It’s a very special day for you and I am extremely happy and honored to be here to give this very privileged convocation address for you.
My job is to speak and before I speak I would like to say something about the art of listening.
Normally we don’t listen to speeches but today being a special day we might. A great Indian master has said how to listen. He said there are three levels of listening .
The lowest level of listening,he calls this “KUTHUHAL” What is he going to speak about, your curiosity may be fulfilled but nothing more.
The next higher level of a listener is called a “JIGNASA”. For a great medical college like this, for people like you it is possible that they have called the speaker who is giving some newer information. So you will come to see ‘What is that I can learn?’. You come from level two of a listener.
But this great Indian master five thousand years ago has said that the most powerful and the highest level of a listener is called a “MUMUKSHU” and what are the qualities of a perfect listener. Normally when we listen our mind will evaluate, our mind will judge. It will say this is good, this is not so good. It is said that as long as we are evaluating information we are still not good listeners.
Small children are very good listeners because they don’t have a background information to compare or contrast.
For a few minutes I request you to be like small children, not like the doctors with the loaded information. Listen with an open mind. If you come with an open mind, there is a potential not just to be informed; there is a potential to be transformed.
As doctors we learn most from our patients. Be very sensitive when you are in the presence of a patient. Every patient will tell you what human suffering is when you see them going through disease and disability. As a neurosurgeon we see one of the most serious type of brain cancers, serious head injuries and spinal cord injuries and we see people with a lot of disabilities and the potential of death. Each of our patients teach something very important that we normally take for granted.
Whenever we see a sick person, a dying person the message given to us is how lucky we are.We have the gift of health. Have you not realized only when you have a toothache, you remember you have teeth. Only when you have a headache you remember you have a head. Only when some part of your body is afflicted with a disease you realize the value of that part of the body.
When you see patients suffering, the message is I’m so blessed to be on the other side. I’m in the hospital, but I’m not like a patient and I’m the doctor now. I have the skills to help these people.
Therefore on this graduation day I would like to tell you what the same great Indian master has said whenever you feel so lucky, whenever you feel so blessed the next thing is how I can make the most of my life .
Think of this moment today. I’m a graduate, I have got years of medical service. As a doctor, I make a commitment today “I will give the very best of my abilities and my professional abilities to serve the people who I’m blessed to serve”. A great Indian master has said this will help you to develop what is called a purpose in life. All of us before we die have got three debts to fulfill.
Who has done the most for you? At this moment you will certainly think of them and many of them have come to see you on this very special occasion – your parents .
Your parents have given you so much. My question to you, Is it possible to repay for your parents what they have done for you. This is one debt which is essentially unfulfillable. You cannot do for your parents what they have done for you. But this great Indian master has said there is a way out.
What is the way out?
The greatest music for your parents is when someone says how lucky your parents are to have a daughter or son like you.
I want you to make this commitment in your life. In your computer, in your workplace, in your study room keep a picture of your parents and say like what Indians are thought. I know we have people from other countries also but Indians are taught this.
Mathru devo bhava
Pithru devo bhava
Acharya devo bhava
Begin everyday with a feeling that I’m receiving the blessings of my mother, my father and my teachers and whatever I am today is because of the blessings of these three people and I would make my commitment that I’m going to be something extraordinary as a way to repay my debt; someday somebody may say, so lucky your parents are that they have a daughter or a son like you.
Second debt is called Loka rina. Loka rina means your commitment or contribution to society.
Society has made you a doctor. All the patients in your hospital, so many teachers and so many people have helped you to become a doctor. Now your determination should be ‘Let me give more than what the society has given me’.
The shift from being a consumer to a contributor does not happen at the later stage. Everyday in my life before I sleep let me see have I given more today than what I have received.
If you follow an Indian pattern, all of us work very hard and Indian dictum states “Just don’t do your Karma (work) but make your work Karma yoga (worship)”.
When does your karma become yoga? Work becomes worship when you treat your patient like God. If I’m able to treat each patient of mine like God then what I’m doing is not karma but karmayoga.
As Doctors we want to make money we want to become rich and famous. But every act of you will get some benefit for you how do I receive this benefit. How do I receive the payment that for my service and that is called prasada yoga.
When you go to a place of worship they will give you some prasada. You receive the prasada with great reverence, you feel so grateful that you have got it when you have got prasada you don’t see how much you have got, you don’t make any comparisons.
Never compare what you get and this is called prasada buddhi.
Doctors are unhappy not because of the salaries they take, they are unhappy because somebody else is getting more and therefore the key to happiness is Karma yoga.
Treat my patient as if God has come before me and whatever is the remuneration I get. some people pay more, some people pay less. Some institutions pay more, some institutions pay less but whatever I get, if I practice eshwara aparna bhava and prasada bhava I can do karma yoga and the second debt will be fulfilled.
Friends, when you become doctors, when you become postgraduates; after some time a subtle ego, a subtle arrogance will grow within you.
When you become a specialist, so many people will be waiting for you. You will feel tired and sometimes you don’t want to see those people; a subtle arrogance will come.
Arrogance is the greatest danger for a doctor when arrogance comes you become egoistic. The word EGO stands for “Edging God out”.
From today you will be free from ego, I will give you two examples of people who are ego less.
One great example is the example of Muhammad the Prophet. The greatness of Muhammad was his simplicity, his ordinariness. One day the angel Gabriel comes to Muhammad and says recite. He says what can I recite, I’m not a man of letters to recite. So the angel says, that is why you have been selected. He goes home and tells his wife either he has gone mad or become a poet because the entire Quran, a beautiful poetry has come out of the lips of a person not very well versed in reading and writing.
This is truth friends. The more ordinary you are, extraordinary things will happen to you. When you’re egoless, you become a free channel and are able to download higher forces.
Second example. Lord Krishna’s wife Rukmini had one major problem which any modern-day wife has with her husband. You know what is the most common complaint that the modern-day wife has with her husband. You are not spending enough time with me. The same complaint Rukmini had with her husband; you are not spending enough time with me you’re spending more time with your flute. Today your flute is your mobile telephone. So the direct question Rukmini had to Krishna is what is there in the flute that I do not have and Krishna replies that the flute is so empty. You got it. When you become empty of the ego; when you become nobody; you become a channel for him to express through you.
Saint Francis has said so beautifully “Make me a channel of your Peace, a channel of your love” and all the doctors should say “Make me a channel of well-being and health”. Anybody who comes to you will go empowered feeling good, feeling healthy because you are now radiating the blessing of God because you are ego less and you become a channel to express godliness.
We come to the third and the last debt which is the most difficult debt and that is called Acharya rina and that is the debt to all your Heads of Department and all your teachers who have made you a doctor. What is the greatest joy your teachers can have if you excel in life and if you can grow to your highest potential. Years from now you have to come back to JJM Medical College with your laurels; having done something extraordinary like a Nobel Prize or something. Not all can get a Nobel prize but each one can bloom to your highest flowering and what is your highest flowering.
Let me tell you a story. If you understand the story you will understand your true greatness. Somewhere near Bangkok there was a temple in which there was a huge clay statue of Buddha. Because the temple was being renovated the statue had to be moved from one place to another; in the process the statue breaks and to their amazement they discover it is not an ordinary clay statue of Buddha but a golden statue of Buddha. The story was when they actually made a golden statue their concern was how to protect so much gold and because they did not have the means to protect it somebody said for the time being let’s cover it with clay so that nobody knows it’s a golden statue but then it was such a closely guarded secret when they died and then their followers died they had forgotten that in this temple they had a golden statue of Buddha.
Now what is the message for us. In each one of us there is a golden Buddha waiting to manifest. When people look at you, we look very ordinary and this ordinary is my body and my mind. But there is somebody embodied within this body and mind, the more you discover that this body and mind are only the instrument to express the really great you, waiting to be expressed. At this moment I want you to declare your greatness. Mark these words “You are already that which you can possibly be”.
Greatness does not happen in the future; greatness happens at this moment when you declare that I am here for extraordinary accomplishment. I’m not ordinary.
Do you know why during the time of Christmas a lot of people put up stars in their homes. When Jesus was born there was a special star in the sky to indicate somebody so great as Jesus was born and Jesus proved it because from his birth we have the whole history as before Christ and after Christ. This is just not rhetoric; I want to ask you a direct question. What happened on the night you were born? Was there a special star in the sky to indicate your birth.Think and answer.
The answer will be a resounding YES.
You are special. There was a special star to indicate your birth. You are born into the right family, you have studied in the right medical college; you have come to the right time. It’s time to declare your greatness very silently to yourself, not in public; very silently and over the years through your daily work through your studies and manifest your greatness.
The sky is your limit. Every creation happens twice, first at this moment it happens in your mind, create your future see who you are going to be. Dream big, dream the impossible. Our former president Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam wanted young people to always dream big because things happen twice, first in your mind and then in reality. Now once you dream big and you believe that I can make it happen it will happen.
I will conclude with a story.
The story of the dreams of three trees. There were three trees on a mountain top and when the wind would blow they will share their dreams. One tree says to another one day when I’m cut down I would like to be a baby’s cradle. The second tree says one day when I’m cut down I would like to be a huge ship sailing in the high seas. The third tree said I’m right at the top of the mountain; I don’t want to be cut down; I want to remain here pointing towards God.
Friends, imagine. If the trees can dream you also can dream. I want you to dream whether in basic sciences or in clinical sciences how you can excel and how you can contribute to society.
Now once you have made a dream share your dream with close and important people because when you share your dream there is a greater possibility that your dream will come true.
Now back to the story. When the woodcutters were cutting the first tree they were talking of making it into a cow shed the tree said please don’t make me a cow shed I want to be a baby’s cradle. They said you have no choice and made it into a cow shed and when infant Jesus was born they had to hide him in the cow shed and the tree said my God this is better than my best dreams. Then the woodcutters came to cut the second tree they were talking of making it into a fishing boat the tree said please don’t make me a fishing boat I have always dreamed of being in the high seas as a big ship. They said you have no choice, they cut it down and made it into a fishing boat and a fisherman called Simon Peter bought that boat and Jesus sailed on that boat and the tree that my God this is better than my best dreams.
When the woodcutters came to cut the third tree they were talking about making it into a cross. the tree said ‘a cross’ the thing of shame on which people die, I don’t want to be a cross. please allow me to be here pointing towards God. They said you have no choice, they cut it down and made it into a cross. Jesus was nailed on that cross and the cross all over the world is a symbol that leads people to God.
If trees can dream and they can surpass their dream what about these brilliant students from JJM medical college .
I wish you all the best. May you surpass your dreams.
Transcript by JAA Editorial Board
