Living simply, loving purely and giving fearlessly The key to happiness is in helping others.

0:03 hey nippon how are you 0:05 i'm doing good how are you i'm doing 0:08 great so before we start i do want to 0:10 say that your name nippon 0:12 which means an expert so you've been an 0:14 expert in a number of fields 0:18 you are the founder of this uh 0:20 organization called service space 0:22 uh tell me a little bit about what they 0:24 do What is Service Spaces 0:26 well service spaces uh started in 1999 0:29 in the silicon valley by we started by 0:31 building websites for non-profits and 0:33 now we do a whole bunch of other 0:35 projects but at its core it's a 0:37 volunteer-run ecosystem and here the 0:40 volunteers are not just serving to help 0:43 others and create an external impact 0:45 that's there but you're also serving to 0:47 for inner transformation to change 0:49 yourself along the way um and so it's a 0:52 it's a it's a big incubator of all kinds 0:55 of projects that try to circulate a 0:57 little bit more love in the world yeah 0:59 so talking about love 1:01 every time i get your email i see you 1:04 have a very unique signature 1:06 and you have a mission statement around 1:08 it 1:09 what is it about like 1:11 what is something about smiles what is 1:13 it exactly 1:15 i i don't know usually i'm smiling so i 1:18 write based on what i'm what i'm feeling 1:21 in that moment but um yeah i'll often 1:24 sign my 1:25 emails saying with smiles 1:28 yeah and every time i read your email 1:31 i would smile because it's such a nice 1:33 way to end it 1:35 and i also read somewhere that you were 1:38 studying at berkeley you were doing 1:40 computer science and philosophy 1:42 and you were on the path to you know 1:45 the high-tech path 1:47 and then you had a change of heart uh 1:49 what happened there and how has that 1:51 journey been like were there any 1:53 pitfalls you know 1:55 we all want to do good but what was your 1:57 experience in that Giving to be happy 2:00 yeah i mean i think this was you have to 2:01 kind of understand the context that of 2:03 that time silicon valley 2:05 dot com 2:07 greed was all over the place and here i 2:09 was 2:10 uh an indian guy coming out of berkeley 2:13 into that field and there were lots of 2:15 very lucrative opportunities but my 2:17 heart said that that wasn't my calling 2:20 that you can uh accumulate a lot um and 2:24 still not be happy you know and so for 2:26 me i at that time i was thinking more 2:28 about happiness and i realized that it 2:30 takes giving to be happy 2:32 and giving you know to give you don't 2:34 first need to acquire a whole lot 2:37 a lot of people think first you get and 2:39 then you give 2:40 and i i realize that that's actually 2:42 kind of a there's a there's a fault in 2:45 that logic which because according to 2:47 that logic then we are born bankrupt 2:49 yeah and then you accumulate and then 2:52 you give you know and i just think that 2:54 you can accumulate a few things like 2:56 maybe financial resources you accumulate 2:58 over time maybe your reputation you 3:01 accumulate over time maybe fame you 3:02 accumulate over time but things like 3:05 love we're born with you know and so if 3:07 you can think in that broad way like how 3:10 can i give uh with so many other forms 3:13 of wealth 3:14 and i think that became the thrust of 3:17 the rest of my 3:18 my work i realized i i in giving i was a 3:21 lot happier than i was in getting or 3:24 taking um or accumulating like the 3:26 security you feel from accumulation 3:29 pales in comparison to the connection 3:32 you feel when you are giving 3:34 um and so 3:36 taking this i mean this is a very 3:37 difficult path right to even explain to 3:40 people your you know your parents your 3:43 children your 3:46 right everybody right everybody first 3:48 thing you when you go to a party you're 3:50 like you know hey what do you do and i'm 3:52 like yeah i volunteer and they're like 3:53 no what do you really do i'm like no i 3:56 really volunteer they're just like okay 3:58 well next person you know 4:00 um we'll talk to you later 4:03 we're or in the indian community you 4:04 know people will be like oh shouldn't 4:06 you be taking care of your parents 4:08 instead of like you know living off of 4:09 them i was like no i'm not living off of 4:11 them it's like are you taking care of 4:12 them what kind of a son are you i was 4:14 like well why don't you go ask my 4:15 parents you know but uh 4:18 you have you have that whole cultural 4:20 thing of like oh and so many sacrifices 4:23 were made for me to have the 4:24 opportunities and i had so much 4:26 potential all that kind of stuff that 4:28 people tell you 4:29 and you're like and and in those eyes 4:32 you're seen as wasting all of that 4:34 potential because you're going out and 4:36 practicing giving that's something you 4:38 do when you're 65 you know after you 4:40 retire like that's not something you do 4:42 out after college um and so yeah it was 4:45 a you know it's it's a kind of uphill 4:47 battle um and uh you you work through it 4:51 and you have to listen to that inner 4:52 voice you know you have to listen to 4:54 that uh calling inside you and even my 4:57 parents wanted to make sure that it 4:58 wasn't just i was i wasn't just doing a 5:01 rash thing that i actually genuinely 5:03 felt it so they did accept your choice 5:05 and they were i'm sure at the end of the 5:07 day they were happy but during that time 5:09 it must be hard for them as well right 5:11 yeah they wanted me to be sustainable 5:13 they said look we can take care of 5:14 ourselves we want you to follow your 5:16 dreams but like we want you to make sure 5:18 we want to also make sure that you know 5:20 how to take care of yourself you know 5:22 um and so 5:23 and and this is not a it's like none of 5:26 their friends kids are doing this kind 5:28 of thing so it's there's no precedent 5:30 for it you know so in your mind it's a 5:32 new story 5:33 and uh you know they they certainly 5:35 especially my mom was certainly worried 5:37 and was like no this is not a why don't 5:39 you do it on the side or why don't you 5:41 go out first make all the money and then 5:43 retire and then go do all this you know 5:45 early retirement you know i technically 5:47 relate to that because i mean obviously 5:49 i'm not at your stage but i feel the 5:51 same you know i always wanted to do 5:53 something 5:54 in this field and that was the thing 5:56 everybody kept saying yeah you should 5:58 just do it on the side it's good 6:02 yeah 6:04 so you know last year has been quite 6:05 dramatic for all of us right pandemic 6:07 and everything and we talked a little 6:09 bit before about the 6:11 the kitchens that you were holding which 6:13 is not going on right now the karma 6:16 kitchens the volunteers 6:18 what else have you learned in pandemic i 6:20 mean what is like a couple of just maybe 6:22 the one biggest lesson that you think 6:23 that you can talk about Living bridges 6:25 well i think one biggest thing is i 6:27 think that in the pandemic everyone 6:29 started to think that life every there's 6:31 so much so many emergencies and your 6:33 react react react react you know to the 6:35 here and now and i think when you just 6:37 take that very short-term view you 6:39 forget about the long-term view which is 6:41 not just emergency but emergence which 6:44 is a longer-term view and longer term 6:46 could go all the way you know they have 6:48 these living bridges in meghalay i don't 6:50 know if you know about these bridges but 6:52 they try to put these concrete posts on 6:54 both sides and build a bridge and all 6:56 those would like fall down 6:58 and what they realized is what what 7:00 survives are these living bridges and 7:02 living bridges are essentially 7:05 trees on both sides whose roots start to 7:08 interconnect so every generation takes 7:11 these roots and they know what to do to 7:12 connect these roots to the next bit and 7:15 then the next generation comes in and 7:16 takes it to the next 7:18 and over many many generations you have 7:21 this thick root system on which people 7:24 can walk and traverse and these roots 7:26 they're known as living bridges 7:29 they take many generations but they are 7:31 so robust they are so resilient they are 7:33 so sturdy and they serve everybody so i 7:36 think there's place for short term and 7:38 emergencies 7:39 and then there's space for emergence and 7:44 how do we balance that personally but 7:47 also systemically right how do we do 7:49 that and i think most of our 7:51 systems are rooted in the short term 7:54 yeah 7:55 are rooted in the here and now are 7:56 rooted in consumerism 7:58 and i don't think that that is nearly as 8:00 deep as i'm thinking something beyond 8:02 and i think one other thing i would add 8:04 is that i think 8:07 sorry 8:10 i think thinking about 8:12 like is this a war story or is this a 8:14 love story i think was a great question 8:17 yeah right like is it are we are we 8:19 being attacked and oh my god if we don't 8:21 fight back we're gonna we're gonna die 8:24 or is this an invitation to deepen our 8:26 interconnection and to deepen our love 8:28 or is it both 8:29 and which one is it more how are they 8:31 interconnected like all these kinds of 8:33 questions are a little bit more nuanced 8:35 yeah than just saying oh my god let's go 8:38 you know let's go attack this thing and 8:39 eliminate it yeah i really think what 8:42 you're saying is really a reset button 8:44 for all of us right in our lives 8:46 is really like we started thinking in a 8:48 different aspect because we were forced 8:50 to think about it almost and that's what 8:52 exactly what you're saying right you 8:53 look at it as a bridge or is it a tree 8:56 or is it like you know all these things 8:58 we were forced to do because 9:01 it happened 9:03 yeah yeah and i mean the media kept 9:05 saying all these negative stories of how 9:07 there's so much fear yeah alongside the 9:10 fear there's always also a great rise in 9:12 compassion alongside the suffering there 9:15 were so many people who were trying to 9:16 alleviate suffering like everyday heroes 9:19 doing like the smallest things with with 9:22 incredible you know even in the first 9:23 days like people even if they were 9:25 quarantined they're playing going to the 9:26 balcony and playing music and and 9:29 figuring out a chorus right like the 9:31 police are stopping and playing guitars 9:33 you know 9:34 it's like kids are having a lemonade 9:36 stand and saying free jokes you know it 9:39 was just a parallel universe that we 9:41 started living in almost 9:42 yeah well i think people respond with 9:45 love like people want to respond with 9:47 love when you see suffering that's half 9:49 of the story sure there's a lot of 9:50 suffering yeah but another half of the 9:53 story is that when faced with that 9:55 we have this tendency we we have this 9:58 kind of innate 9:59 um 10:01 innate uh propensity to respond with 10:05 care compassion kindness and love yeah 10:08 it brings the best of humanity out as 10:09 well right 10:11 great thank you so much nippon i really 10:13 enjoy talking to you 10:15 and thank you for all your time today 10:18 okay i appreciate it thanks for having 10:20 me thank you