Corporate Citizen Cover Story

‘For a teacher, everybody is a student irrespective of which institute she/he belongs to. ‘Like parents, we want to see you fly very high, confident and independent’, said Professor M. S. Pillai, while addressing the 2014-2016 batch at Sri Balaji Society and went on to enlighten the students, on how they can add value to each other’s lives

Have the learning attitude

You can teach small children, but adults cannot be taught. Many times, your parents have tried to teach you something but did you learn? Very few people learn because of teaching but if you have the learning attitude, you will learn every moment. Adults can only learn if they have the learning attitude. Institutes can only assist to provide the infrastructure so that students can learn and for that, you need a learning attitude.

Only you can change your destiny

I or any teacher cannot make your life better; only you can. An educationist’s job is to put you out of the comfort zone so that you learn. If you don’t have the attitude to be in the discomfort zone, you may get frustrated and then blame the institution, the teacher, the parents, instead of looking inward and saying, ‘Hey, what’s happening with me?’ For example, suppose my staple food is idli sambar. I am posted in Chandigarh and I am trying to search for idli sambar there but I do not find it. I had been eating idli sambar for the past 15-20 years-let me try paratha or chole bhature now, something different. That’s called stepping out of the comfort zone. The job of students is to welcome change. Our job as teachers is to infuse change in you. The whole system which is created in this institution has a military background.

Change is essential

When you were born 20-22 years ago, do you think your body was the same as it is now? Every year your body gets completely renewed. New cells are formed every second. The river which you see now is not the same river which you see the next moment—the water is not the same water you saw a moment ago. A river is an object—it is a flow of water drops. You must flow with determination and focus. A student’s job is to flow and change and then the journey becomes exciting. A water drop which originates from Gangotri and finally goes into the Bay of Bengal, has tremendous speed on the way; it will have obstacles like stones, animals, fish, sand, wood and various other things. That drop has picked up so many particles on the way before merging with the ocean; it disappears but it is still there in the ocean. Life is like that, learning is like that. If you tell the water drop to tell a story, about what it learnt, it will have so many stories to tell.

You will not flow if you stagnate; you will stink. Your mental frustration is nothing but you refused to move.

You are your own enemy

Who is your enemy, between what you are today and what you want to become? Only you. If there is anyone who stands in your way, blocking the path which will lead to your goal, it is only you. Today, there are thousands of aircraft flying across the globe, there are so many birds flying, but have you heard that a bird has hit another bird while flying, or that any fly has hit another fly? You must have seen millions of bats flying together; not one collides with the other. What does this mean? There is natural intelligence in them. If someone stops you, it is you, no one else.

Let me explain with an example. There was a king. He brought two birds and perched them on a treetop. The next morning, after sunrise, he saw that one bird was flying, the other was not. The king wanted to train the birds to do surveillance of the kingdom, by flying around the kingdom, but only one bird was flying. The king brought the scholars in his kingdom. The king tried his best, with discussions, conferences, all that he could think of, to find out why that one bird was not flying. Then he thought that may be too much of intellect had created a problem, so he should get a farmer. He went to the village from where he got those birds and asked the farmer why one bird was not flying. He asked the farmer, to make the bird fly. The farmer came; he was given a very lavish room to stay, but he said, ‘No, I will sleep under the open sky’. The next day everyone was present, wondering what he, an ordinary farmer, would do. When the king woke up, he saw the birds had started flying. He called the farmer and asked, how did it fly? You haven’t even started training. The farmer said, ‘What is there to teach sir, I cut the branch on which the bird was sitting.’ That’s true education.

For a teacher, everybody is a student irrespective of which institute he belongs to. Like parents, we want to see you fly very high, confident and independent. But if you don’t move, then it is our duty to cut the branch where you are perched. If you don’t fly, somebody can take aim and shoot you. If you are sitting there stuck, it is easy for the wind to blow you away - but a flying bird is difficult to be blown by the wind. Prepare your mind; you are being pushed to fly, fly every day. The education process is that - to make you educated, you should flap your wings.

Who is your enemy, between what you are today and what you want to become? Only you. If there is anyone who stands in your way, blocking the path which will lead to your goal, it is only you

Be a learner

Recently, someone called me from NID (National Institute of Design), and said, “Sir, somebody suggested your name. I want to meet you.” I asked why. He said, “I am doing something in the schools but nobody understands me.” I then said, “Then you must be a good man. What is it that you want?” He said, “Sir, I am doing a process of reinventing schools called reimagining schools. I am a civil engineer; I built buildings and got bored and then I went to NID – Ahmedabad and graduated. And now also I am not happy; I want to redesign minds.” From physical engineering, geometrical engineering, material engineering to designing of the mind. That’s the flight, the sky is the limit. He is searching for himself. What am I? What will give me happiness? He told me, “Every child is born creative, every child is born a learner, nobody teaches language, nobody teaches to walk, nobody teaches to laugh, nobody teaches to run, the child learns himself/herself.”

Where has that quality disappeared from youngsters today? It has disappeared because of the education in schools, where you have to go through parallel lanes, like traffic lanes. You forgot to see the forest on both sides of the road, birds in the sky, so you lose creativity. I am trying to bring creativity, exploration, energy, learning spirit and flying spirit in children so that they become good citizens and powerful people. It requires only one second to be a learner, but you are all struggling with processes and systems. How do I create that trigger? Once your thinking is triggered, you are your own teacher. But if you don’t have that attitude and if you are not willing to be triggered, it won’t work and that’s the responsibility of a student. Emotionally, you are supposed to be good children for your parents-they are investing in you, educating you, you have to learn. Then you automatically become the good child of your parents and a good citizen of the country or a good professional of a company. You have a duty to be good, a duty to be a learner.

When I had made a speech at IIM, the faculty and directors were all yawning, but the students were alert. Why were the faculty yawning? Because it was an attack on their intellectual arrogance. Intellect has never solved any problem in the world. Emotions have solved, common sense has solved, communication has solved, love, affection and kindness have solved. War has never solved, muscle power has never solved any problem in the world. Similarly, your intellectual analytics will never solve any problem of the world but drawing conclusions from intellectual analytics, putting your purpose in the forefront will solve the problem. You as a human being, have to be there to solve problems.

You have to create wealth. Wealth doesn’t mean currency notes, that has no value. What currency notes cannot buy is wealth. What currency notes can buy is a commodity. You are the wealth of your mother and father. If you are healthy, earning, and really driving something and then when you become successful then you are the wealth of the country

Be open minded

A teacher’s job is to question a student so that the student will question himself and will find out the answer and if the student is not able to find the answer to the question, then he will come to the teacher to find the answer. Have you asked yourself why you are here on this planet? When you find that answer it will give you all the clarity and then learning will start. You must keep asking this question. That’s what Balaji Institute and I are doing. I am here for creating an institution; an institution where I impact thousands of students positively. Learning will happen when you know that you don’t know. Most MBA students develop the arrogance that they know everything, and then the learning stops. That’s why you get bored that’s why you yawn. But if you say that you don’t know then the knowing begins. And there is no end to knowing. The next question you should ask is, why I am here to live a life? What is the definition of life? Living life means finding meaning to life.

Make your life worth it

You have to choose what life you want, either continue living because you are not dying, or you want to live your life the way you want. One essential factor in life is you must be healthy and fit. People say you have to sleep eight hours a day. For that, you need to switch off your mobile and laptop along with your mind. Another is mental, emotional and intellectual, i.e., neurological health.

Every individual who is independent, healthy, joyful, behaving very well, is a responsible citizen, is the wealth of the nation. Individuals make up the wealth of the nation, the nation cannot make wealth. Wealthy individuals make wealthy families. Wealthy families make wealthy societies and wealthy societies make wealthy powerful nations.

There is a village two hours from Pune, called Hivre. In that village, there is a man called Popatrao Pawar. He has made millionaires in that village and there is no other village in the country where everyone is a millionaire. That’s real wealth. In that village, not a single drop of water is wasted, because they conserve water. That’s the wealth, not the currency notes in the bank. If your money can regenerate for others then you become wealthy.

At least 5 to 10% of you will think about this and say, I am going to do this. My purpose of being here is to take advantage of everything available, good experiences or bad experiences, but I am going to learn everything, every moment from here and I want to walk out of this place as an enriched person in terms of my intellectual dimension, physical health, inter-personal health, all the learning, then you become a wealthy person.

Education is to be used to add value to yourself. You must become valuable to the company, you are selected on that basis. You must become valuable and precious to your parents and you must become valuable to the country and community

Add value to your life

Education is to be used to add value to yourself. You must become valuable to the company. You must become valuable and precious to your parents and you must become valuable to the country and community. Your daily job must be, can I add value today? Can I transform from a raw student of B.Com or Engineering to a great HR Manager, Marketing Manager, a son, a husband? Can you add value to yourself? Your relationship should become valuable.

Prof. Bala and I had a meeting, when we started SCMLD. I had no intention of starting SCMLD. Prof. Bala told me, “Pillai Sir, start the institute.” I said, “I am a teacher, I just want to add value to human beings. I can join any institute and add value to the students. There is no reason to own an institute. As long as I add value to the institute, people will call me.” Bala Sir said, “No, you have to start the institute.” Then he saw an Excel sheet of SCHMRD students of 152 students promising Rs.3.6 crores, and said, “Sir, please start, and another 1000 people will be ready to pay.” Bala Sir took a pen and said, “I am also your student, I will give you two crore rupees.” This is value. I never asked for money but the money came.

Once, we were buying land for the institute and we were short of Rs.2-3 crores, and someone from SCHMRD came and said, ‘We have the money, you may buy the land’. Currency has no value, but the land value has multiplied to 35 crores now. That relationship can be built, that bonding of mutual benefit. If you are not able to do well in campus placement interviews then you are not adding value to the institute. When you become successful it automatically adds value.

Don’t limit yourself

If you want, you can be the PM, a chess champion, the best driver in the world; why are you limiting yourself with one narrow job? If you say, I will not do one kind of job which will belittle me, then you are diminishing yourself. The only thing which stands between you and your goal is awareness of life. You are so blessed, you are so fortunate, you are so creative-this is the being inside you, let it flow. Institutes are supposed to be used to discover that ‘you’, which you don’t know but exists inside. The processes in institutes will differ but the purpose is the same. You are blessed, therefore you have to discover that being, which is so creative, so talented, so expressive, and so full of energy, and only your mind blocks it.

For example, nothing that you own or say is yours, is yours. The shirt which you wear is of cotton, which in turn came from cottonseed, which came from the soil. The shoes which you are wearing, have come from some animal. Meaning, nothing that you have is yours, except your feelings and thoughts-there comes the misery of life.

When you were born, there was no mind, then over time, experiences like pain, excitement, miseries due to possessions, made you lose all the glitter of life. That is what you have to rediscover yourself. I do not possess anything, it is all gifted- the body, the voice, the eyes; everything is gifted to me and therefore I should worship myself by being a good human being. Rather than saying I am a human being, you should strive to, ‘being human’. If you start thinking like that you realize, yes, life is a great gift, with all the things the universe can give me; let me find myself. Somebody will become a dancer, a singer, boxer or businessman. I have everything to be whatever I wish to become. Only the block is in my mind. Be happy with what you have. Then you will not be frustrated. Don’t block your mind. Open the mind, understand the divinity in you, the creativity in you, the child within you, the light within you, the power within you, and the intelligence within you.

Nothing that you own yourself or say is yours is yours. The shirt which you wear is of cotton, which in turn came from cottonseed, which came from the soil. The shoes you are wearing, have come from some animal. Meaning, nothing that you have is yours

Relationships

What is the difference between being professional vs. personal? Before you act on anything, if you think what is in it for me, that is personal. If you think, what can I give, then you are professional. For example, when you go for an interview, you can say, Sir, ‘I can give you, my integrity, my 24 hours’ time, my ownership, my knowledge and my skill. I will gain more knowledge so that the company flourishes, they understand that you have what you claim-the job is in your hand. But on the other hand, if you ask, what will be the salary, what will be the timing, will there be any accommodation, will you give me a raise, and how will you measure my performance, then they will drop you because your centre of gravity is you. Organizations look for people who look for the centre of the Organization in the company. That is the only difference between being professional and personal.

Theory of attraction

What happens when you look at what is not there or what is disliked by you? Your brain is wired in such a way that it will think in a certain way. If you worry over things like this is not there, that is not there-you will get exactly what you are not liking, this is called the theory of attraction. You will attract what you think. Many people come and say, ‘Sir, I have asthma.’ I say, ‘Don’t say you have asthma, say I want to be healthier.’ The more times you say asthma, it will increase. If you say, I want to breathe better, then asthma will go away. This is the psychological dimension.

What adds value?

When you chase money, understand for whom, for what, and then chase it. The purpose should be clear-good purpose adds value. What good are the sweets that are offered to a deity which will not be able to eat the offerings? Instead of that, give food to the poor. That is value. The one who thinks for other’s benefit, for other’s needs, is a real manager, not the one who thinks for himself. Think like a manager, think professionally, solve problems, don’t give excuses, learn and move fast and then become extraordinary. Practice professionalism 24x7 in order to become that. You will act intelligently, spontaneously, which will be the best decision. When the worker and work becomes one, then God has to give it to you, that is surrendering, that is value.

“Artist of the Natural Landscape”

He had grown up tending to his father’s fields in his janmabhumi in Kerala and he left this world too as a farmer, rejoicing in nature’s bounty, and very much a son of the soil in his karmabhumi

The land purchased by Prof. Pillai with a lot of dreams
but alas, he is no more

Towards the end of his life, for about three years, Prof. Pillai was largely engaged in developing the Sadhana Foundation’s property in Talegaon. On the one hand, he was handling infrastructural matters-having the service road built, obtaining myriad approvals for building plans, liaising with architects and so on. But while he dreamt of campus there and a new home for the Foundation, he also did not wish for the land to lie barren till these plans materialized. A farmer’s son, he decided to utilize the land until such time. The result was the planting of hundreds of trees and plants in the property, from banana to pomegranate and mango; from exotic plants like the fingered citron to achiote trees; from marigold flowers to the cassava.

A farmer’s son, he decided to utilise the land until such time as construction was commenced, for agricultural purposes

Every day he would travel to Talegaon where, after spending time attending to official matters in his local office, he would supervise farming activities on the property. A few months before his demise, cassava running to 60 or 70 kilos was harvested from the land, and as usual, the bulk was sold in the market, its proceeds accruing to the Foundation. In a sense, it was closure for Prof Pillai-he had grown up tending to his father’s fields in his janmabhumi in Kerala; and he left this world too as a farmer, rejoicing in nature’s bounty, and very much a son of the soil in his karmabhumi.