Vedanta philosopher Alok Chopra bridged the gap between science and philosophy and emphasised on the importance of discipline for leading a happy life, in a stimulating interaction with students at the Leadership Lecture Series held at the Global Indian International School on Friday.

“All body of knowledge has been created out of discipline throughout the world. Discipline is what converts noise to music,” he pointed out, emphasising that disciplining the mind will allow students to do wonders in life and bring out their best and deepest potential.

Speaking extensively on the Life, Knowledge and the pursuit of Happiness at GIIS Queenstown campus, Mr Chopra explained the difference between mind and intellect to a packed auditorium of students, teachers and staff members, sharing ways to lead a happy life and have meaningful experiences.

“Mind is a sea of emotions, with likes and dislikes. It functions on desire. Intellect, on the other hand, discriminates between right and wrong, giving value to one’s judgement,” Mr Chopra said, emphasising on the importance of making balanced decisions to be happy in the long run.

Engaging the students through simple questions and interactions during the speech, the philosopher gave them three pointers to lead a happy and successful life: Be yourself, compete with yourself and be the best version of yourself. “Try and find your own space,” he said. “dont compete, don’t do anything for returns. This is the path to a happy life.”

Mr Chopra is a philosopher and preacher at the Vedanta Academy India. The Academy, founded in 1988, is a world resource for study, research and dissemination of Vedanta - the ancient philosophy of knowledge, which encourages spirit of enquiry and encourages a liberal approach for development of intellect.

At the lecture, Mr Chopra recalled the poem by R W Emerson of the mountain and squirrel, where the big and proud mountain brags about his strength and laughs at the small size of the squirrel. “The squirrel says, ‘If I cannot carry forest on my back, neither can you crack a nut’, a perfect example of being comfortable in his own skin,” Mr Chopra said.

The talk was followed by an engaging question and answer session with the students where Mr Chopra was asked about a range of topics from human belief system to bringing peace in the world. Belief, he said, should not be blind. “Scientists like Einstein did not blindly believe in existing scientific theories, but analysed and developed existing knowledge to help science make progress.”

He also said that peace can be achieved when good people are not silent observers but active gamechangers. The masters of ceremony Tushar Goday and Ankita Arun, both class 9 IGCSE students, ended the session by thanking the guest of honour. Mr Chopra also signed GIIS guest book. Earlier, he was welcomed to the premise in traditional Indian style, and he garlanded the bust of Mahatma Gandhi on GIIS, Queenstown premise.