You put pictures in people's eyes

"The surgery is an art," Dr. Natchiar says. "You work in such a tiny space, and if you create a beautiful job, the painting is worth so much money. You put pictures in people's eyes. You paint them stunning flowers, their children's faces, or lines that are clear and sharp."

There was also the pain of a terrible conflict in his life. He had been schooled in perfection by his father, and now he was barely able to work. What saved him from despair, says Dr. V., was meeting the philosopher Sri Aurobindo, a rebel in the Free India movement who had opened an ashram in Pondicherry. From Aurobindo, Dr. V. learned meditation and found a purpose: He came to believe that man has not reached the highest level of evolution, but that evolution will continue for several more stages until a higher intelligence is created. "Even the body has to be more perfect so that a new creature will result," says Dr. V.

But spiritual teachings, inspirational and useful as they may be, still are not enough. "I am not an idea man," says Dr. V. "The task is not to aspire to some heaven but to make everyday life divine." When he switched to ophthalmology, he had to train himself to hold a knife and to perform cataract surgery despite his physical pain.

I ask Dr. V. a simple question designed to get him to talk about his unique vision: "What are your gifts?" I ask him. Dr. V. replies, "People thank me for giving them sight." This is no error of translation, no slipup of English. Dr. V. considers his gifts to be the things that he has given others, not what he possesses. Here is another clue to the mystery: The reward for work is not what you get out of it but what you become from it.

fastcompany.com/magazine Harriet Rubin (Hrubin@aol.com) is a Fast Company senior writer and the author of The Princessa: Machiavelli for Women (Doubleday, 1997) and Soloing: Realizing Your Life's Ambition (HarperCollins, 1999). Contact Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy by email (dr.v@aravind.org), or learn more about the Aravind Eye Hospitals on the Web (www.aravind.org).