From a businessman, or as a businessman, the secret of achievement of India’s goal you have heard from an authoritative throat.* I have joined here not as a represen¬tative of Chinese culture or the Japanese culture but of our own Indian culture. Culture is something made of the society. Society is made of individuals. Each one of us is growing and there is no phenomenon when indi¬viduals grow that the society will not grow. The society will also grow. There is no society or community or a nation without any individuals. As the culture changes its physical and moral attitude, the society changes. These changes are historical changes, a very slow change. There is a series of such historical moments when the culture has lost its elasticity and cannot grow any more, then the community or the society comes up outside the culture and the culture is swallowed within the doom or in the garb of the growth of the community. The Greek culture, the American culture, the Roman culture each of them has been very much contributory to the world in its time but when the poor culture could not have its elasti¬city to embrace the society, the society came up outside the culture and the culture got embedded, almost doomed. The Hindu culture has its own history. When the culture dies, decays, get completely decayed, at all such times, one or the other must have to come to protect the culture. In the Mahabharata time also, there was Vyasa, in 563 B.C. there was Buddha, in 8th century Shankaracharya, in 12th century Ramanuja and in 19th century, the Lion of Bengal, Swami Vivekananda had to come to give a new dimension to the Hindu culture. They gave a new situa¬tion to the society, the economic change, social change and change at all levels.
We have now come to a situation where many new prob¬lems have come up. These problems can be conceived by the inner historical change in India. Their main problem is that of industrialization. What is industrialization? Our business executives want to have the western type of management. All our youngsters go to western countries to read certain Business Management Courses and then come back with a goal, an idea, an ideology in their mind but here their goal, their idea to have this type of management has totally failed, because they do not know how to manage, how to handle their own men. There is no manager or director who knows how to handle his own men. They want a typist girl around, a steno typist, a coffee break, a good type of table, a good type of chair, a good cabin. In our country, these are the efficiencies. These are not the efficiencies. For getting efficiency, inner adjustment is necessary. The things which we do not have in our own country, we can get from western countries. The educational and technical knowledge we can get from others. There is nothing wrong in it, but this is not the problem with our country or our business executives. After all, we have to face the challenge of the human problems. Industry was no more before 17th or 18th century. We find that what we have studied in the American Universities is not sufficient to handle the men here because men grow in the com¬munity and they are oriented with the culture and the values of this country. From the universities, colleges, schools, polytechnics, we can get proficiency but we cannot get efficiency from them. Japanese methodology may be better, as Dr. Charat Ram told, because they are oriented with culture of the eastern group but in our country the people are oriented with the family group, the villages which constitute millions of this country. They are all family oriented. The people, in our country, do not know how to manage the human being and that type of management is oriented with the moral objective. When I say something like this, it does not mean Swamiji is becoming a philosopher. The greatest and the noblest of all executives in the world come from either the highest or the most proficient families. Buddha, sitting under a tree, taught 100 students. There was no Japanese methodology or the Chinese methodology and today’s business executives in our country want the western type of management. They want a typist, a shorthand-typist even if they may not have to give even 4/5 letters in a day. They want coffee break, coca cola, cake. With this type of management, the individual or human being is almost overlooked. I would like to spend some time to reveal that there is an inner need of adjust¬ment to achieve our goal. No living organism can remain without responding the internal – stimulation so long as the quality and the performance of response, we depend upon, is there. The response we depend upon is growth and development of individuals. The individual grows and develops in a logical inner revolutionary manner. A honey bee that makes its house so beautifully that not even the greatest architect in the world can design such a beautiful building. If an architect had designed such a building, he would have got the Noble Prize, the highest prize in the world, but we do not congratulate the bee because it does not make its house with the Japanese methodology or the Chinese methodology. It designs its house with the natural methodology. We never thought of it! Similarly, we never congratulate our own child but the moment he goes out to western countries, he gets a good job. He works very hard because he knows that if he would not work properly, efficiently, he will be thrown out and then again he will have to go to his country where nobody will congratulate him for his act. He works very efficiently. Efficiency automatically comes to him. The plants are manufacturing tools. We can say that the plant responds by manufacturing tools. Similarly, the business executives are also res¬ponding. They study the present problems in all aspects in the light of their fast memory, which we call wisdom and by their experience. With all your knowledge, profi¬ciency and experience, you can reshape what you are to achieve in future. The individuals who are producing and are consistently performing their work, they are working for the entire generation and that kind of people can control the human being. He can handle or manage his own men. In this way, those who are to produce the good society, those who are consistently, intelligently performing their work or knowledge in re-molding the present situation or society to a more appropriate or bright future, they bring the brighter future for the entire generation or the society. The people, who deliberately, purposefully do not want to produce a good society or community, do not need to have efficiency. Only the intelligent people who are deliberately or purposefully acting to face the challenge of the present problems has the need of efficiency. This is exactly the topic which we are going to discuss today.
There are institutions, universities, colleges, schools to give us proficiency. These institutions are doing their work. Their job is to communicate to you the information. They are communicating. We read information from all around the world. More and more information is coming to your table everyday and you can get more and more information of that type. Is that type of efficiency going to give efficiency to a student? What knowledge or information he has gained from the institutions, univer¬sities or colleges constitutes his proficiency. Institutions and universities are to give us the proficiency. They cannot give us efficiency. A proficient man is not marked or determined to be an efficient man. A profi¬cient man cannot succeed but an efficient man is sure to succeed. We- all want to have the advantage of achievement. Proficiency is not the .imagination, is not the guarantee of achievement, but efficiency is the guarantee of achievement. I know many of the indus¬trial houses and many of those people in the middle class or the upper middle class, who are struggling for success or achievement of their goal, but they have failed. We cannot say that they are not proficient. They are proficient but they lack in efficiency. Proficiency is there but efficiency is not there. It is not your fault or my fault, but we are brought up in that way. Arjuna was a very proficient man. He proved his proficiency many a time and therefore he was the Commander-in-Chief of the Pandava army, but when he had to face the problems in the battlefield, he suddenly became inefficient. His proficiency cannot be questioned but the moment the problem of challenge arose, something broke in him and then he had to be revived or re-educated that is what it is in the eighteen chapters of the Bhagwad Geeta. He was then re-educated and his efficiency got revived and then he says that I shall fight. “Did I say that I will not fight? If so, J was mistaken”, and he started the war. In our country, we have to develop a special kind of knowledge or information, because we need efficiency. As Dr. Charat Ram told that in those who are working efficiently, efficiency would automatically come and the secret of achievement will come to them in terms of mental satis¬faction, because you know that you are working effici¬ently. When you are not working in an efficient manner, you are bored, you are tired, your life becomes hell, you are broken down and your brain is exhausted. We are very much conscious of knowledge. Proficiency is there but efficiency is not there. Too much of proficiency is not the guarantee of success. Similarly, the engineers in our country have been roaming about for jobs to the third class contractors but when they go to foreign countries, they get a good job, a good salary and they start working efficiently. Efficiency automatically comes to them. There is brain-drain in our country. Those who are intelligent are never left to this country and in foreign countries they become a very efficient person.
On the contrary, in our country, “CHHORO YAAR KAL KARLENGE”. You are making your life a suicidal life. You are to get corrupted and if morality is gone every¬thing is gone. Why is it so? It is because proficiency is there but efficiency is not there. Only through bookish information or knowledge, we become proficient men but we cannot become efficient men. A surgeon, who has got much of book knowledge when he is put to an operation theatre, nothing comes out. He does not get any idea. Such a person is like a murderer. He has got the knowledge or information about the operation, he is a proficient man but when he is made to do any act, he becomes inefficient. Similarly, we can take the example of a student who knows everything when he is outside the examination hall. When he enters the examination hall and gets the question paper, nothing comes out. The question is not that he does not know, he knows but it does not come out. As soon as he comes out, he can tell you what mistake he has done, he did not explain this point or that point, he should have done this or that. Now again he is a wise man. Outside the hall, wise man, inside the hall idiot. When again comes out of the hall, again he is a wise man. The same problem is there. Proficiency is there but efficiency is not there. When such a brilliant or intelligent student fails, all the students are surprised how did he fail. Then they say his stars were not good, “SANICHAR Kl CHAAL THI, TIME KHARAB THA”. Proficiency can be converted into efficiency by an inner feeling of action. The proficiency, in order to give a feeling of action, has to go through the mind but our mind is exhausted, dissipated and efficiency is not there. Imme¬diately after the action, we say I should have done like this or that. When everything has been done, you become very wise. We file a writ petition in the High Court or in the Supreme Court and we get a stay order on it. Supposing my father is a millionaire in a foreign country but I am starving here because the money cannot come to this country as there is a stay order in the court. The same problem is with the human being. He has got the know¬ledge or the information but nothing comes out when he has to do something because all your actions are on the stay order. You may have numberless certificates with you but when you are put to do something, nothing comes out. It is your mind which-puts your body in action and not the certificates. The body is only a tool, and the tool is necessary to do a job. Without a tool, a job cannot be done. Once somebody gave me a radio, a Phillips radio. Someone told me it is a very good machine; I also foolishly thought that my life will be in a pool of music. After three or four days, it stopped talking to me; Then again someone advised me to take it to the mecha¬nic. One day, I went to get it repaired. There I found that there are three or four katories in front of him and one or two different types of screw-drivers were there. He was opening and putting one by one all the tools in the various katories put in front of him. I watched, watched again and again. When for some work, he had to go inside his room; I immediately looked at the various tools put in the katories. I noted the name of the company by whom these tools were manufactured. Then he re¬assembled all the tools one by one and now there were only katories which were extra and the radio was now ready. On my way back home, I went to a shop and got all these tools. I also purchased 3/4 katories and 2/3 different types of screw-drivers, f opened the radio and one by one I put all the tools in the various katories put in front of me and brushed them all .beautifully as the mechanic had done. Thereafter, I reassembled all the tools wherever I could assemble them and it looked exactly as the company made. I thought the Indian manufacturers are doing nothing and they are just mark¬ing their names on the tools. Now I plugged it on to hear the music, good programs and all that, f found that instead of my ears being tickled, my nose is being tickled with the smell coming out from the radio. My friend came in and asked me Swamiji what are you doing, the radio is completely burnt off? I told him, “What are you talking? I had also done exactly as the mechanic had done.” I tried to open my eyes but could not open because of the smoke coming out from the radio. Then I switched off the radio. None of us is oriented by God for failure. It is our birth right to succeed. To achieve success, you have to depend on others. Your body is a tool. For doing anything your mind has to depend upon your body because the body is a tool and without a tool nothing can be done. Your mind insists the body to work or to meet the challenge or to face the problems. Your mind is to achieve the goal through your body or with the help of your body. When your mind is exhausted or dissipated, you cannot achieve the goal. As Dr. Charat Ramji has told that the Japanese methodology is much better and during the last two decades or so, they have made so much of progress that we cannot make that much of progress even in the next two years. But where is the man here? Here all are suited, booted gentlemen. There is no man behind to work. Efficiency cannot be oriented by a barber or a tailor. The tailor or a barber can only make you look beautiful but he cannot inject efficiency in you. Here the people do not work efficiently. They say “MAZA KARO, MAZA KARO”. I am not talking anything new or I am not bringing it from somewhere else, ft is your tradition or culture, ft is not your fault or my fault. We have been brought up in that way or we have been oriented with this type of tradition or culture. Some of you are habitual or have got a habit of sitting in the present and regretting for the past, f did not do this or that. I did wrong or right, f should have done this or that. To regret for the past can only destroy yourselves rather than to be the guide line or light for the future. They say Swamiji, what is there if f failed in 1972, 1974 and 1976? In 1978, I will be more prepared to face the challenge and I will get success in 1978. I agree with you, this time you will get the success because you are the most ex¬perienced failure. Some of you say that Swamiji, thank God, I do not have any problem because I do not re¬member anything in my mind. What a stupid idea it is! How much of a suicidal imagination you have got? We just make the imaginations for the future; imagination of the future is not the guarantee of success for you or for the country. Everybody thinks if everybody in this world is going to die, let them die. I, my wife and my family should be happy. I should get a better house, better facilities. What a stupid idea it is! What will you alone do by living in this world? When everybody or the whole world is going to die, you should also die along with the world. Everyone of us when we get up from our own bed early in the morning, one finds a hundred and one things to do during the day. He thinks I am the only person who is doing something in this institution. All the work is on my head. Nobody else in this company is doing any work. Till lunch time, he does not know how to do so many things? After lunch where is the time? There is no time to do anything and then he simply keeps repeating the same thing that I am the only person in this institution who is doing something. No¬body else is doing anything, but I would say that every¬body is doing something but you are only talking and you are not doing anything in this institution. This is not the way to achieve the goal. In western countries, everybody is not an economist, everybody is not a chemist, everybody is not a technician or a technologist but they are successful in their life because they have a purpose, a goal, an idea in their minds. If everyone has an idea or a goal in his mind to achieve, there is no need to run after success but it is success which will run after you. Some of us say that I have got this bad habit. I got it from my father, my mother or my family. My father also is like that. Someone says that Swamiji, I am very much worried about the future. If I do not worry then nobody in this world is worrying. If I do not worry then what is life? What can you tell them? These are the drawbacks or the dissipations with you and even after you’re claiming success. Everybody wants to achieve the goal or success. Man can strive for the higher only if he has got a goal, an idea. When I was studying long long ago before in 1948, I did not know that in 1978, I will meet all of you. I never thought of it. Now all of you may get bored or tired, why should I be nervous of you? Why should I get worried? That is not my fault. It is not me, it is the Lord who wanted you all to come here and hear me for one and a half hour. I am talking of a goal, an idea. If everybody in our country starts working with an idea, a goal in his mind, he can surely succeed in his life. But in our country, everybody thinks I, my wife and my children must be happy. Why should I worry about others? Everybody longs for his own protection according to our own culture. Everything in this world is not only for you to grow fat and to get pleasure all the way. It is for every¬one. Much of the scientific brain and knowledge is not brought up anywhere in the world. Even if you see the Japanese culture or the Chinese culture, it is only because of the Indian culture. At such a stage when the culture has lost its elasticity, the new blood of the society comes up and we say that the culture is revived. What do we call it—a revolution in the country or cultural revival? Today, the books are not based on the religion or culture but they are based on politics, economics or the western methodology because the people of western countries are the high-ups in their technology and so we want to get something from them. There is nothing wrong in it. They are developed and we can get from them but as far as our own inner adjustment to achieve the goal is concerned, it cannot be developed by the technology taken from the western countries.
I am not here to teach you the whole methodology. We have organized a faculty. The Mission has brought out a souvenir and it is not just for the sake of advertise¬ments but the material contained therein is very useful and I would like all of you to read it very deeply. I have not got so much knowledge and information about the Management Courses. We are bringing out certain useful books for those who are the masters of the management to run our country and are training the people in order to give more and more knowledge and information to run the management. They can help you a lot to improve your¬selves. They are very much authentic. Those of you, who would like to have more copies of the souvenir, may *kindly be good enough to fill in their names and addresses of the Institutions and also the number of copies you want and leave the slip at the counter on the gate. What¬ever I have talked about may not strike all of you but for a few people it may prove to be very useful and help¬ful. I am not here to teach you the whole methodology. 1 am not a management specialist. I cannot guide you or lead you. But I would like to make my countrymen aware of the knowledge and information which they are neglecting.
Thank you.
* Swamiji is referring to Dr. Charat Ram, Managing Director of D.C.M., who was the chief guest.