By Sita-pati das
I would like to make a humble offering to the Vaisnava community of ” Leadership
Lessons from Bhagavad-gita“.
In 2001 I was asked to take a leadership role in an ISKCON yatra in South America. At the time I had received no formal training in leadership or management and I quickly realized my inadequacy in discharging my assigned duty. I began to search around for literature to help me, but had difficulty locating anything that really spoke to the issues that I was facing. There were a few “temple management guides”, but they didn’t really go to the level of depth that I needed. Practices are one thing, but they are bound to a specific time, place and circumstance – principles are portable.
What I really wanted to see was a “Nectar of Management” book (like the Nectar of Book Distribution) filled with interviews and realizations, with successful leaders and managers in ISKCON talking about their lessons learned over many years and how they have faced changing situations.
His Holiness Bhakti Tirtha Swami visited me twice there and spoke into my situation, and then sent me a copy of his book “Leadership for an Age of Higher Consciousness Volume Two”. Receiving this book lifted a huge weight from my shoulders. As I read through it I heard the voices of many people who had faced the same issues I was facing, and shared their experience and realizations. I began to follow the same path that Bhakti Tirtha Swami had tread, reading the same source material and integrating it with my knowledge of Srimad Bhagavatam and Bhagavad-gita.
Just over one year ago, as an exercise in integrating these two bodies of knowledge I wrote a commentary on the first chapter of Bhagavad-gita from the perspective of its lessons on Leadership. My purpose in doing this was to help myself to integrate the knowledge that I have obtained, and also to demonstrate that Bhagavad-gita speaks to these issues.
A recent article in Businessweek magazine (http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_44/b4007091.htm)
asks the question: “Has the /Bhagavad Gita/ replaced /The Art of War/ as the hip new ancient Eastern management text?”
The answer is, simply: “Yes”. Bhagavad-gita has replaced all books. People just haven’t fully realized it yet.
When I went to meet Dr. John C. Maxwell, Christian pastor and author of the New York Times best seller “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership”, along with a few other interested associates, some devotees at the local temple said: “Everything is in Prabhupada’s books!” and rhetorically asked: “Why are they going to a non-devotee to hear about Leadership?”
My response to that was quite simple, and I believe speaks to the point that we should be considering: “Yes, everything is in Srila Prabhupada’s books. However, the question is not: ‘Why are they going to a non-devotee to hear about Leadership’, the question that should be asked is: ‘Why are they not coming to us?'”.
We need to demonstrate in practice that we have knowledge that empowers us to be more effective, and we have to be able to explain that knowledge to others in a way that empowers them to be more effective.
I am not particularly qualified in any sense. I simply have a desire to share what I have learned and to demonstrate the value of Bhagavad-gita in every sphere of life. It’s not a final answer, it’s a contribution to the growing Krishna Conscious culture of knowledge of all aspects of human existence (“Vedic culture”).
I offer this commentary now to the wider community. Please feel free to ignore it, or take the opportunity to revise it. It is released under a Creative Commons license that allows reuse and modification.
You can download the commentary from here: Leadership
Lessons from Bhagavad-gita.
If, as I was, you are struggling in a position of responsibility for Srila Prabhupada’s mission, I hope that this comes as help to you in some small way.
If you have some feedback it is welcome. I would like to issue a revised edition based on community feedback at a later date.
an aspiring servant of the Vaisnavas, Sita-pati das
The Social, philosophy and management lessons in this holy book were brought in to light of the world by divine Sri. Srila Prabhupada Swami. Swamiji calls the Bhagavad-Gita the essence of Vedic Literature and a complete guide to practical life. It provides “all that is needed to raise the consciousness of man to the highest possible level.” Swamiji reveals the deep, universal truths of life that speak to the needs and aspirations of everyone. Swami preached and educated the people especially the youth of America is saved from Hippism at that time and able to revolutionaise a section of the society to bhakthi marga and His followers continuing the mission by keeping this lantern burning always knowing the wishes of the modern generations. Arjuna got mentally depressed when he saw his relatives with whom he has to fight.( Mental health has become a major international public health concern now). To motivate him the Bhagavad Gita is preached in the battle field Kurukshetra by Lord Krishna to Arjuna as a counseling to do his duty while multitudes of men stood by waiting. It has got all the management tactics to achieve the mental equilibrium and to overcome any crisis situation. The Bhagavad Gita can be experienced as a powerful catalyst for transformation. Bhagavad gita means song of the Spirit, song of the Lord. The Holy Gita has become a secret driving force behind the unfoldment of one’s life. In the days of doubt this divine book will support all spiritual searches. This divine book will contribute to self reflection, finer feeling and deepen one’s inner process. Then life in the world can become a real education—dynamic, full and joyful—no matter what the circumstance. May the wisdom of loving consciousness ever guide us on our journey? What makes the Holy Gita a practical psychology of transformation is that it offers us the tools to connect with our deepest intangible essence and we must learn to participate in the battle of life with right knowledge?
The Holy Gita is the essence of the Vedas, Upanishads. It is a universal scripture applicable to people of all temperaments and for all times. It is a book with sublime thoughts and practical instructions on Yoga, Devotion, Vedanta and Action. It is profound in thought and sublime in heights of vision. It brings peace and solace to souls that are afflicted by the three fires of mortal existence, namely, afflictions caused by one’s own body (disease etc), those caused by beings around one (e.g. wild animals, snakes etc.), and those caused by the gods (natural disasters, earth-quakes, floods etc).
Mind can be one’s friend or enemy. Mind is the cause for both bondage and liberation. The word mind is derived from man to think and the word man derived from manu (sanskrit word for man).
“The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone’s heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.”
There is no theory to be internalized and applied in this psychology. Ancient practices spontaneously induce what each person needs as the individual and the universal coincide. The work proceeds through intellectual knowledge of the playing field (jnana yoga), emotional devotion to the ideal (bhakti yoga) and right action that includes both feeling and knowledge(karma yoga). With ongoing purification we approach wisdom. The Bhagavad Gita is a message addressed to each and every human individual to help him or her to solve the vexing problem of overcoming the present and progressing towards a bright future. Within its eighteen chapters is revealed a human drama. This is the experience of everyone in this world, the drama of the ascent of man from a state of utter dejection, sorrow and total breakdown and hopelessness to a state of perfect understanding, clarity, renewed strength and triumph.
Mind is very restless, forceful and strong, O Krishna, it is more difficult to control the mind than to control the wind ~ Arjuna to Sri Krishna
Introduction
In this modern world the art of Management has become a part and parcel of everyday life, be it at home, in the office or factory and in Government. In all organizations, where a group of human beings assemble for a common purpose irrespective of caste, creed, and religion, management principles come into play through the management of resources, finance and planning, priorities, policies and practice. Management is a systematic way of carrying out activities in any field of human effort.
Its task is to make people capable of joint performance, to make their weaknesses irrelevant, says the Management Guru Peter Drucker. It creates harmony in working together – equilibrium in thoughts and actions, goals and achievements, plans and performance, products and markets. It resolves situations of scarcity, be they in the physical, technical or human fields, through maximum utilization with the minimum available processes to achieve the goal. Lack of management causes disorder, confusion, wastage, delay, destruction and even depression. Managing men, money and materials in the best possible way, according to circumstances and environment, is the most important and essential factor for a successful management.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts bhattahiri. One thing that I think it is important to understand is that leadership applies to people and management applies to things. “Men” are different from “money” and “materials”. Money and materials do not have free will – “men” do. It is not simply a semantic difference or hair splitting to make a distinction between leadership and management.
The balance of power lies with the manager in the case of money and materials. He or she can unilaterally make decisions and impose them using force. In the case of “men”, the balance of power lies with the people – they decide whether they want to cooperate or not.
Today in 1972 Srila Prabhupada wrote: “”I only suggest, I do not force. You are all working so hard to please Krsna only out of love for me, so there can be no question of force if love is there…. This will kill everything. Never force anyone or reduce our Society to an impersonal business exchange. In every endeavor our only purpose is simply to please Krsna.”
In the commercial world an attempt is made to make “men” manageable by making them financially or otherwise dependent and in this way to some extent negating their free will. However, attempts to purely manage them in this way will create a low quality, high turnover organization.
“To get people to bring their hands and feet to work all it takes is a paycheck. To get them to bring their hearts and minds it takes leadership.”
Manage money and materials, lead men and women.