Pain of a Teacher
Naveen Varshneya
Founder’s Insights •
18 April 2022, 9:00 AM
It was a student body of an MBA Institute which organized a panel discussion on the topic “Spirituality at Workplace”. Around 90 students logged in to listen to 3 speakers. I was one of them. It was my classmate’s daughter who was organizing it, and his wife is a book reader. I guess that is why he reached out to me to be a speaker.
I am always tempted towards such opportunities where I feel we could raise the level of hope among people; more so when it is the youth.
Juhie (my colleague at NV Life) was reluctant to the extent that she convinced me that it is not worth our time, but we relented when she was pursued further by the student body.
In two hours of discussions, I learned a few things:
#1 What is the bigger picture?
There is a curiosity among the youth about the larger view to life than just what they have grown up with; the fragile and old paradigm– that they study, get a job, get married, raise a family and accumulate debt in buying a flat. There is fatigue among parents to persist in this narrative, as they see it yielding lesser value and higher uncertainty than ever before. After all, this narrative was to make the new generation more secure and certain than us. On the other hand, the youth is getting tired of their narrative of “I will do it my way”. In the last 20 years, they got exposure and freedom, more than they bargained for, by breaking away from the old paradigm. They are clueless about what to do with the excess of space and free will. They feel unprotected and unsafe.
#2 Distortion
There is a lot of garbage when it comes to spirituality. Although, the good thing is that the few, who explored it, have found what the definition is. However, they have no clue how to help you understand and practice it as a step-by-step process. At best they become incessant motivators.
#3 Spirituality vs. Science
There is a desperation among spiritual leaders and custodians of new–age healers and coaches. This is not new. Several leading mystics of the 20th century had been infected by it. The desperation to use some experiments of science, which conducts some vague tests to justify that a lot happens in your body and mind differently when you meditate. They feel challenged in expressing the concept of spirituality without taking the support of some vague tests of science.
Is it not common sense that any change in body and mind, in any case, is a function of experience and people will feel the difference in any case, if there is one? Besides, is spirituality, which is as ancient as the universe, a slave – seeking approval of its infant master (science– a few centuries old), which on the other hand is just learning to crawl on its feet?
#4 Youth
The youth is bored. They are looking for good stories as examples for them to feel motivated. There is a need for modern compelling storytelling to invigorate youth. If they can comprehend, they are ready to be swayed and get smitten.
Spirituality, as discovered by previous generations through trial and error, is a story of individual achievement. It is worthless for others to emulate, leave aside the ability to make it a mass movement for the next generation. At best, these examples are good motivation and inspiration.
The entire work done so far in the name of spirituality feels good at the spirit level but then reading the scriptures had the same effect on us. Did it ever change our suffering for countless centuries? At best, it helped us accept our limitations as destiny; but seldom did it trickle down to the emotional and mental level, for us to begin integrating it in our daily life.
But the situation is far graver than this. Firstly, we do not have structured content that can be taught. And second, there is no willingness to teach.
I believe that we owe a responsibility to this planet; to the new generation, to teach them with compassion rather than ruthlessly trying to brainwash and impress them with our own success stories. I believe we have a responsibility to mentor them and help them ask more questions of themselves rather than expecting from others. We need to teach them “the how” of figuring out things for themselves rather than telling them, ‘it is being intelligent to figure things out’.
Finally, I came out of the panel discussion with a heavy heart, not knowing where to begin. The distortion is huge.
To all the faculty and fellows of NV Life, who are the teachers of the new era, your work has just begun and there is a long way to go. I believe each one of you, with the book and the courseware, are far better prepared than many other mainstream teachers. You have content and you have experienced it working– on yourself and others through you. You have a benevolent heart and your guide is the science of cure and the tools of transformation that you practice with each breath and share so generously with the students of NV Life programs.
Let us light a lamp in the life of one person more than last year. Let us raise hope. Let us take responsibility for the planet. We owe it to our mother and our motherland.
