{"id":3452,"date":"2020-11-30T11:19:02","date_gmt":"2020-11-30T05:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/?p=3452"},"modified":"2020-11-30T11:19:04","modified_gmt":"2020-11-30T05:49:04","slug":"dualism-in-purpose-finding-harmony-in-self-conflicting-purposes-for-tuning-onto-career-needs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/dualism-in-purpose-finding-harmony-in-self-conflicting-purposes-for-tuning-onto-career-needs\/","title":{"rendered":"Dualism in Purpose: Finding Harmony in Self-Conflicting Purposes for Tuning onto Career needs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sabarna Roy is a much awarded,\ncritically acclaimed bestselling author of 6 literary books: Pentacles; Frosted\nGlass; Abyss; Winter Poems; Random Subterranean Mosaic: 2012 \u2013 2018, and\nEtchings of the First Quarter of 2020. He is the lead author of a technical\nbook, which has been published from the European Union and has been translated\ninto 8 major European languages.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has been awarded the Literoma\nLaureate Award in 2019, Literoma Star Achiever Award 2020, Random Subterranean\nMosaic: 2012 \u2013 2018 won the best book of the year 2019, the A List Award for\nexcellence in fiction by the NewsX Media House, Certificate for The Real Super\nHeroes for spreading a spirit of positivity and hope during the COVID-19\nPandemic from Forever Star India Award 2020, the Certificate for Participation\nin the Indo Russian Friendship Celebration 2020, and the Literoma Golden Star\nAward 2020: Lifetime Achievement.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following is an excerpt from Mr Sabarna Roy\u2019s speech\ngiven to the participants of a Webinar organized by Engageindia.biz on the\noccasion of their 16th<\/sup> Anniversary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Background:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.    If we give a\ncursory glance at the syllabi of Standards VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, and XII of any\nSecondary and Highersecondary Board in India, we will find that the focus is on\nrote learning and appearing for various kinds of entrance examinations, like\nthat for engineering, medical, and law etc. A student after migrating to\nStandard VII and further, is left with very little room for pursuing any kind\nof extracurricular activities or sporting activities. As such, the focus\ntowards hobbies and passions are completely done away with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2.    India is\nessentially a poor country, and as such, the implicit focus is to monetize\neducation at a later date. Hence, even education loses its fundamental premise\nas a conduit to greater learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3.    India being a\nmajorly Hindu populated country and, therefore, is deeply caste-driven, which\nhas not allowed development of respect for all professions. This is directly\nrelated to what a job has to offer in terms of money at the lowest risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4.    Nobody wants to be\nan entrepreneur, nobody wants to be a film-maker or an artist or a musician or\na writer, generally to start with because the success ratio in creative\npursuits is considered very low as much as with pursuing a sporting career.\nNobody wants to be a plumber, a carpenter, or a mason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5.    Our peers and\nelders focus on us to lead an average life, a lived-life at the lowest risk.\nThis kills all seeds of birth of purpose in our individual souls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Birth of Purpose:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.    What is my purpose\nin life? What do I want to do in life? What does the cosmos wants me to do in\nlife? Does it want anything at all? These are philosophical as well as\npractical questions to examine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2.    We are besotted\nwith such questions very early on in life. Although, the matrix of civil\nsociety existing around us wants us to bury these questions deep inside our\nsouls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3.    Let us examine the\nquestions separately. How will I decide uniquely what I want to do in life as\nmy wants change with change in time? Sometimes I want to be Mr X, sometimes I\nwant to be Mr Y. It is a fact knowing the human mind that there is no constancy\nin our purpose or what we want to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4.    Does the cosmos\nreally want us to take upon a unique purpose? Broadly, there are two opinions\non this – one who believe in faith and the other who are atheists or absurdists.\nPeople who believe in faith, do feel that the cosmos wants us to take upon a\nunique purpose. It is our devotion to god that will help us in knowing that\nunique purpose. However, atheists and\/or absurdists, like me, feel that the\ncosmos is silent, that the cosmos does not want us to take up any unique\npurpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5.    So, if you are a\nbeliever, there has to be a response spectrum between your purpose and what the\ncosmos wants you to take upon so that you are able to function in harmony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6.    But as an\nabsurdist or an atheist, I believe you are swinging on a pendulum of varying\npurposes, looking at the silent constellations and galaxies of stars, planets,\nand asteroids. From this vantage point, either you will commit suicide or cause\nrevolt or ride your pendulum against the coldness of the cosmos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Purpose as in a Career:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.    We have created a\nsociety that has empowered currency to appropriate value of all materials that\nexist around us. As such, it is incumbent on us that we earn as much currency\nnotes as much as we can so as to derive ownership of as much as many materials\naround us. Do materials beyond our needs give us happiness: beyond happiness of\nownership? This is an indeterminate problem. Career does provide us with an\nopportunity to earn currency notes. Not all careers are equal in intent,\ncontent, and purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2.    It is a given fact\nthat rote learning ultimately takes us towards some kind of absurd\nspecialization and takes us deeply away from interdisciplinary learning. Simply\nput, if Mr X starts learning a Trade A, gradually, he becomes a misfit for Trade\nB.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3.    Because the system\ndoes not provide us with the benefit of interdisciplinary learning, it is\nsignificant that boys and girls start developing this practice early on in\ntheir life of their own volition. This will also help in identifying individual\npurpose, and in knowing one’s spectrum of ambitions and aspirations. It has to\nbe understood for a fact that nobody is good at one single thing. In fact,\neverybody is good at doing many things. Lot of examples can be given to\nsubstantiate this point. I would always give the example of my mother. She was\nexcellent in housework, she was excellent in imparting my training in English\ngrammar. Later, she became an expert in organizing events in her club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The larger point is: a career at the end of the day keeps us engaged at various levels \u2013
a)\u00a0 Ownership of currency.
b)\u00a0 Passing of time.
c)\u00a0 Learning from the value of what we do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5.    How do we\nintegrate our choice of career with our purpose in life? Like, somebody who is\ninterested in social work can join an NGO or become an activist-politician. The\nproblem is, in our choice of career: we are mostly concentrating on how much\ncurrency it pays rather than on the quality of time that we will pass in that\nengagement, and the learnings of value of the work that we will do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6.    Quality of passage\nof time, and the learnings of value of the work that we will do are generally\nintegral parts of our purpose in life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7.    However, I do not\nfind anything wrong in earning currency for earning sake, although, there could\nbe many questions on ethical, moral, and legal grounds. It is almost okay if\nsomebody values even passage of time and learning from the value of what we do\nby the amount of currency that one earns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8.    However, earning\ncurrency notes repetitively and in great portions over a period of time without\nadding value can create boredom in life. There is a saying that entrepreneurs\ndo not do it for the money because of which capitalism is understood as an\neconomic art, which in spite of its greed and lust for money survives because\nof its intrinsic core of being an art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dualism in Purpose:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.    Should I be an\nauthor? Should I be an engineer? Should I be a traveller? Should I be a\nthinker?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2.    These questions prima\nfacie look self-conflicting. Yet, they are not. It is because it is possible to\nbe an author, an engineer, a traveller, and a thinker all at the same time, and\nmuch more a father, a husband, a friend, and a son.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3.    We have to\nunderstand that at the core of our being, we carry multiple identities because\nof which we ride on a pendulum of our varying purposes. To identify, and\nunderstand our multiple identities, interdisciplinary learning, and honesty in\nfacing our own truths are deeply required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4.    It is important to\nexpand our interest in life \u2013 literature, music, arts, performing arts, natural\nsciences, technologies, visit places, knowing people and cultures, even at the\nexpense of rote academic learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5.    Robustness of\nunderstanding the purpose or purposes in your life depends on the robustness of\nyour brain, that is, directly proportionally to how much you enhance your\ninterest in life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6.    It is only then\nthe conflicts move away, and harmony sets in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7.    You understand\nthat your multiple identities require multiple purposes, multiple expositions,\nand multiple careers to be able to satisfy your need for happiness, and well\nbeing in life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8.\u00a0If a huge iota of currency would satisfy a human soul to the extent that he or she would stop earning any more after having done that, no successful enterprise would sustain more than 10 to 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today’s deeply fractured, violent societies yet intensely\nintegrated, and globalized world order besotted with climate change, we must\nunderstand that whatever we would do will have a consequence. It is important\nto be interdisciplinary, it is important to have multiple interests in life, it\nis important to engage in the dualism in purpose and career in life, it is\nimportant to identify harmony in self-conflicting purposes, and for that we\nhave to know, and believe that it will not be possible without acknowledging\nourselves as global citizens with responsibilities and duties. This will enhance\nour understanding of purpose, and finding harmony in dualism in purpose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sabarna Roy is a much awarded, critically acclaimed bestselling author of 6 literary books: Pentacles; Frosted Glass; Abyss; Winter Poems; Random Subterranean Mosaic: 2012 \u2013 2018, and Etchings of the First Quarter of 2020. He is the lead author of a technical book, which has been published from the European Union and has been translated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3453,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[271],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3452","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-authors"},"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/WhatsApp-Image-2020-11-30-at-11.12.31-AM.jpeg?fit=1280%2C960&ssl=1","author_info":{"display_name":"Writing Geeks","author_link":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/author\/writinggeeks\/"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/WhatsApp-Image-2020-11-30-at-11.12.31-AM.jpeg?fit=1280%2C960&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6uhmH-TG","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3452"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3454,"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3452\/revisions\/3454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}