The Upanisads on Efficiency - Harvard University Lecture

There was a lecture organized by Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology Vedanta Societies on May 28, 1985; it was delivered by Swami Ranganathanand.

Here are few paragraphs of the book published from the chapter "The Upanisads on Efficiency."

This efficiency is the hallmark of modern civilization; it is a word used again and again. When you go into the literature of the Upanisads, produced over 4000 years ago in India, you get a beautiful definition of efficiency in the Chandogya- Upanisad (1.1.10)

"Whatever is done with vidya, sraddha and upanisad, that alone becomes supremely efficient."

What are these values ? Vidya means science or knowledge. If you want to be efficient you must have knowledge, what we today call the technical know-how of things. A nurse must have technical know-how of nursing. Similarly with a doctor, an executive, an engineer- an administrator, and every other professional. But that is not enough. Mere knowledge of a subject does not make you efficient. So a second value is added; sraddha- faith; here it does not mean faith in a dogma or creed or strongly held opinion, but faith in oneself, the impulse from within: I can , I can , the conviction that the work you are doing is worthwhile and that there is a meaningfulness to life and to the world. And that faith extends to faith in other members of the work team also. Sankaracharya therefore defines sraddha as astikyabuddhi - the totality of positive attitudes. This faith and conviction increases all work- efficiency. Vivekananda has said, 'Great convictions are the mothers of all great deeds.' Behind every great work there is this tremendous power of conviction. The world is shaped and moved by men and women of conviction. This can be contrasted with what we call opinion. We may have opinions on any number of subjects. That does not produce energy of impact on society. But when opinion is transformed into conviction, you find the manifestation of the energy of impact. A passage in a Home University Library book by biologist J. Arthur Thomson: ' Introduction to Science' , 1934, attracted my attention long ago (p. 22):

'Opinions,' (scientist) Glanville says, ' are the rattles of immature intellects, but the advanced reasons have outgrown them.'

'The longer I live,' ( Thomas) Huxley said , ' the more obvious it is to me that the most sacred act of a man's life to say and feel,' " I believe such and such to be true." All the greatest rewards and all the heaviest penalties of existence cling about that act.'

Political convictions, spiritual convictions, scientific convictions, social convictions- these all have wonderful world moving power. Hence Swami Vivekananda places great emphasis on this value of 'sraddha, faith and conviction. The opposite of sraddha is asraddha, lack of faith, which is what results in cynicism. We are missing this great value of faith in the modern period, with the consequent spread of this evil cynicism which sets in when the shapening of the intellect is not accompanied by the humanistic passion. The Upanisad considers that vidya and sraddha are not enough, that a third value also had to be added to the two in order to achieve supreme efficiency.This is: Upanisad- deep thinking, meditative thinking on the subject concerned.

Any work that has behind it these three values of vidya, sraddha, and upanisad alone becomes viryataram, of superior energy.