Graduating the “Course of Life”

One should neither underestimate the importance of education nor the effort required to get educated. An average human spends at least 12 years of life to get basic education (given that in our country still there are good number of dropouts after Grade 10th). The more privileged people end up spending 20-22 years of their life at a stretch to gain knowledge and “master” a particular stream of education or professional course of their choice.

I have been privileged enough to complete a master’s degree in engineering. Looking back at what I have (we all in fact) learnt in these 25 years, 90 % of the knowledge is associated with developing skills that make us ready to deal with and solve certain business problems which are eventually transactional. Most people end up learning how to earn money, how to communicate well in society and eventually walk the path of life with a particular skillset as the central pillar of life. As my professor use to say, once an engineer always an engineer (He actually meant one can never get rid of the scars of this mistake)

Further we learn topics which fall in the remaining 10 % bucket that touch upon knowledge around behavioral aspects of one’s personality. They may be covered via moral science type course in school and some communication skill-based course at bachelors’ level.

But once we age and step into outside world it doesn’t take time to realize that the actual questions that life throws at us are all out of syllabus (The feeling may be very familiar though). Soon we start looking backwards in past for answers but only end up enjoying or rejoicing the moments from past and wishing we had never grown up. It may act as a temporary boost to the mood levels but not a permanent solution to the questions we are trying to answer. Eventually the question is how do we crack this puzzle called life or at least make a good attempt at it (to get some marks for attempting the question :P)

This is when we set out in search of answers for these out of syllabus questions, it’s an open book test after all. Of course, there is plethora of knowledge available from the past literature either in spiritual texts, as memoirs of great people, as stories that have passed on from one generation to another and now on television and You Tube. There will be millions of options to start with.

The challenge is understanding the concepts (if I may call them so), the first principles, and that too in the limited time that we can dedicate to learn. Remember one has a job to do, the central pillar of life, that skill which helps you earn money, but cannot completely help you with these questions.

The problem with directly reading the ancient texts is the logical mind rejects some of the theories as they are more relevant to a different time. The question is how to bring them to more contemporary use. There is no doubt about the effectiveness of message that knowledge from past has, it’s just the approach, its application needs to be tailormade to suit the current time frame.

So, the guidance one seeks for, should not just address the challenges one faces in life but at the same time should be more relevant to today’s situation, be generic enough to be inclusive for people of all walks of life (religion, caste, gender, age group etc.) given that we live in a more cosmopolitan societies in this age.

In my search for the right guidance for the answers with above condition, I found the ocean of wisdom (if not panacea) in Om Swamiji.

Swamiji has dedicated the past decade of his life to this world by building up a bank of knowledge which now has “wisdom currency” worth billions (countless actually).

Swamiji’s writing offers perfect blend of all the criterions discussed above and more. Of the many good attributes of his content, the writings in his blogs and books maintain the right balance of ancient wisdom, current relevance, scientific substantiation and examples of successfully demonstrated results (and icing on cake is the Humour in his posts).

There are more than 400 blogs, 14 books and number of videos addressing topics across various spectrum of life. The content is broad and exhaustive enough to have a separate coursework in itself. The Course of “Lifeology” as I would like to call it.

Just like we have various subjects that we have to pass through before we are rewarded a bachelors or master’s certificate of a professional course, there are various skills and habits that one need to develop to master the way of living; the right way of living.

And just like any professional course work that universities offer, the content is not just heap of bland theories. Swamiji has deconstructed some of the very complex concepts in a more application-oriented manner so that one can pick them up as SOP (standard operating procedure) and put them directly to use in one’s life. He has indeed provided the Manual for the “Human Operating system”.

Without spilling too many beans I would suggest have a look and enroll to this course on “Lifeology” at https://os.me/

The content on the platform is structed very well to help one take a planned approach. Just like graduating a professional course requires good 3-4 years of dedicated practice and involvement (apart from the basic 12 years one spends in school), the lessons in this course of “lifeology” require dedicated practice and sincere implementation. The results will be there to be seen, just give it the right amount of time.

Try it to see the irreversible benefits that you can gain, eventually enabling you in solving the puzzle of life or atleast giving your best shot at solving it.

Good luck

Rajesh Kodukula