I have been told that it takes several lakhs of rupees of public money for a person to become a qualified engineer, or a trained medical practitioner. When our young men go abroad, most of them never return to their homeland again. ……….

It has become a perennial loss to India, this irrational waste of human potential, putting square pegs in round holes, so to say. This is one of the few countries in which qualified medical practitioners have abandoned their profession to become businessmen. In one case a doctor even took up acting on stage! People do not realise what the Government and society spends in educating a person to such advanced levels. If they realise it, they would not, perhaps, so callously abandon several years of intensive training to go for a different activity just to make more and more money.

Perhaps in no other country have people become so materialistic as in this country. It is a pity that the Government has so far not even tried to tackle this matter. The so-called brain drain to advanced countries of the world, and especially to the USA, has taken away the youth of this country that should have been in the service of their motherland. That they run away to foreign countries lured by the greed for money is a sad commentary on the selfish materialism inculcated into them, as also on the patriotism, or the lack of it, exhibited by them. There can be no doubt that service conditions in India are appalling. The Governments at the State and Central levels are to blame for this state of affairs, though this does not absolve the young men of blame of using this country, and their parents' money, for merely selfish personal gain.

There are very sad stories of aged parents dying without any help, they having lost their four and five sons to this lure for personal advancement. The sons abroad try to salve their conscience - no exaggeration - by sending a few hundred dollars home periodically. But can love be substituted by money? Such young men later live to feel the burden of guilt on two counts. The first of having totally neglected their aged parents. The second for the problems created by their children who have been brought up in a foreign environment under a totally different culture, standards of morality, and patterns of behaviour. This is especially poignant where daughters are concerned. Deeply ingrained moral and social values cannot be so lightly overthrown, but alas! This truth is realised often only when it is too late.

Source: Down Memory Lane, Volume 2, p. 10, P. Rajagopalachari, 1998, Shri Ram Chandra Mission USA

Q: What do you feel about the points raised by Chariji? Has he made you think, and evaluate your own behaviour?

Q: Have you ever thought about what resources have been poured into your education? Not only money, but also the efforts, time and good will of teachers, parents and yourself?

Q: What is your attitude towards your future? Do you see materialistic goals as the most important in life?

Q: In this day and age, when jobs are changeable, what do you think a student's attitude should be towards education in the light of Chariji's text?

Q: Can you think of ways to best use the educational resources of the modern world so that there is not the wastage of resources mentioned by Chariji?

Q: Do you think children should feel a duty to look after aged parents? What has happened to old people in the materialistic nations of the world, where younger generations do not always feel responsible towards looking after them?

Q: What do you think of patriotism? How does it fit in with globalisation of economy, business and the media?

Q: What do you think the important underlying human morals and attitudes should be? Do you think that globalisation can lead to cultures integrating their values in a positive way for humanity?

O, Master!
Thou art the real goal of human life.
We are yet but slaves of wishes
Putting bar to our advancement,
Thou art the only God and power
To bring us up to that stage.