I have a PhD but my academic career didn't work out. Now I have a dilemma: if I put the PhD and postdoc years in my CV it will be next to impossible to find a "normal" job like in a supermarket; if I don't put it I have a big gap in my CV.
I think finding a job is a dharmic thing to do. Does it make it alright to say I worked in a supermarket in my homecountry, or should I stick to the truth at all costs even in the face of unreasonable discrimination for my higher degree?
—Max, USA
Dear Max,
Thank you for your question. I hope you don’t mind, but I’d like to share a story that Swami Kriyananda shares quite often, as it relates to dharma:
I was in the Hospital in India several years ago with double pneumonia, lying barely conscious in my bed, when a doctor came into the room. Usually under such circumstances doctors come into one’s room to offer help. This one, however, had a different agenda.
“Sir,” he said, “Can you help me?”
“I can try,” I murmured weakly.
“I have a son in college in Canada,” he continued. “I also have many other financial obligations. I believe in spiritual principles, but how can I make ends meet and not bend the rules of right action at least a little bit?”
I replied, still very weakly, “I have always found that by adhering rigidly to right action, I have achieved all the success I wanted and needed in life.”
And indeed, Swamiji is an incredible example to all of us that even in the face of extreme adversity, if we stick to dharma, we will be successful in everything we do.
If you’re interested, he went on to create the AKASH (Ancient Keys to Attaining Success & Happiness) Course after that interaction with the doctor in India.
Here is a link to that course on Online With Ananda:
https://www.ananda.org/yogananda-institute/mod/resource/view.php?id=3674
Love & Blessings,
Dharmadevi
