Twenty Two Guiding Principles of Life to Lead a Life of Your Choice

About the Author

Satya Murty Dharanipragada was a senior civil servant belonging to the Indian Administrative Service belonging to 1984 batch and from Karnataka cadre. He held several positions both in the Government of Karnataka and the Government of India.

He wrote four books, several articles for the International and National Magazines, short stories and book reviews, and won several awards for his outstanding contribution and educational excellence.

After graduation, Thampuran worked in Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Bangalore as a Design Engineer in the R&D team led by Dr Tank Kurt. In 1964 he married Gīta, the daughter of Late Sri Arya Vaidyan PV Rama Varier, founder of Arya Vaidya Pharmacy, Coimbatore Ltd. In 1968 he joined the R&D team at Bharath Electronics producing, developing and manufacturing defence and civil electronic equipments.

In the 1970s he was deeply influenced by His Holiness Swami Chinmayananda, a preacher of the Hindu texts, Indian philosophy, culture and heritage. As an active member of the Chinmaya Mission, he became the Secretary of the Mission and started the popular youth movement, called ‘Chinmaya Yuvakendra’ in 1974. He then moved on to become the Director of the Vigyana Mandir, Chinmaya Mission, Bangalore.

Thampuran’s first foray into philosophical writing is a ‘Manual on Self-unfoldment’ for the youth followed by ‘Vedānta - The Science of Life’ written in three parts. These were compilations of Swami Chinmayananda’s work. Using these texts published by Chinmaya Publications in 1975 and 1982 respectively, he conducted study groups for the youth and ran comprehensive courses on Vedānta.

He took on the role of Director, Chinmaya Institute of Management with the aim of developing India’s own management system, by integrating the Hindu principles and philosophy to management practices. To achieve this vision he gave talks and successfully conducted several workshops relevant to senior executives and leaders of leading companies and organizations in India such as, TELCO India (TATA), Jamshedpur; Hindustan Shipyard, Vizag; Jyothi Electricals, Baroda; Lakshmi Machine Works, Coimbatore and others, and tested the acceptance of ancient Indian concepts on motivation, human resource development etc.

He became a member of the Advisory Council of Divyam Academy of Values run by Arya Vaidya Pharmacy, Coimbatore Ltd. He conducted classes for teachers on Indian Philosophical concepts related to education, for a year in 2006. He found the school curriculum of that time wanting on many fronts. It inspired him with the idea of a Dharma based subject at school level. This led to the creation of an outline called ‘Dhārmic Education’ subject for classes 1 to 10. In 2008, he completed ‘Indian Integrative Management’ which was a culmination of twenty year thought process along these lines. Lastly, he began a book on ‘Education, a comparative study between modern and ancient systems’ which could not be completed.