Conversations with visionaries, problems of today and solutions for the future?

Me and my friend Dennis were great dreamers nearing the end of our school lives. We spent many afternoons in Saket thinking about the future of our country and our own futures, about doing something for all the problems facing our country and the world today. After many years of college education, I met him again this month, ... and we had a opportunity to look back over our dreams and re-evaluate our purpose. I asked him a question that plagues all our minds as a society, "Hey, Dennis, after nearly five years of college education, do you think we have lost our way? Do you think we will actually be able to live out our dreams that we used to speak about so passionately? It just feels that after five years of college education my present and future are in great darkness, I feel like we have lost our way, I don't know if we are in a position to live great lives anymore. It seems so hopeless." 

The question sparked a discussion in us that tore away all the other concerns of the past and present. While we spoke about re-starting our mission and meeting again after a few months to discuss progress, it seemed like time stopped for just a few hours. The whole world became our concern, at least for that moment, and we seemed to have assumed a great responsibility over ourselves. For the country and for the whole world, with great love. That seems to me the position that we have put ourselves in. And we truly believe that we will be able to bring some sort of change in this world. We are on the right path and guided by the Divine, that is how it felt at the time... 

This happened last week, in December 2017. I don't need to mention this but Purana Qila really looked beautiful at the time, and what a fitting place to discuss our great plans about changing the world! Hah! The ideas, the mission, the vision, the purpose and the future have since then occupied my mind very deeply, and I haven't been able to think about anything else, or any better way of occupying my time in these vacations. It has struck me like a fever, our mission over anything else, it must be achieved if we are to see a good future for ourselves and our country. So yesterday I struck up a conversation about my mother, even though she was only half-listening while watching the television, and I started with a philosophical premise, "It just seems to me that during the time of British imperialism Indian society rose up to be so vibrant and colourful because there was a great need to do, a great need caused by the oppression of the Britishers or whatever other influence they had on our people. That seems to be lacking today, and look how our society is floundering... We're headed nowhere! I think we need to create a new city for the young and ambitious to gather and create their dreams! Like a New New York, or a New Rome, or a New Tokyo, you know? A new center of the world, who knows! Maybe it'll be right here... I wonder if I can get this into the ears of Modi somehow, ... I just wish I could tell him about this great idea of mine.." --- My mother replied with a smile, "Maybe you should message him on Facebook!" 

Dreaming about the Utopia of the Future

I stood for a moment, thought out loud, "Modi can't help us with this, he's too old and he's too restricted in his web of politicians and files that lead nowhere. It seems to me that we will have to be the ones to push this country forward working outside the framework of politics, we need to first understand how to cultivate our human resources and really awaken people to the truth of their potential. We need to fill them with the confidence to work on....." I went on after that like that for a few moments, preaching out loud like I have somehow developed the habit of doing. My mother interjected then, and said, "but, you know, I think that education is the true means of empowerment. You know that I studied in school, and at that time we used to have many Catholic girls in our school who came from poorer families. These girls came from poor families that sometimes converted to Christianity because the Church at that time would give free education and food to their children. Now look at them, they've achieved a good society and are living well, some of them have actually done really well for themselves." 

I replied, "I agree with you wholeheartedly Mumma, education can be the means of empowerment. But I am talking to you right now about the poverty of our upper classes, and not of the upliftment of the lowest classes of our country. I don't think that we as a society truly understand education, we don't truly understand how to use our education practically to create a good society around us. I think that the education system leaves a great vacuum in our society, as even the most educated people feel hopeless in our country and are forced to go abroad. I think the problem here is because we don't really understand education as society, we don't know how to create good people, hard working and driven with a purpose. And that is what me and my friends are trying to understand, first, philosophically, trying to come to an understanding of how we can create people into doers, how we can first become doers and achieve our dreams ourselves. You know, maybe it will be that we will just start achieving and push forward so many people along with us that.... we will achieve it that way?" 

I don't think I'm alone in thinking that the way our society is at present is leading us nowhere, to greater darkness and bad lives in the future. And I'm not even thinking about how we are losing our historical values or how we are imitating the West blindly. That may be the model for success, for a country like South Korea, perhaps... but it doesn't seem to be working for us. People are more unhappy, more lost and less driven than they were in the previous generation, and we aren't able to create futures for people in our own country. Some of the most talented, educated and smart people just see this country as a wasteland where they aren't free to achieve their dreams, they are attracted to other places, or distracted by the toxic influence of factors within our own country. We can't doubt at all, that media, politics, even the internet, is full of trash rather than positive creation. Even religious organizations have decayed to a pathetic state, even the better ones and newer ones, preaching a tongue that they hardly speak... 

These are problems, as we all very well know. But we need to focus on solutions. We need to follow our dreams and create a positive, good future for ourselves. The question is, how? For now, my idea is that we need to work on our individual lives, perhaps it it should be "First, clean your room!" as Jordan Peterson says. We are on a quest for finding answers to this.. And we will most likely succeed, now that the will has awakened in our hearts and is burning bright.

Aum Namah Shivaya.