“Our lives are not our own. From womb to tomb, we are bound to others, past and present. And by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.” – Sonmi 451, Cloud Atlas.
What if everyone in this world could become aligned with themselves and reach their highest selves? And if that is possible, how do we help create such a transformation?
Jaspal’s Story
Jaspal grew up within a traditional family and followed the guidance that many children are taught to follow. Like many families shaped by convention, education and stability were highly valued. He was encouraged toward mathematics and university pathways that seemed respectable and secure. Yet, two years later, something inside him called him toward a different direction—toward English literature and a life that felt closer to his heart.
From that point onward, much of his life became a quiet struggle between two voices: the voice of the heart and the voice of society.
The voice unheard
When Jaspal was young, he once dreamed of becoming a singer. He loved singing and once performed before his father. His father praised him and told him he had a beautiful voice. But when Jaspal asked whether becoming a singer could truly be his future, the response changed. His father gently redirected him toward something more practical—engineering, stable work, and a conventional career.
So he followed that guidance.
He entered mathematics and pursued the path his family believed was best. Yet something inside him remained unsettled.
The feelings are seen
During those years, he spent time with friends whose world was louder, more confident, and more outwardly expressive. But while surrounded by noise and energy, he noticed something difficult: he often felt deeply sad.
And perhaps this tells something important.
A child surrounded by loud music and confident people, yet feeling disconnected inside, does not necessarily mean something is wrong with him. It may simply mean he does not fully belong in that environment. That feeling of not belonging followed him throughout much of his life.
Finding the sense of belonging
In 2017, he began his professional journey, and for nearly nine years he continued searching—not only for work, but for meaning. This does not mean he failed professionally. In many moments, he succeeded greatly. He became one of the top employees in companies and eventually reached managerial positions. By society’s standards, he had achieved success.
Yet success and belonging are not always the same thing.
Even while succeeding, there was a quieter voice within him asking whether this was truly where he belonged.
Movement creates meaning
His life became a movement between places and identities. He moved from one environment to another—living in different regions of India, then Canada, and later Vietnam. His career was shaped not only by the jobs he accepted but by the questions he carried alongside them and by the courageous decisions he made to change his environment whenever he felt called toward another stage of life.
To many people, frequent change may look like uncertainty. But perhaps for Jaspal, it reflected the opposite.
Changing over time did not mean he was failing to listen to himself. In some ways, it meant he was listening more carefully than most. Perhaps this movement—from one place to another, from one version of life to the next—was part of what he understands as God’s plan for him: a life shaped through experience, searching, and transformation.
The breaking of inherited self
Jaspal once admitted that he was afraid to change.
That fear began early. It was connected to family expectations. He feared disappointing the people he loved. But over time, he arrived at a difficult realization—that sometimes disappointing family expectations can become a way not of rejecting them, but of protecting and healing something larger.
What he means by this is profound.
The consciousness of a family, and even of generations, is built from the beliefs and actions of each individual within it. If inherited fears, limitations, or expectations remain unquestioned, they continue passing from one generation to the next. Jaspal wanted to become someone who could gently interrupt that cycle.
Mission for the future
Jaspal wanted to help heal inherited wounds and challenge the limits placed upon what human beings believe they can become.
And to do this, he needed to take risks.
His decisions were shaped by many stories and events throughout his life, including witnessing others who followed family expectations while quietly abandoning their own passions. Some succeeded externally, yet still carried the feeling that their hearts were not fully alive.
Those stories stayed with him.
They reminded him that ultimately, no one knows us more deeply than ourselves.
And perhaps this became his mission: to help create a future where younger generations are encouraged not only to be successful, but to be kind, curious, interesting, and fully alive. A future where meaningful lives are built not through blind obedience—even to those closest to us—but through the courage to know ourselves honestly and live from that truth.
