“I have done it all, and I have a lot more to do. These are the two stages in a career a person goes through.”
The first category is the one who has achieved a lot in the career—big fat salaries, good positions, world travels, saved enough money for the future and doesn’t have to struggle for money anymore. These are the achievers.
The second category includes people who are either starting their careers or in the middle of their careers. They still have to earn more money, have family, and financial responsibilities, loans to pay off and higher positions to achieve. These are the strugglers.
Even though both these types of people have a different set of problems, they have always considered something similar: Should I go back home and settle back there?
Usually, in search of better opportunities, rural people migrate to towns and cities. The ones from cities migrate to foreign countries and settle there for obvious growth and financial reasons.
And, despite the financial positions they are in—as strugglers or achievers—they silently think about reverse migration. Going back to their places of origin, or connecting back to their roots. So, what should one do?
For such dilemmas, here is what Chanakya advises: “Wealth and power come from the countryside, which is the source of all activities.” (7.14.19)
He is telling us that real wealth is always in the countryside (villages)—Power also comes from there. Plus, it is the source of all activities. Let us understand what it really means.
When Mahatma Gandhi migrated back to India after living in South Africa for 21 long years, his political guru Gopal Krishna Gokhale advised him to tour India to get a real sense of what the country is all about. And, while travelling through the rural and deeper parts of the country he discovered a completely new side that he was not aware of. The six lakh villages and their villagers were its true strength. This insight made Gandhi work for the freedom movement from a very different dimension. “India lives in its villages,” Gandhi had said about his visit.
Dr Radhakrishnan Pillai is an Indian management thinker, author, and Founder of Atma Darshan and Chanakya Aanvikshiki. Dr Pillai has extensively researched Kautilya’s Arthashastra, the 3rd century BC treatise and incorporated it into modern management.
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