Ignited Minds Read online

  I looked out of the window. The sun was well up in the sky and there was a soothing breeze. I have always lived in close touch with nature and have always found it a friend, giving without reservation, like the mango tree–people throw stones at it, break off its branches, but it still offers its shade to the weary traveller, and its fruit to the hungry. Whether it was the sea at Rameswaram, Thumba and Chandipur; the desert at Pokhran; or the gigantic boulders in Hyderabad, nature has always made its presence felt wherever I have worked. It has helped to remind me of the divine force that pervades all of creation.

  I kept on pondering over my dream. And yet, the history of the world shows the forces of good struggling hard to make life better for mankind while the human race also shows a terrible capacity for destruction. Thus we have Gandhi, and other great saints and teachers who lay down the precepts for a happy and virtuous life, on the one hand, and on the other the death of millions in the Second World War and the dropping of atomic bombs that destroyed entire cities. Thousands have died in the Bosnia conflict, the Israel—Palestine conflict continues to take lives, and on 11 September 2001 terrorists used a new tactic to take lives when they struck at the World Trade Center in New York. At home, in the Bhopal gas tragedy, 30,000 people died as the result of the carelessness of a multinational company, and thousands more have died in the Kashmir Valley violence. On 13 December 2001, when the leaders of India were in Parliament, an attempt was made by the terrorists to paralyse the country. Where will it all stop? Are we doomed to destroy ourselves? No, we have to find an everlasting solution.

  I recall a poem I wrote a few years ago, ‘The Tree of Life’.

  ‘You, the human race are the best of my creations

  You will live and live,

  And give and give till you are united,

  In happiness and pain!

  My bliss will be born in you,

  Love is a continuum,

  That is the mission of humanity,

  You will see every day in the Life Tree.

  You learn and learn,

  My best of creations.’

  The five great human beings I saw in my dream lived at different times. In the modern world, there are few examples of human beings who embody the qualities that come from realizing the nature of the mind. Once a child asked me if I had read the Mahabharata and if so, who my favourite character in it was. The multifaceted characters in the epic represent almost every aspect of human nature, good as well as bad. I told the child that I was particularly attracted to the character of Vidura, who showed grit against the wrongdoings of authority and had the courage to differ when everyone else chose to surrender before the tyranny of adharma.

  Today, it is hard for us to find one true Vidura among our leaders. It is hard for us to imagine such an enlightened being and even harder for us to aim for such enlightenment. More discouraging still is the quality of public life today, the low level of discourse and the presence of so much ego, anger, greed, jealousy, spite, cruelty, lust, fear, anxiety and turmoil! I felt a new determination dawning inside me.

  In this my most important decision I decided to help discover the nature of India’s true self in its children. My own work and indeed I as a person were relegated to the background. My scientific career, my teams, my awards, all this became secondary. I wanted instead to be a part of the eternal intelligence that is India. I hoped to transcend myself and discover the inner, higher self that is in us through my interaction with joyous children.

  A man is said to pass through different stages in his lifetime. Dr Wayne W. Dyer, in his book Manifest Your Destiny, makes an interesting categorization of them as athelete stage, warrior stage, statesperson stage and spirit stage. It occurred to me that nations too make a similar transition and in extending this analogy to them I have termed the last two stages big brother and self- realization stages respectively. The stages do not follow in sequence necessarily; they can be coexistent, with one aspect dominant.

  In the first, athlete stage, a nation fresh from an independence struggle, or some other transition, embarks on an energetic pursuit of performance and achievement. This has happened in Japan, Singapore and Malaysia.

  When a nation leaves this stage behind, it generally enters the warrior stage. Proud of its achievements, it finds ways to demonstrate its superiority over others, perhaps through conquest. Ego is the driving force. During this stage people are busy with goals and achievements in competition with others and this, as Dyer points out for the individual, generates anxiety. Convincing others of its superiority becomes the theme.

  In the next, big brother stage, the ego has been tamed somewhat and with its newfound maturity awareness shifts to what is important to other nations and societies. In the big brother stage the nation is still an achiever but it is not so obsessed with proving its strength. The idea is to help others become better. The erstwhile Soviet Union by its developmental role in some countries had adopted this role. As with the individual, so too with the nation, the transition from the warrior stage to the big brother stage is a rewarding but difficult exercise.

  There is one stage even higher than this big brother stage. In this, a nation recognizes its truest essence. It comes out of the wisdom that the earth is no single nation’s inheritance but of all, and its people are aware of the responsibility of the individual towards his fellow human beings. This can be called the realization stage, and India may have the potential to achieve it.

  In my working career of forty-three years, I have changed my tasks in several institutions. Change is crucial. It brings new thought; new thought leads to innovative actions. On 15 August 2001, I took a decision to go for another change. I mentioned my intention to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who asked me to rethink. I had spoken to him of my desire to be relieved on a few earlier occasions too but he advised me to continue and prevailed.

  As a rocket man too I worked with stages. Each stage is jettisoned after taking the rocket further along its intended trajectory. I worked with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) during 1963—82. In 1980, India launched its first satellite launch vehicle successfully that put the Rohini satellite into orbit and became a member of the exclusive space club. I headed the team as Project Director of the mission for SLV-3. Our success in this effort gave the nation satellite launch vehicle technology and expertise in control, guidance, propulsion and aerodynamics, besides the ability to design various rocket systems. Above all, this project enriched the organization with enhanced capabilities in design, development and management systems integrating inputs from different institutions such as R&D laboratories, industry and academia. And the programme also gave leaders in technology and management. Today they are all working in various space and defence programmes. This was my first stage, in which I learnt leadership from three great teachers–Dr Vikram Sarabhai, Prof. Satish Dhawan and Dr Brahm Prakash. This was the time of learning and acquisition of knowledge for me.

  The second stage could then be from 1982 in the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO). Again it was teamwork against the background of denial of technology through the instruments of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). I had the opportunity to work with teams and DRDO labs that led to the design, development, production and operationalization of two strategic missiles. These types of strategic missiles will not be available to India from any country, no matter how friendly our relations with it. During this period, three new laboratories and facilities, one in the area of missile technology called Research Centre Imarat (RCI) at Hyderabad and two other missile test centres, one on the mainland and the other on an island, near Chandipur on the coast of Bay of Bengal, were born with excellent capabilities. In addition, the nation became strong as capability in critical technologies emerged from laboratories and academic institutions that helped us overcome the constraints of the MTCR. My team could design and develop any type of missile system, including the Intercontinental Bal
listic Missile (ICBM).

  During this stage, I have gone through many successes and some failures. I learnt from failures and hardened myself with courage to face them. This was my second stage, which taught me the crucial lesson of managing failures.

  The third stage can be the participation in India’s mission to become a nuclear- weapon state with a great partnership between the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and DRDO with the support of the armed forces. This was a mission well accomplished.

  However, when children ask me, ‘What has given you happiness in your life in the last forty years?’ I say I get happiness when heart patients carry KR coronary stent in their arteries and when the physically handicapped children fitted with the lightweight Floor Reaction Orthosis (FRO) callipers find their difficulties eased somewhat. Both of these came as spin-offs from missile technologies.

  During this stage, I held the position of Chairman of the Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC) under the Department of Science and Technology, for nearly two tenures (about eight years). This period saw the creation of Technology Vision 2020 based on the work of task teams consisting of 500 experts in all who had available to them inputs from 5,000 scientists and technologists from different fields. Later, the Technology Vision document and the national security aspects got integrated and the India Millennium Missions (IMM 2020) emerged. When I took over as Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, in November 1999, the task was to do detailing and evolve a working plan for IMM 2020. It is indeed a roadmap for transforming India into a developed country–the Second Vision of the Nation. Certain experimental work on education, agriculture and also development of a number of villages in an integrated way is currently progressing. A Cabinet paper on the subject has been moved for approval of the government. During this third stage, it was building technological strength with institutional partnership, adapting technology to societal needs and formulating the vision for the Nation that occupied me.

  The helicopter mishap of 30 September 2001 made me realize that the time to jettison the third stage had arrived. This thought was further reinforced on 2 October, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, when I visited Mata Amritanandamayi’s Ashram at Kollam in Kerala. She emphasized the need to integrate spirituality with education to create a new generation of leaders and entrepreneurs. On 12 October 2001, three days before I would complete my seventy orbits around the sun, I formally wrote to the Prime Minister about my decision to retire and requested to be relieved in a month’s time. He relented this time and I prevailed.

  Meanwhile I keep visiting schools. During my visits to many states, particularly two of the north-eastern states, Assam and Tripura, and Jharkhand and also a few places in Tamil Nadu, I have addressed thousands of students, about 40,000 at last count. I have found that I communicate well with this age group; I share their imagination. Most important, through my interaction with them, I feel I can ignite in their minds a love for science, and through it, a sense of mission for achieving a developed India.

  Will this be my fourth stage? Shall I be successful? I really don’t know. But what I do know is that there is no greater power in heaven or on earth than the commitment to a dream. Dreams hold something of that energy which lies at the heart of all things and are the binding force that brings the spiritual and the material together.

  It had been in my mind for the past few years to undertake research and teaching. For this purpose, combined with my desire to find time to meet schoolchildren, I have shifted to Anna University–my alma mater. What a great feeling it is to be among young people bubbling with creativity and enthusiasm! What a great responsibility the elders of this country have at hand to guide this tremendous energy in a constructive way for nation building! How can we make up for missed opportunities and the failures of the past?

  SUMMARY

  Spirituality must be integrated with education. Self-realization is the focus. Each one of us must become aware of our higher self. We are links of a great past to a grand future. We should ignite our dormant inner energy and let it guide our lives. The radiance of such minds embarked on constructive endeavour will bring peace, prosperity and bliss to this nation.

  2

  Give Us a Role Model

  Men often become what they believe themselves to be. If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it even if I didn’t have it in the beginning.

  —Mahatma Gandhi

  Why should I meet young students in particular? Seeking the answer I went back to my student days. From the island of Rameswaram, what a great journey it’s been! Looking back it all seems quite incredible. What was it that made it possible? Hard work? Ambition? Many things come to my mind. I feel the most important thing was that I always assessed my worth by the value of my contribution. The fundamental thing is that you must know that you deserve the good things of life, the benefits that God bestows. Unless our students and young believe that they are worthy of being citizens of a developed India, how will they ever be responsible and enlightened citizens?

  There is nothing mysterious about the abundance in developed nations. The historic fact is that the people of these nations–the G8 as they are called–believed over many generations that they must live a good life in a strong and prosperous nation. The reality became aligned with their aspirations.

  I do not think that abundance and spirituality are mutually exclusive or that it is wrong to desire material things. For instance, while I personally cherish a life with minimum of possessions, I admire abundance, for it brings along with it security and confidence, and these eventually help preserve our freedom. Nature too does not do anything by half measures, as you will see if you look around you. Go to a garden. In season, there is a profusion of flowers. Or look up. The universe stretches into infinitude, vast beyond belief.

  All that we see in the world is an embodiment of energy. We are a part of the cosmic energy too, as Sri Aurobindo says. Therefore when we begin to appreciate that spirit and matter are both part of existence, are in harmony with each other, we shall realize that it is wrong to feel that it is somehow shameful or non-spiritual to desire material things.

  Yet, this is what we are often led to believe. Certainly there is nothing wrong with an attitude of making do with the minimum, in leading a life of asceticism. Mahatma Gandhi led such a life but in his case as in yours it has to be a matter of choice. You follow such a lifestyle because it answers a need that arises from deep within you. However, making a virtue of sacrifice and what is forced upon you–to celebrate suffering–is a different thing altogether. This was the basis of my decision to contact our young. To know their dreams and tell them that it is perfectly all right to dream of a good life, an abundant life, a life full of pleasures and comforts, and work for that golden era. Whatever you do must come from the heart, express your spirit, and thereby you will also spread love and joy around you.

  My first such meeting took place in a high school in Tripura. It was a gathering of 500 students and teachers. After my talk on the second vision for transforming India into a developed nation, there were a series of questions, two of which I would like to discuss. The first question was: ‘Where do we get a role model from, how do you get a role model?’

  Whether we are aware of it or not, from childhood onwards, through various phases of life, we adopt role models. I said, ‘When you are growing up, say till the age of fifteen, the best role model I can think of would be your father, your mother and your schoolteacher.’ They, to my mind, are the people who can impart the best guidance during this period. I turned to the teachers and parents present there and told them what a big responsibility they have. I personally believe the full development of a child with a value system can only come from these people. In my own home, when I was growing up, I used to see my father and mother say namaz five times a day, and in spite of their modest financial resources, I found them always giving
to the needy around. My teacher, Sivasubramania Iyer, was responsible for persuading my father to send me to school setting aside financial constraints. It is very important for every parent to be willing to make the effort to guide children to be good human beings– enlightened and hard-working. The teacher, the child’s window to learning and knowledge, has to play the role model in generating creativity in the child. This triangle is indeed the real role model I can think of. I would even go to the extent of saying that if parents and teachers show the required dedication to shape the lives of the young, India would get a new life. As it is said: Behind the parents stands the school, and behind the teacher the home. Education and the teacher—student relationship have to be seen not in business terms but with the nation’s growth in mind. A proper education would help nurture a sense of dignity and self-respect among our youth. These are qualities no law can enforce–they have to be nurtured ourselves.

  The children enjoyed this answer though I don’t know whether the parents and teachers got the message.

  Another girl in all seriousness asked, ‘Every day we read in the newspaper or hear our parents talk about atankvadis (terrorists). Who are they? Do they belong to our country?’ This question really shocked me. I myself was searching for an answer. They are our own people. Sometimes we create them through political and economic isolation. Or they can be fanatics, sometimes sponsored by hostile nations, trying to disrupt normal life through terrorism. I looked at the audience, at the people sitting by my side, at the teachers, and at the sky for an answer. I said, ‘Children, I am reminded of our epics, the Ramayana and Mahabharata. In the Ramayana the battle is between the divine hero Rama and demon king Ravana. It is a long-drawn battle that finally Rama wins. In the Mahabharata, there is the battle at Kurukshetra. In this fight between good and evil, Dharma wins again. The battles are many but finally peace triumphs. In our times too we have seen this battle between good and evil–for instance, the Second World War. It seems to me that both good and evil will survive side by side. The Almighty does help them both to various degrees! How to minimize the evil through our spiritual growth is a question that has persisted throughout human history.’