 Good morning, friends. Thank you for the privilege of being part of this very precious and important occasion in what is possibly one of the most dynamic and fast-growing institutions. That's our college, something which inspires a lot of people. And we're very, very happy to know the growth of this institution. And we celebrate this institution as you put in all your efforts to use this institution for the life of several people out here and also in the life of our state. I want to congratulate the batch of 2023 for the amount of time that you spent. And this is your big day. And I'm sure you're really excited to think about the world ahead of you after this. And I also want to congratulate the teachers who invested their lives in these students. One day, several of these students will say he or she was my teacher or my coach. And when they become worthy men and women, you will get your reward. And at that time, you can say I was their teacher. So as you start your new chapter in life, permit me to share some principles which have helped me along the journey. So a lot of it will be from my own personal experiences, which might be of some utility to some people. I am a follower of Jesus Christ. And so I would use a lot of examples from the Bible because I believe the Bible is really the crux basis, the foundation of our lives and really the best guide for any of us. So the first principle I would suggest is to keep God as first place in your life. I have three children. And one of the things which I keep telling them, so my eldest is just trying to smart a small business. So he is a bit stressed out there. So I tell him keep God as first place and things will work out. My second son is in college and he's doing reasonably well in his studies, getting fairly good marks, doing his research. And we have a very friendly discussion about his life, his work, his girlfriend. And I tell him keep God as first place. And he's understood that. My daughter again, she's also in college and she is also quite good in her studies, quite a dynamic girl. I tell her the same thing, keep God as first place. Years back when I was in Delhi, we were a Bible teacher, one of our elders used to say, and this he learned from another elder of his, used to say, start the day with God. In the morning, never see the face of any man before you see the face of God. Never hear the voice of any man before hear the voice of God. And so he used to always get up earlier before his wife got up. Because if he got up later than his wife, then all hell would break loose. Because she'll say, bring the milk. The milkman hasn't come. The newspaper is still not OK. There's rent to pay and all kinds of stuff. And then he just gets scattered. So he said, I would always get up before my wife and spend adequate time before God. I think this is possibly the most important thing that we can have, keep God as first place. If we do that, then you will have a completely different part chartered out for you. As a medical student, as I was doing my internship in Pondicherry, in Jipma, there was a lot of competition to get into post-graduation. And there was a lot of anxiety and panic and things like that. And so a friend of mine and I said, we do not want to enter into the rat race. We'll prepare ourselves mentally and spiritually before going into post-graduation. And so we thought we'll join a mission hospital. And we worked harder than everybody else. In our wards, we stayed longer than others. We made sure that we never missed the Bible study. Sunday was completely for Bible-related things. And our friends used to say, you guys are a bit crazy. You should be studying. All your other friends are in the library. And so I used to tell them, we are not going to enter into this rat race. We will work extremely hard. We will not be slack in anything. But we will keep God as first. And if God wants us to get into post-graduation, at the right time, he will give the right brains to do it. So when I had to go to Delhi to just get some luggage to bring back to Bonnicherry. And on the way back by train, I had to get out in Bhopal because one lady started to deliver, went into labor. I thought, you know, I was very naive in those days. I didn't think twice about what I was doing. I just got down, took her to the hospital, thought I'll deliver her in the hospital. She landed up with a caesarean section, obstructed labor. I had to be in Bhopal for about two weeks, stayed with my friends in the medical college. And she was there in the hospital. And by the time I reached back to Chennai, my brother was so furious with me. He said, you know, you got, you know, earlier before going to Delhi, he said, when you're going to Delhi, anyway, just go and write the exam, the AM's entrance. So I said, OK, I'll just write the exam. So I went, wrote the exam, and came back. So as soon as I reached Chennai, my brother called me and he said, you know, he was there. He was very upset. He said, you didn't call up properly. You have already got, you know, you've got entrance. You've been selected in AM's. And tomorrow you have to go back. Otherwise you're going to lose that seat. So I went back. You know, at the right time, God gave me the understanding of how to write the exam. And today, if I think, if I write the exam, I'll surely fail, you know, because I really don't know what I was writing. I must have been a bit drunk, I'm not sure. But, you know, I realized that over a span of time then, from there, Delhi, to wherever I've gone, God has placed people, the right kind of people to guide me, the right kind of opportunity or crisis, you know, tailored for my life. And over the years, I can look at the master weaver, weaving a picture, a beautiful picture, until what I am today. And I realized this, that, you know, if you really keep God as first place, then your life is completely different from everybody else. It's not the same. What happens to others will be different. Maybe it'll happen to you, but it'll happen in a different way, no? And so I would feel that the most important thing if you forget everything about what is going on here, is keep God in first place. Don't compromise on that. The Lord Jesus Christ had two friends, Mary and Martha. One of the things he used to go and spend time with them, and Martha was very busy with all kinds of useful things. Mary spent a lot of time listening to Jesus, observing him. And Jesus said, Mary has chosen the right thing. One thing is important, she chose that. So keep God in first place. Secondly, again, I'm a professional, I do medicine, but I also do a lot of teaching. I like to teach, I like to train, and I experiment a lot with training, you know? Every day we experiment with different, different types of teaching methodologies. And I also practice medicine, but I'm also interested in a lot of other things. So one of the things which I realized is that if you really want to thrive and flourish, you need to study God. You need to study Jesus Christ. Because Jesus Christ is the full reflection of the Godhead. The entire content says the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Jesus Christ. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, one of these, they call him the Prince of Preachers, he said, the study of God is vastly improving to the mind. This he said it when he was 19 years old. As a 19-year-old, he was super brilliant, and he said this, if you want to have a really good mind, study Jesus Christ. Study it intently. There are a lot of people who are Christians, but they are not followers of Jesus. There are a lot of followers of Jesus, but they don't study Jesus. There are theologians who study and they get their theological degree, but they don't study Jesus. There's a big, big, big difference. If you study the Lord Jesus Christ intensely, it will really improve your mind. And this is one thing which I feel it's really, really important. Romans 12, in Romans 1 and 2, in Paul is talking to the Romans and he says, be renewed in the transformation of mind. Read to know more about God. Be soaked in His Word. So this is one of the things which I have tried to work on. That I will read the Word, I will let the Word submit my mind so that I think biblically. And when you start thinking biblically, it goes into every area of your life, whether it's administration, whether it's teaching, communicating, counseling, coaching, in every area of our lives. Now, Prabhup says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. And actually it's not just information knowledge, it is wisdom. One of the things we realize is that as you're young, you acquire degrees and a lot of information here and there and you become so knowledgeable, full of information. And, but you don't have too much of wisdom. And then as you grow older, you will gain knowledge to a certain degree and then it'll plateau. And then after that your neurons will start degenerating and you will have dementia if you don't die too fast. So if, but as you grow older, you tend to get wisdom. The problem with wisdom is by the time you are old enough to have wisdom, you don't have too much time to use that wisdom. So I used to think, how can we get wisdom when we are still young? It would make, you know, a lot of problems would have been avoided if we had got wisdom while we are still young. So one of the things which I used to do as a student was I had a lot of textbooks and I had this mad rush of Xeroxing as many textbooks buying from everywhere, reading mad rush to get in knowledge. Then I thought, if I read it, read a lot, I will become very knowledgeable. And when I become knowledgeable, I will become proud. And God resist the proud. So I thought I must not become proud, you know? So what I used to do is in my textbooks, I used to write Bible verses and prayers all over, you know? So that what I read, because what I'm reading is not ordinary knowledge. It is knowledge which can impact my mind and can affect my being. And that's why I felt I had to interact with the knowledge that I'm getting and ensure that it comes under the suppression of God. So study the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the sum of all things. He's the best teacher, he's the best strategist. We just finished our third strategic planning meeting in our hospital, the entire hospital was involved in it, the institute was involved in it. And we looked at all the biblical principles of strategy. You know, learn to be a coach. Study Jesus Christ was the best coach. You know, I do, I coach on a daily basis. All my staff, students, and I use coaching every day. And a lot of it comes from the scripture. And it's much more effective than just teaching. The Lord Jesus Christ is, you know, if you're gonna be an architect, you better study Jesus. If you're going to be an organizer or a physician or a psychologist, you need to study Jesus. So I use the Jesus teaching and training methods daily in my work and in my administration. Also, we need to sort of have a very broad spectrum reading because I realize that, you know, the knowledge that we get is not just, it's not just ordinary knowledge. It's God-given knowledge. And therefore, I would like to read as much as possible. So I'm a compulsive reader. I read everywhere, you know? I mean, from my childhood. So in the toilet, while waiting for the bus everywhere, you know, if I don't read, I get withdrawal symptoms. One of the things, advantages with this, I think is that when you read a lot and you try to learn a lot about everything under the sun, not just your own subject, you can develop critical thinking, lateral thinking, and you can develop thinking out of the box. So learn to observe as much as possible and learn to observe God's world. It is not a world which is just like that. It's God-created and it's God-willed. So study the Lord Jesus Christ and see how it integrates and relates with your situation, your world, and it will really improve your mind. Thirdly, be creative. Explore the world and celebrate God in all things. It is God's world. So explore it to the full. His intention for us is that we might flourish and experience His fullness. In Genesis, the first chapter, he talks to a man and he says, you know, subdue the world, you know? It's given for you. Explore it in its diversity, in its variety. Go into the depths of it. We call it deep diving, you know? In Christian Medical College, the Lord, there is a clause, a statement in the mission statement relating to research. It says we strive to look at God's purposes and designs in the world in research. So research is not just research just like that. It's looking and saying, what is God doing, you know? In this world, whether it's in molecular science or whatever, you know? Or genetics or anything like that. And you really study that. So be creative. One of the things which I realize is that God is a great God and He gives much more than we can ever deserve, I imagine. In 1 Corinthians chapter two verse nine, it says, I has not seen, ear has not heard, mind has not conceived, but God has prepared for those who love Him. And this is something which I've realized even in our own institute, in our own institute. We started small, we're just three of us. And over the span of time, the kind of people that God has brought into our institute is phenomenal. You know, it's just amazing. My previous director was Dr. Abram Joseph. He was the father of community medicine in India. He was a big shop. He goes all over the world giving keynote addresses. Our current principal of the Paramedical College is the chairman of Medical Physics in India, College of Medical Physics, and the editor of the Journal of Medical Physics. Big shot. Our nursing college was started by the former principal of CMC Vallon Nursing College. She, like, that was the best college in India. Fantastic people came in. We didn't ask for it, it just came in. We just took one step at a time and followed Jesus and, you know, they just come in like that. And the kind of people God has brought into our institute now, phenomenal amount of very high quality people who are very committed about their job. So God would give things which you can never imagine, take us to places where you can never imagine. So explore the world of God and you will realize, you know, and ask several questions about the world around you. You know, the better your questions, the more you will learn. And be willing to try out everything, food, places, take initiatives, take risks. You know, my, the former EHA director, who was my boss, used to say, Sedevi is a scatterbrain, you know? He's thinking about ideas nonstop, you know? And he thinks, you know, this guy is just fleeting here and there. But I realize that, you know, there's so much in God's world that we want to explore and try out. And if you don't try it, you won't know. You'll never know. So I would rather try and fail many times than not try at all. You know, there's a story about a guy called Eric Little, who is, who was a missionary to China and in the movie Charades of Fire. You know, he was a 100 meters race Olympics runner. And finally, he ended up running the 400 meters race and won it, you know? So he was, his sister told him, brother, you're so bothered about other things. Why don't you, we should be going to China and doing the Lord's work. So he told her and said, you know, sister, God made me with a heart for China, but God made me fast. And when I run, I feel God's good pleasure in me, you know? I enjoy God, I worship God when I run. So when you're studying, are you enjoying God? No, I like, I enjoy God on a daily basis, you know? In my administration, I enjoy God. In my work, I enjoy God. Now, when I talk to patients, I enjoy God. And when you do that, everything has purpose and meaning and the quality of your work will really improve. So celebrate God and find the pleasure of God in all your work and studies. Forty, be free. Be free and explore the freedom that God gives to you. The Christ-given identity, search for a Christ-given identity and apply this freedom to all areas of your life. So we're trying to look at, in our institute, we've just done a strategic planning, we're trying to see what can we apply this to? Can we think, I think our, the chairperson or, you know, the principal said, think big, you know? Look at the big picture. So one of the things which I was talking to our staff is the oncology department, the cancer department, I was saying, can we work on, in 10 years, we will not send a single patient ever to go out of Nagaland for treatment, for cancer treatment? So what it means is you'll need about 300 crores of investment. You will need, you know, collaborations with at least 10 foreign and global universities, the top ones. You will need to have a manpower plan, which, you know, to do that, you'll need to have processes, protocols, et cetera, et cetera. So, you know, God gives us the freedom to do it and his world is there and he has the resources to give to us. So whether it's academics, research, you know, community, be free and explore as much as possible. Don't be bound by your own expectations or the expectations of others. Feel free to love, feel free to love, to learn, to try new things, to forgive. And what, I think one person again said, no, chart your own course. I think it's very important. You know, listen to the advisors, listen to mentors, take that in, but finally chart your own course. Over a span of time, I have realized I have listened, I have learned from people, but finally I had to make my own decisions. And times when, you know, they thought, maybe this is not the right time. I still went ahead, you know. Maybe this is, so you will need to chart out, you know, what, in Star Trek, they say, you know, the Star Trek to go boldly where no man has ever gone before. You know, this uncharted territory where your advisors might also not know. So feel free to, you know, go to places where people have not gone and chart out your own course. If the sun sets you free, you shall be free indeed. Free to be able to explore. One of the other aspects about freedom is that you need to have, to be really free, you need to live a life of integrity, you know. And integrity is something which is quite missing in our society today. So if you live a life of tremendous amount of integrity, you will have tremendous amount of freedom. Stand first in the liberty, you know, in this freedom, don't get trapped. Practice the discipline of simplicity. If you're a simple man, I'm not saying simple in mind, you know, in simplicity in your lifestyle, it allows you to do a lot of things and not be bound by people. What you do not have cannot trap you. You'll not be bound by others. No, simplicity is freedom, actually. Well, I worked in a mission hospital several years back with Dr. Tharyan in Oden Chaturam, Tamil Nadu. And this man had nothing in his house. He was one of the greatest men in Christian doctors in India. He had nothing in his house. He had nothing to fear. His door was always open and people could just come in and go. And his life was so impactful. We must realize that over the years, we will keep accumulating things in our lives only to find out that it doesn't help you and you have no time for it all. I look at the books in my room. I've accumulated so many books, I realize I won't be able to read all of those books in my lifetime. So now I have to think, what is the one thing I need to do for my time? Practice humility. Now, humility is possibly the most attractive quality. People will do things for you if you're humble. Start with saying, I'm a foolish person. Whatever my achievements were in the past, I'm gonna keep that behind. And don't let people praise you and build your portfolio up. That is a big hindrance. So practice humility and you will actually really thrive because you'll get a lot of people who will be with you rather than against you. Share your failures. I try to share my failures to a lot of people. Now, I share my mistakes and the blunders that I've made in my life very often. And then what I realize is it connects much better to people because people realize, actually, they might just nod their head but they've also gone through the same thing. Be authentic and genuine. Try to aim to be authentic and genuine. People will feel comfortable and at ease in your presence if you're genuine. You know, the first thing that people want to know about you is this person's trustworthy, is he genuine? Many years back, I was talking to a Marwari fellow, Marwari dealer in Guwahati. I used to get a lot of stuff from him and a lot of credit. So I used to tell him, I told him, I said, see, are you scared that I will not pay you? So he said, doctor, we know people. We are Marwaris, over the years we have known, we deal with people, we can judge people. We know you will not cheat me. We can smell, like almost from a distance. We can tell who's genuine and who's not. So try to be genuine. And give freely and release. You've acquired some level of wisdom, some knowledge that you have now. Try to give it freely as much as possible. Matthew chapter 10 verse eight, it says, freely you have received freely give. There's an ambulance service which is called 108. In the rest of the country, they call it the 108. It's Matthew chapter 10 verse eight. This was started by a Christian bureaucrat. And talks about giving out. Over the years, I realized that everything that I learned is second hand. Everything that I have. So my knowledge is all second hand. I didn't get it just like that. It didn't just come out like that. I learned it from a book. I learned it from a teacher. I didn't write that book. I learned it from a teacher. I learned it from mentors, from advisors. I learned it from experiences which God allowed me to have that. I did not die when I was young because I could have died. My father had five brothers. All of them died in gastroenteritis epidemics. So I didn't die when I was young. I see a lot of patients every day. Suddenly they're quite okay. Suddenly they say I have this small lump here and then it's cancer. My father did not die when I was young. Otherwise I couldn't have been able to study. Everything that we have is second hand. So that's why in Ecclesiastas, the preacher says there's nothing new under the sun. If then, if nothing belongs to you, then why do you hold on? I realized that over the years I'm losing my memory and slowly, slowly, very soon I will die. I don't know, I'm 56 years now. So which means 10 years down the line, if I'm still alive, I will be a lot slower than what I am. I have high blood pressure. My feet are getting a bit numb. I'm becoming a little overweight and my eyes are not as good as they used to be. 20 years down the line, I will be much more slower and my memory will be even worse and people will just have to tolerate me. I realize that we are degenerating and so I realize, oh, I need to give up what I have as soon as possible, as fast as possible, before I go, you know? So I live with my mortality in mind every day. I stayed in a Buddhist monastery several years back in Dharamsala just for a few days. One of the things which the Buddhist monks do is they look at the skull and they meditate on the skull about death so that when they die, they are comfortable with that. So think about your own mortality and live life in order to give. The more you give, the more you will learn. If one of the things which I realize as I teach people is I do this exercise very often, I ask, okay, how many of you listen to your pastor last week, you know? And what's the message good? And generally they'll say, yeah, it was quite good. Tell me three things that you remember from that. Most of the people will not remember, even one point. Even the best of the best preachers you will still forget. The only way you will remember is if you repeat it or you teach it or you practice it or you give it to somebody else. The more you give it, the more it will become part of your life. So the faster you give, today I sleep very nicely and peacefully because I taught so many people endoscopy and all my skills, so many of them can do what I'm doing. So I can freely tell people, see, just go to that guy, he knows better than me. So then they don't have to trouble me, I can go for a nice vacation. So the more you give out, the more you can be free. Push yourself very, very hard. You'll never get burnt out. Don't listen to the lie of burnt out. You know, when we were young, we didn't know there was a term called burnt out. We worked out, we never got burnt out. Today, people think, if I do this, this, this, I'm gonna get burnt out. They're planning to get burnt out, okay? So they say, burnt out does not happen because of hard work. It doesn't happen because of a large amount of work. It happens in occasionally excessive work, but hard work never burns you out. Burned out happens because of poor relationships, adverse working conditions, the victim mentality, self-pity, you're on expectations. You will never, you will get tired and exhausted, but you won't get burnt out if you don't have those things. So, and so push yourself very hard and see the limits of what you can do. You'll never know how much you can take until you try it out. And finally, learn to reflect and integrate your learning. Whatever you're learning today, it needs to be integrated. So, learning takes place in three levels. One is called information, the other is experience, and the third is transformation. So when you are learning a lot of things, there's a lot of information coming in. Then you have an experience and you say, this is nice, this is not so good, this is how I feel. But until that learning becomes a transformation, that learning hasn't had its value. You've wasted your time. So over a span of time, I think about how many things did I learn and how many things are part of my life today? Very, very little. So if you don't want to waste our lives, try and integrate that as much as possible. So in order to do that, we need to learn how to learn and observe how you learn. You need to observe yourself. Socrates said, an unexamined life is not worth living. So take heed to yourself. All tells to his disciple, Timothy says, take heed to yourself. Observe yourself very, very carefully. Generally when people go for workshops and they do a lot of achievements, I don't look at what they have achieved. I generally ask them the question, what happened to you? What happened to you as a process of your achievements? You got your gold medal, okay, fine, great. What happened to you when you got your gold medal? That is what I'm interested in. So learn to observe yourself and reflect as much as possible. And if that happens, then what is there in the world, this whole wonderful world of learning and knowledge that is in academia will then become a reality in your life. And then you will be able to celebrate. One of the purpose, I mean the purpose of God in our lives today is that we should flourish. I hope that as you move out, you will not just get degrees, jobs and things like that, but you will be able to flourish the way God has created you to be. One of the things which I look at our staff is I would like to help our staff to grow to the highest potential that God has created them to be. And we want to explore that in all its diversity and ensure we support our staff so that one day they can really worship God and I will also worship God along with that. So thank you once again for patiently listening to a very long rambling of a nearing a senior citizen person. And I really wish you all the best and I hope you do extremely well and I'm sure your faculty and your staff are going to be keeping monitoring how you're doing and one day they will really have cost to celebrate. Thank you.