Summer 2005

Gautam Jain ’94

“If you have a conviction that must be pursued, follow it through,” said Gautam Jain, who currently serves as the principal instructor of Vedanta philosophy at the Vedanta Cultural Foundation in New York City.

Jain, who graduated with a degree in business, followed his own convictions and returned to his home nation of India to study Vedanta, rather than accept numerous job offers from top businesses on Wall Street.

“As I was interviewing for some of these positions, I thought to myself, ‘There is more to learn about life than just personal gain and satisfaction,’” said Jain.

Vedanta, a “self-management” life strategy that reduces stress and emphasizes practical ways of approaching reality, centers around the fundamental concept that it is one’s relationship with the world that needs to be studied and understood. “One person enjoys a cigarette, another detests it; one wants to divorce his wife, another is desperate to marry her. Therefore, it is one’s mind, and not the world, that produces joy or sorrow in life,” says Jain, who returned to the United States after 10 years of instruction in India.

“My instructor thought it would be a good idea for me to attempt to spread Vedanta in the United States, because I already had knowledge of the culture,” he said.

Jain does not regret his decision to forego a successful career on Wall Street, although, at the time, it was a difficult one to make. “Life has turned a full circle,” he explained. “Now that I have returned, I feel as though I can help these people who are working in such high-stress positions, which I would have been a victim of myself.”

Jain’s seminar attendance is steadily growing in the New York area and along the East Coast, with the most interest coming from metropolitan areas. “It is one of the strange paradoxes in life,” said Jain. “Where there is prosperity, such as in cities, there is no peace. Where there is peace, such as in the Eastern part of the world, there is no prosperity.”

Giving restless city-dwellers the “tools” to achieve serenity, Jain has received encouragement from thankful seminar-goers. “People have told me that I help them live their lives more effectively,” said Jain. “It’s just educating yourself about the philosophy and putting it into practice.” 

—Kristen Evans ’07