2023-09-28
1 小时 4 分钟I always come back to my grandfather's porch in New Delhi where he first talked to me about Dharma and described it as like this inner flame inside of you.
And the way that I sort of see this inner flame now is that either it's going to burn you up inside or it's going to light up the world around you, right?
But you get to choose.
But I don't think anybody really escapes that choice.
And so as we talk about things like purpose and meaning, it can be sometimes tempting to see them as like these really flowery, nice sort of things.
But I think the truth is that it can hurt like hell when you've got this thing inside of you that's not being expressed.
It can eat away.
And I think what it means to live a good life is really to, in some small way, start to bring that out so that you can start to light up the things that are outside of you.
So have you ever achieved a long sought goal only to feel oddly empty inside, as if something was still missing in todays world?
Its all too easy to get caught up in chasing superficial markers of success.
Well, status, fame, thinking that they will make us happy.
But what if that formula is actually backwards?
What if real joy and fulfillment can only be found by first discovering and expressing our unique inner essence, our dharma?
My guest today, Sunil Gupta, knows that feeling all too well.
After founding and selling a successful health tech startup, he realized that checking off those outer boxes of achievement failed to bring lasting inner satisfaction.
He was outwardly successful, but inwardly empty.
So he turned to teachings and stories that he'd heard often as a child, but wanted nothing to do with back then.
Focusing on an ancient hindu concept called dharma, or what he describes as the sacred duty to express one's inner essence through outer work, he began to rediscover meaning and purpose and a sense of calling.
And this journey led him to uncover everyday paths to integrate our ambitions with what truly matters more deeply down inside.
As an author and visiting scholar at Harvard Medical School, Sunil studies the most extraordinary people on the planet to help discover and share simple, actionable habits that lift our performance and deepen our sense of purpose.