Address at the Interaction With Students at Energy Park

Shaping the young minds

I am indeed delighted to be here with you. I always enjoy interactions with student community. I have met over 300,000 students/youths of our country. I am aware of their dreams and concern. I thought of sharing some thoughts based on their experiences.

Marvels of Universe

Friends, we should note that human mind is a unique gift. You can enter into Marvels of Universe only if you have curiosity and thinking. I suggest, thinking should become your capital asset, no matter whatever ups and downs you come across in your life.

? Thinking is progress.

? Non thinking is stagnation to the individual, organization and the country.

? Thinking leads to action.

? Knowledge without action is useless and irrelevant.

? Knowledge with action brings prosperity.

Look at the sky. We are not alone. The whole universe is friendly to us and conspires only to give the best to those who dream and work. Like Nobel Laureate Subramaniam Chandrasekar discovered the black hole through a quest, why most of the stars shine and few die. Today, using Chandrasekar limit we can calculate how long the sun will shine. Like, Sir CV Raman looked at the sea and the sky, and questioned why the sea should be blue? This led to the birth of Raman Effect, he found the blue of the sea was due to the molecular scattering of light and was not a case of reflection of the sky in water as most people imagined. Like, Albert Einstein, armed with the complexity of the universe, asked the question how the universe was born. The famous equation E=mc2 arrived, which can be used for the generation of electricity using nuclear materials and also lead to nuclear weapons. In India during 1960's one important event took place, Prof. Vikram Sarabhai gave a vision for the nation on the space programme. He said, India should build her own rocket system, build communication and remote sensing satellites, integrate and launch from Indian space launch centers and put them into the geosynchronous orbit and sun synchronous orbit. Today India can build any type of rocket systems and satellite and launch in a specified orbit.

Indomitable spirit

Let us study the characteristics of indomitable spirit. It has two components. The first component is that there must be a Vision leading to higher goals of achievement. I would like to recall a couplet from Thirukkural by the Poet Saint Thiruvalluvar written 2500 years ago.

Quote:

It means that whatever may be the depth of the river or lake or pond, whatever may be the condition of the water, the lilly flower always comes out and blossoms. Similarly, if there is a definite determination to achieve a goal even if it is impossible to achieve, the man succeeds. Many of us have gone through large programmes and projects. We would have experienced that success is not in sight and there are many hurdles. The same poet reminds us at this point of time through another couplet:

We should never be defeated by any problems. We should become master of the situation and defeat the problems. I consider these two Thirukkurals characterize the indomitable spirit.

Bird story and my profession

When I think of my school days, I am reminded of an incident which took place when I was studying in 5th class. I had a teacher, Shri Siva Subramania Iyer. He was one of the very good teachers in our school. All of us loved to attend his class and hear him. One day, he was teaching about bird?s flight. He drew a diagram of a bird on the blackboard depicting the wings, tail, body structure and the head. He explained how the birds create the lift and fly. He also explained to us how they change direction while flying. Nearly 25 minutes he gave the lecture with various information such as lift, drag, how the birds fly in a formation of 10, 20 or 30 etc. At the end of the class, he wanted to know whether we understood how the birds fly. I said, I did not understand how the birds fly. When I said this, he asked the other students whether they understood or not. Many students said that they did not understand. Our teacher was a real teacher and very good teacher. He did not get upset by our response.

In view of this, my teacher said that he would take all of us to the sea shore. That evening the whole class was in the sea shore. We enjoyed the roaring sea waves knocking at the rocks in the pleasant evening. Birds were flying with sweet chirping voice. He showed the sea birds in formation in 10 to 20 numbers. We saw the marvelous formation of birds, with a purpose, and we were all amazed. And we were enjoying the formation of the birds. He showed the birds and asked us, what did we observe? We saw the wings being flapped. He asked us to look at the tail portion with the combination of flapping the wing and twisting the tail. We observed closely and found that the birds in that condition flew in the direction they wanted. Then he asked us, where the engine was and how it was powered. Bird is powered by its own life and the motivation what it wants. All these things were explained to us within 15 minutes. We all understood the whole bird dynamics with practical example. How nice it was? Our teacher was a great teacher; he could give as a theoretical lesson coupled with a live demonstration. This is real teaching. I am sure many of the teachers in schools and colleges will follow this example.

For me, it was not merely an understanding of how a bird flies. The bird?s flight entered into me and created a feeling on the seashore of Rameswaram. From that day evening, I thought that my future study has to be with reference to flight and flight sciences. I am telling this because, my teachers teaching and the event that I witnessed later, decided my future career. Then one evening after the classes, I asked the teacher, ?Sir, please tell me, how to progress further in learning flight sciences.? He patiently explained to me that I should complete high school, and then I should go to college that may lead to education of flight. If I do all these things I might do something connected with flight sciences. This advice and the bird flying demonstration given by my teacher really gave me a goal and a mission for my life. When I went to college, I took Physics. When I went to engineering in Madras Institute of Technology, I took Aeronautical Engineering.

Thus my life was transformed as a rocket engineer, aerospace engineer and technologist. That one incident of my teacher?s teaching, giving a live demonstration proved to be a turning point in my life which eventually shaped my profession.

Enlightened Citizens

In every country, the national development, which is a collective process, has to be accomplished through the constructive efforts of enlightened citizens, who practice righteousness in all their activities. The evolution of enlightened human beings is indeed a big challenge for the world community. I was asking myself, what will be the components of such a mission? There are three components to that. The first component is education with value system, second religions graduating into spiritual forces to bring universal brotherhood and the third is poverty eradication by attaining economic prosperity through a national vision. And it has to be done in every country in an integrated way with link to the world.

Righteousness

I would like to share a hymn that I heard in the divine campus. The name of the hymn is 'Peace in the World':

Where there is righteousness in the heart

There is a beauty in the character.

When there is beauty in the character,

there is harmony in the home.

When there is harmony in the home.

There is a order in the nation.

When there is order in the nation,

There is peace in the world.

Friends, we can see a beautiful connectivity between heart, character, nation and the world. How to inject righteousness in the human heart? This is indeed the purpose of human creation - that is divinity. We are going through a complex situation as many of us are completely at war with ourselves, with society and with nation. At every instant there is a war in our mind, whether we should go in one direction or another. Whenever there is a dilemma, we must seek the wisdom from the Almighty to lead us to the path of righteousness through education with value system.

Before concluding I would like to administer a 10 point oath to you.

Ten point oath for the youth of the nation

1. I will pursue my education or the work with dedication and I will excel in it.

2. From now onwards, I will teach at least 10 persons to read and write those who cannot read and write.

3. I will plant at least 10 saplings and shall ensure their growth through constant care.

4. I will visit rural and urban areas and permanently wean away at least 5 persons from addiction and gambling.

5. I will constantly endeavor to remove the pain of my suffering brethren.

6. I will not support any religious, caste or language differentiation.

7. I will be honest and endeavour to make a corruption free society.

8. I will work for becoming an enlightened citizen and make my family righteous.

9. I will always be a friend of the mentally and physically challenged and will work hard to make them feel normal, like the rest of us.

10. I will proudly celebrate the success of my country and my people.

Conclusion

Through my visits to States, I have gained first hand knowledge about the aspirations of the people. I am able to interact with the common people and know their problems and challenges. I am also able to know about the core competencies of each State and how it can be used for the development of the state itself. Wherever I went the people and students have given me one message that they want to live in a prosperous, peaceful, happy and secure India.

The second important aspect of my visit is to bring the religions graduating to spirituality and promotion of civilisational heritage.

Students should fix a goal in their life, concentrate to combat and overcome the hurdles and achieve excellence. They must imbibe moral values. They should aspire to become entrepreneurs. During holidays students can teach poor and underprivileged children and create a mission for them. They can plant trees and contribute towards improving ecological balance. These activities will collectively lead towards development and prosperity.

I wish you all students and the teaching community success in giving the nation empowered, learned young with integrity.