But I don’t have any other research idea of my own. I’ve been trying to look and people ask me, I must have a niche or an interest. Work on that. But I don’t! I get a new interest in different parts of nature each day and lose interest when it gets too scientific and laboratory work and the cost of carrying out field work.
I try to think about what I’m interested in and have been searching for months now. What part of the environment? But nothing is clicking and feeling like ‘yes, this is it’. Maybe I’m running after perfectionism, which doesn’t exist, I think. What should be my approach to it? Because the goal is not Ph.D degree but Divine.
To start with, whoever wants to send you to the Dal Lake does not know the ground situation there. Asked him if he had visited Srinagar and when? Is he taking a guarantee for your safety? It is not normal to send a research student all the way up there to do a study, even if it is interesting. The purpose of a PhD is primarily to learn methodologies.
As to what subject you should take up, it is entirely upto you. It is difficult to suggest as each one has their own interest. Maybe something related to the sea or the level of lithium in the water here, as there is a preponderance of thyroid problems. Or perhaps the risk-benefit ratio of drinking RO water. Research on drinking water will be so much more useful. There are so many things possible. You have to feel it, though.
But if your goal is the Divine, then you should be able to take up anything and do with pleasure whatever work is given to you, and do it well with an eye on perfection with an attitude of service to the Divine. Equanimity towards things and people is a necessary fundamental basis of yoga and is much emphasised both by Sri Krishna and Sri Aurobindo.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
