? Who imports? How much and at what price? At whose behest?

Education and healthcare come next after food. The Indian education system can’t be called a failure because we started with very little. However, things appear out of control. A heavy emphasis on rote memorisation and test-taking, rather than critical thinking and problem-solving skills, has created a real mess out of which no solution seems to emerge. The coaching centre industry rules the roost, and everyone seems to live in denial mode.

The Indian education system has often failed to impart practical skills. No wonder a recent concern is the need for skill improvement among plumbers, carpenters, electricians, engineers and, most dangerously, hospital staff. It is claimed that the Skill India Mission has taught 14 million people, including 5.4 million who have learnt new skills or improved their old ones. But more is needed. The urgency for more practical skills is evident, and it’s a gap that needs to be filled immediately to ensure the future success of our workforce.

I am not a cynic who rules out foreign investors and commodity trading businesses. We can’t live isolated from the world. But we can’t allow the world to enter our homes, too. Companies are now structured differently; the ownership is more complicated and is constantly changing. India’s future can’t be left to this financial system where we don’t know who owns what. The masses can’t be simplified down to biological machines that only eat and work because they need more to meet their needs than what they get. It is humane to aspire. Life’s success is not merely about surviving but flourishingand evolving into a better future.

The failure of success is the biggest tragedy of any human enterprise, much more terrifying than the failure to succeed. Let us not allow the Indian success of independence, democracy and food sufficiency to become a failure. Kalidas declared long ago:

पुराणमित्येव न साधु सर्वं, नवीनमित्येव न चाप्यवद्यम् सन्तः परीक्ष्यान्यतरद् भजन्ते मूढः परप्रत्ययेनबुद्धिः (मालविकाग्निमित्रम् 1. 2)

All new is not necessarily good, and all that is old becomes wrong. Whether ancient or modern, humanity must test what is good and what is not as humanity progresses.

India has ruled over the world by ‘Niti’ – a profound word whose exact equivalent is absent in other languages, but the nearest best is ‘Value orientation.’ Learn to value things: your work, your time, the people around you, how they feel, and above all, yourself. To be born as a human being is a blessing; to be helpful to others is a double blessing. Living for selfish gains is not the way. One must live by the Niti of happiness of all (सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिन:), and that will make all the difference.

Over the past several months, I have been deeply immersed in the profound trilogy penned by esteemed philosophers Michael Hardt (b. 1960) and Antonio Negri (1933–2023)about how the modern world works and is likely to change. Their seminal works – Empire, Multitude, and Commonwealth, published respectively in 2000, 2004 and 2009 – are treasure troves of profound thinking. My journey to these books was paved by the influential works of French authors Gilles Deleuze (1925–1995) and Félix Guattari (1930–1992), Anti-Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus, published respectively in 1972 and 1980. Like a vast, invisible network, books allow anyone to enter and navigate the ocean of knowledge according to their taste and temperament.

As a child in the 1960s, I witnessed the transformative power of modernity. Growing hair beyond a bi-monthly visit to a barber shop was considered rebellious. Then, film heroes started appearing with long hair, and parents stopped hassling.Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and the hippies introduced a countercultural movement in the West. Wearing jeans arrived next, more as a culture than merely a dress – not to be washedbut worn as long as one wished, whatever the occasion or place. Shoes gave way to sneakers – no boot polish was required. Fountain pens vanished in the era of disposables. By the time the new Millennium arrived, the world had changedconsiderably.

Through the trilogy’s final volume by Hardt and Negri –Commonwealth – I learned modernity as individualism, capitalism, urbanisation and a belief in the possibilities of technical and political progress that have all grown over time.Antimodernism is all that opposes these trends. Post-modernism is against all organisations and traditions. The authors describe these concepts as the root of a perpetual conflict. Understanding these concepts is crucial for anyone interested in social and cultural change.

Antimodernity . . . is not an effort to preserve the premodern or unmodern from the expanding forces of modernity but rather a struggle for freedom within the power relation of modernity. . .  it does not simply come after the exertion of modern power as a reaction . . . a diagonal line that escapes the confining play of opposites . . . and shifts the emphasis from resistance to alternative . . . not by opposition but by rupture and transformation. (p. 101-104)

Change is a natural phenomenon. Whatever situation or condition one is in, change is inevitable, and people have no option but to accept it. The acceptance could be a response or a reaction. Reacting is an emotional response that comes from our gut. It happens quickly and can be affected by things wehave been through or our feelings. Responding, on the other hand, is something that you do after giving it some thought.Most of the time, we all react instead of respond because responses demand effort. However, responding is always better because it helps us make better decisions and helps us benefit from our actions.

 The new money that entered Indian society in the 1990s, mainly through the IT industry, led to the dismantling of joint families. This was inevitable because the extra income creatednew desires, habits and the acquisition of status symbols promoted by global machines. Young couples liberated themselves, moving out to live as nuclear families. Butnothing exists without consequences, and there are always collaterals. So the children of these families were raised in creches and grew up with babysitters more than their own families. Without continuous mediation by other family members, spouse antagonism became a new trend.

 At the societal level, the new wealth created gated communities, shopping malls, expressways, multiplex theatres and various other ways where ‘wealthy’ people could ‘enjoy’ life without ‘crowds’ bothering them. But how could the poor be ‘wished away’? Maids are required in houses; drivers are required; help is needed for ironing clothes and in the form of milkmen, watchmen, delivery boys, and so on. All these people, though poor, know they are not indispensable. They are also well-informed about the Internet on their smartphones. Hardt and Negri call these internet-connected new poor the ‘multitude’.

The ‘new poor’ know their rights. They are antagonised by the income inequality in society. And they know that politiciansneed them for their votes. Thousands of YouTubers-turned-revolutionaries are igniting their minds, stoking their fears and fanning their aspirations. The challenge is how to engage the multitude in building a better society rather than keep onresisting it, keeping them at arm’s length, creating more bubbles and feeling safe living within them, which will end up in futility sooner rather than later.

According to Hardt and Negri, modernity began with the European colonisation of America, Africa and Asia. It was created by capitalism, industrialism, and military power but was dressed up as democracy with liberty, and equality. No wonder in the modern world that was made, there is no real democracy, liberty is very restrictive, and inequality is ubiquitous. There is an equilibrium that may be latent and below the critical mass, but a change is inevitable. This change will not be achieved through tokenism, such as more representation, social inclusion, or doles, but by the participation of the poor in economic activity.

The capitalist totality is not, as it seemed to many, the point of arrival or end of history where all antagonisms can be absorbed, but rather the limit on which resistances proliferatethroughout the sphere of production and all the realms of social life. . . the intellectual is charged with the task not only to denounce error and unmask illusions, and not only to incarnate the mechanisms of new practices of knowledge but also . . . to produce a new truth.. . rather than descending from above, this truth is constructed from below. (p. 118 -121)

There are no easy answers because the powers that rule the modern world seem answerable to none. They have already acquired control over the world’s affairs through technology and wealth. Even governments have become mediators between global corporations and their people. It is futile to fight modernity. Instead, one must adopt it to alter it for the better.

Hardt and Negri call for an alter-modernity. The multitude must participate in creating a new society and a more equitable economy. People must earn their daily bread truthfully and not through lies and thuggery, however sophisticated. Artificial Intelligence has already arrived, destroying the barriers to knowledge and pulling down veils hiding lies. Soon, technologies like blockchain will make fraud impossible. Calls and texts will turn into living testimonies against every wrongdoing. Being good will no longer be an option but an obligation.

 As said in the Commonwealth, “We have to stop focusing on the haystack and find the needle.” The purpose of life cannot be selfish, as life is forever interdependent. I am what I am because people have always been around me — making me – my school teachers, neighbours, community, and colleagues. What do I do for the faceless others – farmers, workers, helpers, vendors – before my part ends in the drama of the world and I must bow out of the stage?

Alter-modernity hinges on finding an alternative to the futility of human life by leaving behind a little surplus good, however small it may be. Alter the world for the better by taking individual action – however small it may be or how little it appears. As American tennis champion Arthur Ashe (1943-1993) said, “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” Don’t give up, and never get carried away.

In the winter of 1989, I visited Pune for the first time. I worked in the Defence Research & Development Laboratory, Hyderabad, as Project Manager for Airframe and System Integration in the ‘Akash’ missile project. I was sent to interact with engineers at the Research & Development Establishment (Engineers) in Dighi, in the northern suburbs of Pune. I spent a few days there, and one evening, walking through the crowded Budhwar Peth, I bought a book, Self and Others, by R.D. Laing. I had no idea about the book or the author. The title and the three overlapping circles on the cover attracted me, and I bought it. A Scottish psychiatrist, Laing,died that very year, which I would later know.  

This book gave me insights into how we are all created by the people around us. As a child grows, he is ‘told’ how to behave. Interestingly, this does not happen smoothly. The child ‘reacts’, and the people around respond differently to these reactions. Some children are cajoled and pampered, and others are scolded and punished. Many others are just ignored. By the time one becomes an adult, a thousand swings have happened from the one extreme – ‘I never asked to be born, leave me in peace’ to ‘I am all that exists, get out of my way’settling mainly on the middle ground of ‘live and let live’.

Later, I learned that German-American psychologist Karen Horney was the first to define the three-fold attitudes of human beings – moving toward, away from, and against others. Within this, three forces are hidden in various human behaviours and relationships, including parents and children,interactions between married couples, at the workplace, and even on the streets. Everyone is ‘attracted to’, ‘averse to’ and ‘hostile towards’ another individual. It is alright until these three responses are spontaneous and change according to the situation. Still, when they become ‘conditioned’ into habits, the behaviours become problematic, which psychologists call neuroticism.

I have seen how TV changed lives in the 1980s. The definition of ‘others’ expanded to include those we saw on TV. People were exposed to ideas, styles and fashions, which was earlier impossible. Then, the Internet came into the picture, and after it became available on mobile phones, social media created a new definition of ‘society’. In the past, contact was one-on-one primarily or one-to-many, and news spread through traditional media like TV and newspapers.Now, anyone worldwide can share their ideas and experiences in real–time and get feedback immediately. Thoughtful people could see how a few corporations made it happen, investing billions of dollars. But why have they provided us with all this?

 There are two books, ‘Anti-Oedipus’ and ‘A Thousand Plateaus’. Written by French authors Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari and published respectively in 1972 and 1980, both books have a similar subtitle: ‘Capitalism and Schizophrenia’, which provides the answer. The flow of capital and interest and the flow of desire are entwined. Behind every investment of time, interest and capital is an investment of desire, and vice versa. Why do we purchase anything? Out of necessity or out of desire? Is there ‘an invisible hand’ circulating money by making people earn and spend and creating profits for the ‘capitalists’ in every act of their lives?

The three terms – necessity, desire and wants, motivatepeople. Wise people know the difference between them; fools do not. Necessities are the essential requirements for survival and basic well-being. Everybody needs food, water, shelter and clothing. All must have protection from harm, a stable environment and health care. Some level of social interaction and support is necessary for mental health. Universal necessities are generally the same for everyone. Without these, survival and basic functioning are at risk. They are fundamental for life.

Desires are feelings of wanting something not necessary for basic survival but which is strongly yearned for. They are emotions, and they vary significantly among individuals. Desires drive people to set and pursue personal or professional goals and are a powerful motivating force for action and achievement. Wants are whimsical. They are primarily non-essential items or experiences that add comfort, pleasure or pride but are never necessary. People spend a lot on beverages, entertainment, cosmetics, jewellery, fashionable footwear and clothing, and touring for fun. Everyone must know how to distinguish what is crucial for survival from what is motivated by personal preferences and aspirations.This was called ‘Viveka’ by ancient Indians, and Adi Shakaracharya wrote the copious ‘Vivekachudamani’ on this subject.

The American philosophical writer and translator of ‘Anti-Oedipus’ and ‘A Thousand Plateaus’, Mark Seem, writes in the introduction of ‘Anti-Oedipus’:

If one wants to do an analysis of the flows of money and capital that circulate in society, nothing is more useful than Marx and the Marxist theory of money. But if one wishes also to analyze the flows of desire, the fears and the anxieties, the loves and the despairs that traverse the social field as intensive notes from the underground . . . one must look elsewhere. . . the history of mankind is the history of a becoming-reactive.

I was surprised when I dived deep into these two books andfound the ‘ego’ at the centre of this game of capitalism in the modern world. The Internet and broadband have been ‘invested’ to stoke billions of people’s desires so that they ‘buy’ what is unnecessary. In the name of fashion and trends, people must discard what they already have and hoard enough clothes, shoes and watches for the rest of their lives.

We are taught to see only ‘ourselves’ behind every social event. Even God is ‘waiting for us’, ‘listening to our prayers and pleas’ and ‘doing us favours’. This information gives us a picture of reality, but it doesn’t show us reality itself. We are presented with shapes, symbols and signs that hide flows and forces. They keep us from seeing other truths, especially the truth about how power controls us. They are meant to tame, and they make people obedient and docile.

Things seem to be going well so far. Now comes the challenging part. While all this is good for leaders and corporations, it creates internal suffering and a depressive tone of life for countless people. An increasing number of people are neuroticised at home, at school and work. Those who survive the ‘conversion’ become psychotic. These people escape their situations and run away, hiding their failure behind their false heroism. They turn into orphans – no family, atheists, and nomads without territories. German-American painter Richard Lindner drew the ‘Boy with Machine’ picture in 1954. So he saw it coming, so it came. 

This is the disease of our times, and humanity suffers from it. To improve, we must live by doing what is necessary rather than becoming ‘desire machines’ and Excel sheet numbers of corporations and in the mailing list of interest groups. By connecting to the machine of the universe – inside your body and outside in the sky – you live better in the flow of life, not by the ‘media’. You can’t change the world, but you can save yourself for good by floating on water like a lotus. The life inside you will show itself in growth, a never-ending process. Life clasps ego-less people in its powerfully productive embrace – and their desire-free work – ‘Nishkam Karma’ – turns them into greats.

Life is a journey, and like in other journeys, we encounter numerous co-travellers — family, friends, mentors, colleagues, and even strangers — who share parts of the path with us. Each co-traveller brings unique experiences, perspectives, and support, enriching our journey in various ways. Some play a distinct role, and the relationships we build with them add depth and meaning to our lives. They help us learn, grow, and evolve, enriching and fulfilling our journey. Embracing these connections and cherishing the moments shared with each co-traveller can transform our journey into a more meaningful and enjoyable experience.

My first encounter with Venkat Changavalli was a memorable one. In 2007, during a visit to Orissa, he and Mr Ramalinga Raju, Chairman of Satyam Computers, planned to launch a nationwide Emergency Response system starting with the United Andhra Pradesh. They had invited Dr APJ Abdul Kalam to be its Chairman after he completed his Presidential term. Changavalli, a man of action, took over as the CEO of the new organisation, EMRI (Emergency Management and Research Institute), and transformed it into the iconic ‘108 Ambulance Service’. The name “108” came from invoking cosmic energy and divine connection. I had the privilege of accompanying Dr Kalam and Changavalli on their visit to Stanford University. We also visited Cisco and had the first telepresence meeting with Cisco’s office in Bengaluru, with John Chambers, CEO of Cisco, by our side.

Later, Changavalli was invited by the Government of Uttar Pradesh to set up a Police Emergency Response System with a budget of Rs. 2200 Cr. Changavalli took me to meet Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, who called him the best Advisor ever to work with him. My son Aseem became Changavalli’s neighbour in Hill County in Hyderabad for a few years, and we met there a few times. I visited his home and took the blessings of his mother. Changavalli now works as CEO of the Insurance Information Bureau of India, and he recently visited me to present a book, BL2BM: Benchless to Benchmark, about his distinguished career, which is indeed the uncommon journey of an ordinary man.   

Changavalli’s journey began in September 1953 in a Brahmin family in a quaint village, Audipudi, in Bapatla District, coastal Andhra Pradesh. His academic pursuits led him to Andhra Loyola College in Vijayawada, where he laid the foundation for his future in chemical engineering. He further honed his skills at the Regional Engineering College, Warangal, now known as the National Institute of Technology (NIT). Then, he was selected for the prestigious Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, in 1975. His career began with Lupin and turned significantly in 1982 when he joined CIBA-GEIGY, a merged entity of Swiss giants in India, which would later become Novartis.

In 1994, Changavalli joined Dragoco India, which would later become Symrise, after a brief stint at Roffe Construction Chemicals. As CEO of Symrise, Changavalli expanded his work experience by visiting the Dragoco facilities in Singapore, Jakarta, Sydney, Holzminden, New Jersey, and Shanghai. He had attended executive courses at Harvard, Wharton, Columbia, LBS, and IMD and was even featured in the TIME magazine. So, with this experience and expertise, Changavalli crafted the ‘108’ system. Post EMRI, Changavalli served as an advisor to six state governments. After Uttar Pradesh, he went to Haryana, Meghalaya, Assam, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Where is new India heading to? I asked Changalii, a veteran of both the private and public sectors, this question. Like a good teacher, he explained that India’s trajectory encompasses broad economic, geopolitical, and social dimensions. Undoubtedly, India is on the path of robust economic growth. It is projected to become the third-largest economy in the world by the mid-21^st century, driven by a large and young population, increasing urbanisation, and a burgeoning middle class. Key sectors such as technology, manufacturing, and services are expanding rapidly, supported by government initiatives like ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’.

India is becoming a global hub for technology and innovation. The country is home to a thriving startup ecosystem and significant advancements in information technology, pharmaceuticals, and space technology. Initiatives like the National AI Strategy and increased investment in research and development are propelling India towards becoming a leader in the global tech landscape.

Rising and increasingly assertive, India is an active member of international organisations like the United Nations, G20, and BRICS, strengthening ties with major powers like the United States, the European Union, and Japan. India’s strategic positioning and its role in regional groupings like the Quad (with the US, Japan, and Australia) reflect its growing geopolitical clout. And yet, as the country with the largest population in the world, it is a work in progress, navigating significant changes and challenges.

Efforts to address issues like poverty, education, healthcare, and gender equality are ongoing. While progress has been made, particularly in reducing poverty and improving access to education and healthcare, disparities and social tensions persist. Government policies and grassroots movements continue to push for social reforms and inclusive growth. Rapid urbanisation is transforming India’s cities. Significant investments are being made in infrastructure development, including smart cities, transportation networks, and urban planning. These developments aim to improve living standards, boost economic productivity, and make cities more resilient and sustainable.

Changavalli calls for investment in education and skill development to harness India’s demographic dividend. Initiatives like the New Education Policy 2020, aimed at revamping the education system, promoting research and innovation, and equipping the workforce with skills required for the 21st century, are a silver lining. Political stability and policy reforms to boost economic growth and improve governance are equally essential to shaping the country’s future.

Changavalli sees the most significant challenge in New India as balancing economic growth with social and environmental sustainability. While technology presents growth opportunities, it poses challenges, such as job displacement due to automation and the need for cybersecurity. Preparing the workforce for technological changes and ensuring data privacy and security are essential. Addressing this requires comprehensive and coordinated efforts across multiple sectors, including economic policies that promote inclusive growth, social reforms to reduce inequalities, and environmental regulations that ensure sustainable development.

So, what motivates Changavalli to come to work in his seventies? He looks back at his humble beginning in poverty and says that though he has been lucky to emerge from it, a billion people in India must be helped. Helping young people think right, instilling self-confidence, and helping them learn to celebrate the glass half-full is no less holy and deserving than any other worship. Work is worship, duty is God, and a life well lived is life lived well. Here, a person who works without any reason, not for money, fame, or anything else, is the most productive. Such people have the power to change the world. In terms of Karma-Yoga, this man is the very best example.   

I am running into my seventieth year. Born on February 10, 1955, I have lived a somewhat uncertain life with some cardiac electrophysiological issues since childhood and, later, coronary artery disease that necessitated multiple angioplasties, a bypass surgery, and two stents. Besides this, overall, life has been experientially enriched and satisfying. In hindsight, things happened to me without my planning or pursuing them. Now, I spend most of my time studying at home.

What is the purpose of human life? Is it all stories that we are told and that we, in turn, tell? How much of human free will is real? Is everything fated? Should we be captured right in childhood to be productive and compliant with the socioeconomic system? Are our education, careers, and livelihoods not orchestrated by the powers that run this world? Every religion has found the truth, but their findings differ. A good portion of science is dogmatic. The 12^th of 18 verses of the short and crisp Isha Upanishad pin the truth.

अन्धं तमः प्रविशन्ति येऽसम्भूतिमुपासते।

ततो भूय इव ते तमो य उ सम्भूत्यां रताः ॥

Those who seek eternal truth enter blind darkness, and those who study material existence live in greater darkness.

I have been an avid reader since childhood. Later, I curated a small personal library and now spend most of my time reading books, some new but mainly from the old lot. One such book is She by Henry Rider Haggard. I first read it in Pantnagar in the 1970s, during my graduation there, and got scared when the young protagonist encountered an ageless woman, living for 2000 years in youth, waiting for him to follow various life cycles and meet her. I avoided watching the film based on this novel for many years, and finally, when I saw it, I had goosebumps at the climax.

This time, after re-reading the book, I ordered its sequel, The Return of She. It was published in 1905, 18 years after the first novel. Many books survive the test of time, live long after their authors are gone, remain in print, and people buy them not because they are advertised but as if a mysterious hand has led them there. These books are waiting to be read, thought through and absorbed.

In the 3^rd chapter of the sequel book, the hero, 22 years old, when he met ‘She’ in the first book, is now searching for ‘her’ in the Siberian wilderness ‘driven onward by blind fatalism’ as the only guide. He, along with his elderly mentor and co-traveller, take shelter in a monastery where some elderly Buddhist monks – lamas – live, cut off from the world, ‘with no other company than that of their pious contemplation’. They spend many months waiting for winter to get over and read the old manuscripts stored there. A diary with the lama ‘written about two hundred and fifty years earlier’ confirms that they are on the right trail.

. . . there was a fine country beyond the mountains . . . people [there] worship a priestess . . . who is said to reign from generation to generation. . . She lives in a great mountain, apart, and is feared and adored by all, but is not the queen of the country, in the government of which she seldom interferes. However, sacrifices are offered to her, and he who incurs her vengeance dies.

When the hero shows this passage to a lama, who is now eighty, the lama confirms that he met such a lady when he was a young novice in the monastery. She had come with a group of warriors who had crossed the desert for shelter.

She was all loveliness in one shape; she was like the dawn upon the snows; she was like the evening star above the mountains; she was like the first flower of the spring . . . That woman, if woman she were, lit a fire in my heart which will not burn out.  . .  She made me worship her.

Your Path is Renunciation and your Nirvana, a most excellent Nothingness which some would think it scarce worthwhile to strive so hard to reach. Now I will show you a more joyous way and a goddess more worthy of your worship. . . The way of Love and Life —that makes all the world to be, that made you. Though I change, I do not die.

Now, the lama insists that the hero not go after ‘her’ and offers to let him stay at the monastery for the rest of his life. But to the hero, the purpose of life is to seek one’s desires. When the hero tells the lama that he met ‘her’ 18 years ago and that it will only be a reunion, the lama replies:

Doubtless, you will find her there as you expect . . . Only be not mistaken, she is no immortal; nothing is immortal. She is but a being held back by her own pride . . . That pride will be humbled . . . that brow of majesty shall be sprinkled with the dust of change and death . . . .  sinful sprit must be purified by sorrow and by separations.

[Even] if you win her, it will be but to lose, and then the ladder must be reclimbed . . . why labour to pour water into a broken jar whence it must sink into the sands of profitless experience, and there be wasted, whilst you remain athirst?

Now comes the counterpoint. The hero replies to the lama:

Water makes the sand fertile . . . where water falls, life comes, and sorrow is the seed of joy. Love is the law of life. . .  without love there is no life. I seek love that I may live. I believe all these things are ordained to an end we do not know. Fate draws me on – I fulfil my fate. . . we are sworn to a tryst, and we will not break our word.

The argument climaxes in the lama declaring the futility of life and the hero’s utility:

Then, brethren, go keep your tryst, and when you have reaped its harvest, think upon my saying, for I am sure that the wine you crush from the vintage of your desire will run red like blood, and that in its drinking, you shall find neither forgetfulness nor peace.

. . . to dwell through aeons in monotonous misery in order that conciousness may be swallowed up at last in some void and formless abstraction called the ‘Utter Peace.’ I would rather take my share of a bad world and keep my hope of a better.

I have learnt from this book how the lama concludes, and I share this with my readers as my gift.

. . . So would I . . . Who can tell? Moreover, what is the use of reasoning?  . . we have no choice; we follow our fate. To what that fate may lead us, we shall learn in due season.

Know that the concept of individual fate is a false idea. An individual’s destiny is intertwined with the destiny of the larger community or society to which he or she belongs. Our actions and choices must help the broader social fabric in which we are embedded. The more isolated and selfish our life, the more individualistic our thinking, the more futile our life. What can be the utility of a wheel locked to a pole? The purpose of a wheel is to move. The purpose of human life is to expand consciousness, work to progress, and serve others through good conduct. The rest of the action and drama are futility, vanity, and entropy.