Choice of a profession
Elements which determine our choice
September 16th 2017
Sometimes people ask my advice about their choice of profession. They are hesitant: should they commit themselves to a certain line of work which would earn them a good deal of money, or should they choose a job which is less lucrative but which would leave them free for altruistic activities? As a teacher, it is not my place to tell others that they should do this or that, but only to explain the consequences of their choices, and it is then up to them to decide.
So my response is as follows. There is nothing wrong with choosing an occupation where you will earn a great deal of money, but it all depends on what you want to achieve. If your ideal is, as they say, ‘to be successful in life’, which means to live a life of ease, to have power and influence, so then, go and earn a lot of money! But if your ideal is to deepen your inner life, you don’t really need money, but instead you need freedom: that is free time of course, but above all freedom of spirit. In this way, you will be able to concentrate of the activities where you will be free from the constraints imposed by materialistic life.