Ignited Minds (2 page)

Dream, Dream, Dream
Dream transform into thoughts
And thoughts result in action

On 30 September 2001, I was on my way to Bokaro from Ranchi in Jharkhand when the helicopter carrying me crashed moments before landing. It hit the earth with a thud after its engine failed. All of us on board had a miraculous escape. Grateful to God but unfazed by the incident, I went ahead with my scheduled programme of addressing
the students in Bokaro. At night, however, a panel of doctors persuaded me to take a tranquillizer to alleviate my perceived shock. The drug made me sleep hours ahead of my usual time–1 a.m. I also failed to rise at my usual 6 a.m. and woke up only after eight o’clock.

It was, however, a disturbed sleep, and sometime in the middle of it, I fell to thinking why the human race, the best of all of God’s creations, has been so deeply divided by violence. I imagined a conversation between five people who together symbolize the finest attributes of the human mind and whom I admire deeply. Through their conversation, I sought an answer. In this experience, much more intense and vivid than a dream, though for want of a better word I shall term it that, I saw myself in a desert with miles of sand all around. There was a full moon and the desert was bathed in its light. Five men– Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein, Emperor Asoka, Abraham Lincoln and Caliph Omar– stood in a circle, their clothes ruffled by the wind.

I felt myself dwarfed standing next to the majestic Emperor Asoka. Asoka led two lives, one as a ruthless conqueror and the other as a compassionate ruler. The man I stood beside was the one who had just returned from conquest. But victory had been obtained at heavy cost: the battle of Kalinga claimed the lives of at least 300,000 people and an equal number were wounded. I saw everyone looking at Asoka who fell on his knees and removed his armour and crown. His face was pale, reflecting the death surrounding him. He looked at the sky. He saw the bright cool moon shining and God’s grace pouring down on mother earth. And he looked down at the horror he had created, making blood flow everywhere. In that moment of beauty and horror–the silver moonlight and the suffering and pain on the ground, when Nature itself seemed to speak out against what he had wrought, Ahimsa Dharma was born. Emperor Asoka embraced God’s command to propagate love for human beings through this doctrine.

As I stood by, I wondered. Why the
Kalinga war, why the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi and of Abraham Lincoln? Or many others like them? Has God Almighty faltered in His Creation? Is the destruction of mankind essential for a Second Creation?

In that blissful silence the Mahatma spoke, ‘Friends, the divine message we are hearing is the message of creation. Since we all belong to planet earth, we may give a message to mankind, how people of different races, religions and languages can live peacefully and prosperously together.

‘God Almighty has blessed us all with something unique that we passed on to mankind through our deeds and efforts. Is that working? Is there any divine message or doctrine? Divine beauty should enter the human soul and happiness blossom in the body and mind. Is it possible?’

Asoka said, ‘Friends, there is one thing I have realized, there is no victory in causing suffering. Triumph is a peaceful kingdom.’

Caliph Omar said, ‘I learned after I entered Jerusalem that all men are equal. There is no point in forcing others to follow
your path. You will get only that which is ordained for you. God alone is the sovereign.’

Caliph Omar never saw his position in terms of the special privileges that it carried. To him government was a sacred trust and he did his best not to betray that trust in any way.

It was Einstein’s turn. ‘I would like to recall my friend Werner Heisenberg’s view, “You know, in the West we have built a large, beautiful ship. It has all the comforts in it, but one thing is missing: it has no compass and does not know where to go. Men like Tagore and Gandhi and their spiritual forebears found the compass. Why can this compass not be put in the human ship so that both can realize their purpose?”’

Abraham Lincoln, the great American leader who fought against slavery and whose life paralleled that of the Mahatma in certain respects, said at this point, ‘There is one thing that I would like to say: happiness comes from a family’s prosperity at various levels. God’s grace gives bliss to human lives. Happiness and bliss are two important
components of a godly life on earth. Perhaps there is so much conflict between peoples and nations because in our pursuit of prosperity and power we have lost sight of ethical values. We must ask ourselves, what is the role of human consciousness? Does it have a part in political thinking, scientific thinking and theological thinking? Is spirituality acceptable in the business of life?’

Mahatma Gandhi recalled sage Ashtavakra who propounded, ‘“Oh my son! You are the very Consciousness within which arises this phenomenal universe that is not separate from what you are. How can there be a question of anything being acceptable or unacceptable?” Let the business of life be peace and prosperity, and not exploitation and conflict.

‘This is our message to the planet. Everything that we do, any doctrine that we espouse, should be for the good of humankind.’

The next morning I kept sitting for some time drinking my tea and pondering about this strange dream. What if the helicopter
had lost power at some more height? Just a few hours before my own mishap, a plane carrying a promising leader and a team of young and talented journalists had crashed, killing all. I had been lucky to survive and now there was the night’s experience that seemed to hold a message for me. What should I do?

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 Ballistic 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.