An Empty Mind Vs A Seriously Religious Mind!

An Insightful Series of Life Lessons That My Life Provided As I Lived Understanding Its Psychology and Philosophy Improving My Mental Health in The Process.

Jun 21, 2026

LIFE LESSON STORIES SERIES

An Empty Mind Is Driven by Curiosity and Creativity

I remember an amusing story from my life when I had just completed my degree in electronics engineering. I was yet to turn 21 in a few months. I applied for a government job in Defense Research Development Organization as a scientific officer in one of its laboratories. After a few days, I received an interview call from Union Public Service Commission. I headed to its venue to face the interview on the scheduled date.

The Venue of Interview

As I reached the venue of interview, I saw hundreds of candidates waiting to be interviewed for the same post. It was only one single vacancy and there were so many candidates vying for it, it being a premium position. Seeing such a huge crowd, I immediately made up my mind for psychologically getting ready to be rejected.

Mathematically speaking, I had only 0.5% chance of getting selected. And the interview board had to complete all the interviews in one single day. Hence everyone was being given around 2.5 minutes to prove her/his worth for the post.

After a long wait, came my turn. I entered the interview hall. There was a board of four interviewers headed by the chairman sitting on the other side of a huge table. I wished them and the chairman offered me to sit on the lone chair lying in front of their table. I was ready to reply to any questions they would ask me for the next 2.5 minutes.

A Religious Mind Is Driven by Morality

My application form was lying in front of the chairman and he looked at it with a perplexed expression on his face. I silently kept waiting to face his first question with a technically correct answer to the best of my knowledge.

After a long eerie silence, came the chairman’s first question as if blaming me for what I had done. He really attacked me, saying, “What have you written here in your form in the column of religion? You have written N.A. in front of ‘State your religion’ query. What do you mean by it?”

I really got amused. I said, “Sir, N.A. means not applicable.”

He got offended, “Well, I know what N.A. means. What I am asking is how it’s possible that it’s not applicable.”

I calmly said, “It’s because I don’t have any.”

“Any what?” he was getting impatient as well as irritated with me.

Agnosticism

“Religion! I don’t have any religion.”

“But how’s that possible?” he wasn’t able to believe what I was saying.

“It’s possible, sir. You can see one in front of you sitting here,” I smiled.

“Don’t your parents have a religion?” came the next question from him. The other three members were keeping absolutely quiet.

“They do,” I said.

“Then by default you have inherited it from them,” he tried to make me understand.

“I don’t think religion is an inheritable entity. One needs to develop one’s own faith to follow a certain religion,” I said.

He further got more perplexed, “And do you say you haven’t developed your faith yet?”

“Yes, I couldn’t,” I said,” and I don’t think we should develop any faith ever.”

He wasn’t able to believe what I was saying. He almost shrieked, “What are you talking? Are you a negative personality?”

I didn’t lose my cool, “No sir, I am an agnostic personality.”

“Do you mean atheist?” his inflection while saying his last word was that of a scorn in his voice.

I still kept calm, “I am an agnostic.”

“What does that mean?” looked like he wasn’t much familiar with the deep meaning of this particular word.

I tried to tell him about the differences between, theism, atheism and agnosticism. But he wasn’t looking convinced.

A Seriously Religious Mind

We kept discussing on this same topic for 15 minutes when suddenly he realized he was under pressure of time. He immediately said, “Let’s have the technical interview now.”

He wasn’t looking very pleased with the direction that our discussion had taken exposing his intolerance. Under the influence of his value system, he might have assessed my technical knowledge would be pathetic. Hence to show me down, he might have thought of making a fun of me. He asked me the easiest question on the topic challenging me if I even knew that much or not.

An Empty Mind

“Can you draw an adder circuit?” he was smiling conspiringly.”

“No sir, I don’t have it in my mind right at the moment,” I said.

His smile went wider, “You don’t even know how to draw an adder circuit?” his tone was showing pity.

“No sir, I do know how but I don’t always keep it in my mind keeping it burdened,” I explained.

“What’ll you do if you need to draw it during your work?” he challenged me once again.

“I will deduce it then and there,” I offered the immediate solution.

“And how much time will you take deducing it?” he was trying to show that it wasn’t a feasible solution.

“Say, 20 seconds,” I threw his challenge back to him.

The Challenge

“Here is your paper and here is your pen. Your time starts now!” he started looking at his watch as he said this.

I was on my job without losing any time. And when I gave back my paper in just 15 seconds with deduction and drawing, he couldn’t believe his eyes.

“Did you really deduce it right now or are you just trying to impress us?” he asked, doubting my intentions.

“I don’t think I need to impress you, sir,” by this time I had become fed up with his senile behavior.

“Okay, that’s it. You can go now,” he said in a curt voice.

As I was going back, I heard him saying in a sorry tone, “God bless you!”

It was like he was seeking His pardon from his side for what I had done wrong with Him.

While going out, I checked I had been in the interview hall for a duration of full 18 minutes. And none of the rest three members of the interview board had asked me a single question.

I Get Selected

I left all hopes to get selected and started applying elsewhere. But to my utter astonishment, one day I received a letter informing me that I had been selected. I couldn’t believe that such an antagonistic interview would ever end up in my selection for such a coveted position.

Anyway, I joined the job and discovered that chairman was a deputy director in the laboratory as second in-charge. He didn’t even look happy to see me there and never talked to me cordially.

By the way, there was another deputy director in the laboratory who was the third in-charge. He somehow started liking me a lot for some reason I never knew what. He would often call me to his office after lunch to have a cup of coffee or tea together. Though I was way junior to him yet, for some reason, he turned fond of having informal chats with me.

An Empty Mind Is Driven by Curiosity, A Seriously Religious Mind Is Driven by Morality

One day while we were chatting, he suddenly asked me, “Do you know how you were selected for your job?”

“No!” I said, “Even I was surprised when I got the selection letter. There were hundreds of candidates in the interview, many of them being quite experienced as well. I really wonder how it happened.”

“You just got the highest marks in board members’ assessment and that was how you got it,” he smiled.

“But the chairman had sounded quite annoyed with me in the interview,” I put my point of doubt.

“That’s why he gave you zero out of his fifty allotted to him,” I saw a smirk on his face.

“Then?” I was really confused now, “How was it possible for me to get selected in that case?”

“You got the highest 150 marks out of 200. And it was because the rest three members gave you fifty each out of their fifty allotted to them.”

And he burst into a loud laughter as did I along with him.

This experience had shown me the level of orthodoxy that the believers in religion could go up to!

Religious minds are driven by morality differentiating between good and bad. Empty minds are driven by curiosity and creativity turning life beautiful that’s filled with passion and joy.

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