Certainity from Moment to Moment

I was excited to get an invitation from the career counselor at my daughter’s school. The objective was to help my daughter to decide on the career stream in class XI.

The counselor was sitting on one side of the table and we were on the other. I shared my thoughts about my daughter’s various interests, “Vrinda enjoys mathematics and also likes other subjects. She is good at dancing and painting, and that makes her happy. Psychology is her newly found interest,” I said.

Based on the data and our discussion, the counsellor concluded that Vrinda should take Maths, Economics, History, Political-Science, and English as her main subjects with psychology as a sixth subject. Painting and dancing, she could pursue at home as a hobby. The possible career prospects would be teaching, mass communication, journalism, and civil services exams. We happily returned home. For the next two days, I kept thinking about it.

When I was in class X, I had no clue about my interests, likes, and dislikes. Science was out of my league. So I took up commerce, which looked to be the next prestigious option. Later, my grandfather – influenced by a friend’s advice suggested that I should pursue a career in computers,  an attractive upcoming prospect. That means more and quicker money. I enrolled in the most reputed computer learning institute. I did my graduation in commerce and computers. I learned something, but what, I don’t know?

I was still confused. The joy of dancing was the only thing I remembered since childhood. But I had no courage to talk about it in my big joint family. It was an alien concept. I took up a computer-related job that made my grandparents feel proud; at least someone was happy.

I came to the tuning point. After deleting all the files from the system by mistake, I was thrown out of my first job. I took it as a challenge and learned about computers through trial and error. By my third job, I earned recognition and a significant raise. But one day, I realized that I wanted to learn dance.

This time I was sure. I left my well-paid job and joined dance classes. My grandmother was so mad at me and called me a fool. She also influenced other members not to support me so that I could get back to the practical world of money.

I was flying in bliss after every dance class of Bharatanatyam by Sri.Justin McCarthy. That decision gave me a new beginning to my life. I followed my interest irrespective of outcome, money, and ambition. Life supported me in all possible ways, and the magical journey continued.

It is not easy to know what we truly want, and what to expect from a child. A few days later, I decided to ask Vrinda about her thoughts on dancing and painting.

She answered innocently, “I like it very much but there is not much money in it”.

She continued, “I like Maths too”.

“Hmm… What about history, political science?” I asked.

“I like that too,” She said.

I said, “What about psychology”

“Many children at school say it is an interesting subject,” she replied.

The next day, before going to bed, she approached me and said, “Mom, I have decided my main subjects – Maths, economics, English, political science, and painting.”

She continued, “Whenever I felt stressed, angry or tired at school, I used to go to the art room and paint. It always refreshed me. Maths and other subjects are mentally satisfying. I will have painting as one of the main subjects. Our school has the best art facilities and it could be a scoring subject too. Dancing I will continue privately. Psychology can be taken in college if I remain interested.”

I was thrilled to see her clarity of thought. She prepared for her X-class exams with a free mind. Before the results, she came to me and said, “Mom, I want to take science.  I know I can do it.”

I replied, “I am glad that you recognised your potential. Remember, you can always change your mind because we are changing all the time.”

Clarity from moment to moment is our true wealth. 

Poem

Sometimes we want this, sometimes we want that,

No problem, we are changing all the time,

Certainty from moment to moment is the true wealth,

Making conscious efforts to take the mind to no duality,

Only thing in our hands.