Act Now Vs Abstract Future
I remember my high school librarian giving me a book written by Dag Hammarskjold who was the UN Secretary General from 1953–61, a tumultuous period as WW2 was just over, the Korean war was still on and the Western hemisphere was rebuilding. He left a manuscript when he died and let his friend decide if it had to be published. It was a book about “my negotiations with God”. The book didn’t make me think much then as I read it like a story about Dag, but today I read his deep spiritual side.
Dag was a topper in his University, a CEO of a bank by 35 and the UN head by the end of his life. He says “whatever you do, you must be tied to some higher purpose, one that discovers you rather than one you intentionally create”.
The lesson Dag drew from being a VIP was never to believe in its publicity. The paradox of the successful person is that they have got there through self-control and genuine success emerges when they let go of self-regard and become a tool of that higher purpose. In a culture that glorifies only success, he says that genuine achievements are possible as long as we keep vanity out of the equation. Research shows that the best leaders are the ones who have intense humility along with whatever they executed to get there.
His dialog with God clearly says that ‘It is easier to speak about greater causes and commit to them in a future timeline (like some do when they say ‘I will do this when I retire’) than making a genuine difference to one person right Now. The ego doesn’t like commitment or opening up to vulnerability especially in success and if done, that is the real progress, professional and personal.
Like the Upanishads say, just by existing, we all have a debt to pay (Karma) and we can at best do that by being fully alive in the moment, not thinking or worried about the past or the future. So the question always comes to, are you paying back the debt or accumulating more?
In conclusion, Dag says “One side of life is to observe and appreciate beauty and the other is to tirelessly work for others without self-congratulation (Karma Yoga)”