Dr. V's Spiritual Consciousness

When we woke to alarms at 6:00, or let’s face it 6:20, this morning, the group was a bit groggy and stiff from the two previous days of travel. At 6:30AM a yoga class, taught by a yoga master, would be on the rooftop of our hotel. You could tell everyone was slow but eager for a good stretch and a deep breath. As our little, quite flexible yoga master began teaching us about yoga’s philosophies, we all knew we were in for a treat. There was a lot of attention of breathe and spine awareness, which are both things many people neglect. It felt incredible to reach deeper places in our lungs and diaphragm while extending our muscles. There’s a sense of serenity and understanding that comes from being fully present in a moment with your body, and this morning was one of those moments. Our class had a collectively wonderful experience and cannot wait to continue practicing in the upcoming mornings.

After a little breakfast, we all hopped in the van and went straight to Aurolab, Aravind’s own manufacturing plant for all of their surgical and commercial consumables. We took a tour of their facilities and were in utter shock and awe of the efficient and precise measures they took to ensure their products were perfect. Their error rates were astonishing and their product was of the highest quality for their field. It was an amazing experience. We saw the entire process of all five divisions of the plant, each specializing in one consumable product which could be used for their own hospital or could be sold to other hospitals as well.

The most intriguing part for me was not necessarily the lab itself, but a garden and spiritual retreat center on Aurolab’s grounds. When Dr. V died in 2006, the center was built in his honor and for the purposes of gathering leaders to innovate and ground themselves in the passions and practices of Dr. V. It was an absolutely incredible experience. The center was so inspiring, filled with quotes on the walls from Dr. V or miscellaneous other great Indian leaders, a library, and a meditation room to fully reconnect with oneself and the principles which Aravind holds true to their mission of “Eliminating Needless Blindness.”

“Modern technology combined with spiritual consciousness is the need of the day. …we want people who have a capacity for all technical skills but we also want people to grow in spiritual consciousness so that they can act from that consciousness. What would be a wonderful thing, because then you would know and see things from a different perspective.”

        -Dr. G. Venkataswamy

This quote popped out to me personally, the idea of having the skill to do something is fantastic, but being grounded and connected to a greater purpose is where the burnout prevention and the perspective shift happens. In order to fully Eliminate Needless Blindness, the mission of Aravind, the perspective must focus on the ideals and values of the company, not just what the company functionally does. Dr. V’s life was very spiritually grounded, living a life true to his values and visions to make the world better than when he had first met it.

The idea of spiritual consciousness and the cohesion of skill and awareness was at the forefront of the mission of Dr. V’s very being. His life as an eye care professional was fully driven by the spiritual guidance of Sri A. which created a larger sense of purpose to the mission of “Eliminating Needless Blindness” and thus propels much of the work still being done by Aravind eye care clinics globally. The mission of Aravind and some of Dr. V’s mantras inspired us all and spiritually encouraged us to lead conscious lives. Dr. V’s life created and inspired a mission that has lived after him, hopefully for years to come.

-Mary