My friends tell me that engineering studies are a waste of time – should I pursue some other career?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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So if I am pursuing engineering and some other students are telling me what is the use of engineering should I pursue, should I give it up so if I am confused what should I do is there a question yeah in general when we choose our career there will be 100 people who will give 100 opinions and the easiest way to make ourselves miserable is to try to please everyone we just can’t please everyone in fact many of us we may have we may just become very weak minded, confused if you just think everybody who is saying something I just have to accept that so our decisions yes we can take input from others but we have to take our decisions much more responsibly, much more maturely so broadly speaking when we take decisions how do we take them that first of all we look outwards, we look inwards and we look upwards look outwards means what that in outside there are many people but we have to find out who are the people who we can trust, who really are our ambitions who understand us well and who will stand by us so they can tell and their opinions we take very seriously yes sometimes it may be that we may be in a career that is incompatible to us and we may too feel that if I have I will be much happier in another career it’s possible but career decisions and especially understanding what is our inspiration this is not something which can be done overnight so unless one has a very strong zeal to do something specific in some other field just changing one’s career is not very advisable because what will you do if I change from here to something else tomorrow people will say this is not good you do something else so it’s better that unless something very clear and very specific is driving us in some other field just focus on moving forward in life and trying to understand ourselves better it is often that even students who do engineering now they don’t necessarily pursue engineering careers afterwards they may pursue some going to software, some going to management different careers people pursue so no need to take any impulsive decisions based on others so we need to short among the people around us also need to shortlist who are our close friends, who are our well-wishers and their opinions we take seriously so we look outwards and we take their opinions then we look inwards inwards means we try to understand ourselves better that means we look at ourselves what are the things that I am good at what are the things that I feel good doing Bhagavad Gita says that in our own vocations in life they need to be decided based on our qualities and our activities that means what we feel good doing and what we are actually good at doing so inner comfort and outer competence when we have that, that is a good indicator of what we should do in our life but this is again something not revealed overnight it takes time so it’s better that we continue doing whatever we are doing at the same time cultivating the skill of cultivating the habit of self-observation okay I know I do this subject I study this subject, I have this hobby, I do this extracurricular activity what is it that really inspires me, what is it that I am comfortable doing, what is it that I am competent doing and not just today or tomorrow in a sustained way over a year, over two years, over three years what I feel sustained, attracted to, that is a good indicator and the third is we look upwards, look upwards means we pray so that we can make a wise decision especially when we have to make major decisions it’s very good that we don’t take the decision impulsively but deeply try to become spiritual make a plan everyday, say for the next one month, next three months I will chant the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra I will read the Bhagavad Gita everyday that may not specifically help us in deciding but it will purify us internally, it will remove the inner darkness so that we will be able to get clearer guidance Krishna says I will give you the intelligence to make wise choices if we turn towards Him in a mood of prayerful devotion and then eventually when we have to take major decisions in our life it’s best to write things down, as long as thoughts are in our head, they keep us they just congest our inner world just keep going round and round, should I do this, should I do that should I do this, should I do that, just get nowhere get the thoughts out, write them down when you write them down in a journal in a diary, somewhere then just getting them out creates a distance and that distance gives us perspective yeah you know this makes sense this doesn’t make that much sense and then you can decide, okay I have to make a decision, in the next 6 months I’m going to make a decision and no use thinking about this constantly, because that will simply drain our mental energy, can you decide that okay whatever are my thoughts just let me write them down right now and then if any new thought comes up, any new idea comes up I’ll just write it down, I won’t think about it, because you know thinking has to be done when we are calm and clear, if you do it in the rush of life and I’m doing this I’m doing that, that thinking is hardly ever productive, it is mostly distracting, so if some new thoughts come up, just write them down don’t much think about it and every week you can decide I’ll spend 1 hour or 2 hours calmly before that pray make yourself calm make yourself spiritual and then again whatever you have written, read that and you may find you know, okay this point I would like to add something to this, this point is not so valid, I’m not feeling like this and this new thought I didn’t think about it so basically by this what we are doing when we write our thoughts down by journaling we are taking a picture of our mind and sometimes our moods keep changing very much, today I feel I just want to do this and tomorrow I feel, I don’t want to do this at all, so if we have, we keep a picture of our mind written in front of us like this and after 1 week I’ll say, after 2 weeks I’ll say I may change a few things here and there, but sometimes after 3-4 weeks what was I thinking, this is stupid there is no need to do this then we feel completely different, certain thoughts, certain reasonings, which we have not thought of at all, it will come to us but if say, we decide 6 months we keep going through and then we find out that overall our thoughts remain the same now these are the pros, these are the cons and this is what I feel I should do, this is what I feel I should not do, and we are subjected to rational scrutiny and then we find out, this makes sense, this is what I should do, so then whatever decision we take firstly, it is much more likely to be a decision that is in harmony with our inner nature that is in harmony with our inspiration, and not just our inspiration in a selfish, self-centered sense, but we also consider the factors what will be the effect on others, how will I deal with them, how am I going to explain to them all those factors we write down and evaluate so we will be able to take the decision much more maturely, and any decision that we take, there are going to be complications, there are going to be difficulties and if we have not taken the decision with proper deliberation, then our mind will start beating us, why did you do this, you should have done that why did you do this, you should have done that so, but if we have done our inner homework in terms of proper thinking, then we will be convinced, this is what I have chosen, and this is why I have chosen this, and then we will be able to resist that sense of regret or indecision or diffidence and we will be able to move on so generally sattva sanjayate jnanam, Krishna says when we are calm, then knowledge emerges, so I would say rather than taking a decision focus on trying to make clarify the mind internally and that comes through the practice of bhakti, through the practice of understanding ourselves, processing our emotions, and then arriving at conclusions, does it answer your question? Thank you