Passion vs. Paycheck: Dilemma of Balancing Career & Financial Security

so i just met you uh today so i don't know much about you all i know is that you had a career an education in it and then you made a switch to something different and i also know that you come from a very privileged background so just tell me about your journey about what made you uh you know jump this ship and take this leap of faith like tell us a little bit what happened okay um so i did my engineering from rv college of uh engineering um and uh after that we got placed automatically we get a lot of placements in the from the college coming from a very good uh college that it is uh so i got placed on cognizant and after working for uh almost a year or something i started asking some uh questions which i have never asked before mainly because things were not working very well for me and things were already fall into place till then like not working in this end like in the job uh in your energy yeah so i was not doing great like and i was uh and i figured it's not that even if i don't know the work it's not like we can't learn it right we obviously can learn it yeah and and i figured that i don't have the passion to learn it yeah um i don't have that interest to you know go for it and do a little more research and see how i can get better that was missing so and i figured it's not that it's completely missing in my life in all areas there were other areas like i was a theater artist uh no actually i became a theater artist after this after getting into it and i figured i'm very interested there and um and spirituality i'm very interested in how humans interact and how human behavior is and all of these uh things are something that i'm really interested in so so it it took me quite some time to you know ask these questions and figure out but obviously uh leaving the job is was definitely not easy i got a lot of pressure from my parents and and uh they made it very clear that they're not going to support me financially and i have to look out for myself so i was okay with it so that is the thing um that is the brave step that i did take though it was really not easy i was very tempted many times to go back and you know um just take it because uh it's it's uh you get the salary properly yeah you get a security of the salary right i mean that's a big thing yeah but as a um as a artist or as a yoga instructor i don't have that but uh i feel like if you are passionate enough and if you are willing to work enough towards it you you will definitely find a way there that was like you know it seemed that you were almost torn mentally like you know you wanted to leave it what was it that made you like what was that incident you have any incident that happened i'm sure there was something that made it trigger like you were not doing great at your work you were probably constantly like under stress because your mind was not there but what was that one incident that made you jump the ship um actually to be very frank it was not like one incident it was like many incidents like and i was like also uh exploring this uh egoic outlook uh of the whole uh thing that is there associated with it like having a software job is said to be a very good uh uh thing for the outside world like for the society yeah so and it is and my parents were proud of it as well so they didn't wanted me to leave it just because they can say that their daughter was working in a software company and and i it didn't even matter to me for me it like it doesn't matter at all but for them it mattered so much then i realized i'm probably doing it for them and even when i got the job i actually told the interviewer person believe it or not that why they asked me why do you want this job i said my father wanted me to do this job i actually told this yeah so i actually came to this point where like why am i doing what am i doing for whom am i doing this i mean is that really what matters and then i figured if if i'm really happy gonna be really happy and content within myself don't want i spread that happiness around and probably my parents will maybe they're not okay right now but later it might it will be infectious and they will probably be okay with it you know that's the that's the faith i had though i was not really sure and it was uh it's not really easy also i felt like maybe i asked i keep asking myself right that what made me you know take this uh audacious uh move maybe it's because i'm privileged also and you know like i don't have this nagging feeling that you know i'll be destitute in some time like in my old age or that i have a dirty blanket right you have a security yeah like you know probably things worst to worst you know some my parents would be there you know they'll figure it out they'll give me some property or something you know that that is always like that though they i know that i wouldn't ask uh and my parents made it here that they wouldn't give so like i know that's there so yeah probably i took that faith into consideration and took this step but although they have not supported me very frankly they didn't uh they made sure they didn't give me a penny and i supported i made sure i worked and supported myself throughout even now and even uh like right now also i'm pursuing my higher studies i'm doing masters in anthropology and in yoga so both of them i'm doing it myself like i'm not asking anybody else so so yeah that's how it's going on yeah yeah no this is really fascinating because i think basically what you're saying is you worked in this high-paying job just to satisfy everybody else rather than yourself yes yes that that's what made me realize like you know i have to figure out what i want to do like uh is this spiritually am i really concerned is that really that drives me yes so that's why yoga is like always like yoga is always something that is always attracted to attracted to it's not that i plan to you know take up yoga and i was like okay let me be a teacher i didn't do that but uh even when i did a ttc like teacher training program i was not sure like you know because it's a vast subject and uh you need a lot of authority or some something uh to start teaching teaching is not very easy thing so i did take quite some time like two years or three years and um i was so part-time acting till then and everything and then then i started teaching when i figured that yes i have to really do this and yeah yeah no i mean no richness sorry i qualified you actually what you're saying is so truth to so many people including me you really have to find the passion right to be happy and i can see this in your face you've got this glow about you and i'm so glad you found your passion it took a little bit of struggle but thank you so much for sharing your story and you know telling everybody that it's okay to not be financially well off but find your passion and it's not easy to do that yes lucky you found it pretty easily yes because even today like today morning i every day morning i get up and i actually read this like this is the yoga raha of nathu muni okay and i want to read this every day i want to get up and i want to read this and nobody is obliging and like nobody's forcing me to do it yeah i want to leave this right uh it's written by krishnamacharya if you want let me ask you how did you even discover that yoga was your passion so it just um so i just knew i'm interested in it that is all i didn't know know that this is what i want to pursue in i didn't know but i saw there is an earning opportunity also and uh but i was always i was always spiritually slightly inclined so um and i was good in yoga very flexible body so i feel like yeah probably i can do this you know and and when i started into it i figured like yes it gets more interesting and more interesting and more interesting day by day the many aspects to it and i want to learn all of that probably if i was still in idea i don't know if i would get up you know sleep read some programming language of the morning five o'clock i don't know if i would be doing that you know or driven to do that i don't know yeah no no true truth to that because what you're saying right everybody wants to find that passion and i think you come from a privileged background besides that you have found it and that's the i would say it's a very nice thing to find that yes i would say that not that i've received any support for it in any way nobody have actually supported me so it's been very confusing i'm not i'm not uh exaggerating about it it's been extremely confusing and nobody supports you you would start to question it a lot more and see like maybe maybe i'm wrong like am i really correct you know you start a lot of self inquiry but uh very thankfully uh i have received help and i've needed the most so and uh i would say in that way also i'm very privileged i have seen that not everybody just just like that receive help them when they want to when they need it and and i'm probably just very blessed uh to receive guidance and say that you know what you're okay you're you're if you're feeling right about this trust your instincts yeah and go for it yeah great gradually yeah go ahead i've actually gone to many astrologers as well you know when you feel hopeless and blessed you could go to astrologers person who studied science is still believing in astrology and everything i don't actually i don't but you know you get to a space where you feel utterly hopeless in life and you don't know if what you're doing is fine or because we are not really empowered to take decisions in our life as in in your in indian society uh for especially for girl child and not empowered so when you when you're doing something like this you get a lot of doubt so yeah i've gone through that self-doubt i don't think there's any way to get around it right that's everybody's questioning everybody's think like am i doing the right thing right all the time i know