Ancient Indian Wisdom For Management

Ancient Indian wisdom for management The Indian civilization, with recorded history of more than 5000 years is one of the oldest civilizations in the world and the contribution of India and Indians to this world is enormous in various fields of knowledge including management field also. Several classics such as Vedas, Puranas, Upanishads, Ramayana, Mahabharata etc. offers several managements lessons which can be useful even in modern context. Management lessons from Vedas: Oh God, may we with our ears listen to what is good, with our eyes see what is good and may we with firm body composed of healthy strong organs, work the mission bestowed upon us as long as we are alive (Rig-Veda). Every management book instructs us to learn from others by listening and watching and doing the mission oriented work using the health. Rig-Veda again gives the beautiful message: Oh God bestow on us the best treasures: the efficient mind and spiritual luster, the increase of wealth, the health of bodies and sweetness of speech and fairness of days. (These are integrated management principles. The integration of prosperity, wealth, mental, communicative and spiritual enlightenment is expected in Vedas and also in modern days. Principles of ancient Indian management 1. The Basic Principles: Each soul is essentially divine. Discovering Divinity is the purpose of work. a.Tat Tvam Asi: You are That (Supreme) - Everybody can make himself a Genius. b. Aham Brahmasmi: I have immense potential. I can make the impossible possible. 2. Why Work? a. Atmano Mokshaya Jagat Hitaaya Ca: - For my personal growth - For the Welfare of the World (Synchronies your private benefits with public benefits)

3. What is work? a. Yagnayacharatah karma: Work is to be done with the spirit of Yagna (Teamwork, Selflessness). b. Parasparam Bhavayantah: Nurture each other (Win-win approach). 4. How to work? a. Seva + Tyag: Serve others. Give your best for the good of others. 5. Spirit of Work: a. Yogah Karmasu Kaushalam: Dexterity & Excellence in action is Yoga. 6. The Resources: a. Sukshma/Subjective or subtle factors are more important than Sthula/Objective or gross factors. b. Karma-Kshetra is Dharma-Kshetra, Making the workplace sacred, clean and bringing orderliness and regularity.

Team work or Yagna Yagna means sacrifice. In a Yagna conducted in the Vedic period, the members of the community came together in a spirit of dedication and sacrifice for the purpose of a co-operative spiritual and divine endeavor to invoke the grace of the Presiding Deity for the blessings of the community, for the peace of the world, for the prosperity in wealth etc. The yagna-spirit is seen everywhere in nature: The Sun shines, the moon appears, the sea throbs, the earth bears – all in a spirit of sacrifice and self-dedicated motherly love, never with even a trace of attachment or any kind of selfarrogating motives. The law-of-seva is faithfully followed by every sentient and insentient member of the cosmos instinctively. Man alone is given the freedom to act as he likes and to the extent he disobeys this Universal Law-of-sacrifice (yagna), to that extent he comes to suffers because of his arrogant and egoistic actions, brings discord in the harmony of the existence around him. The Purusha Sooktam describes the process of creation and how the entire creation has been created through the Yagna. In modern context, a yagna means a. Any self-sacrificing work undertaken in a spirit of self-dedication, for the blessing of all.

b. Any social, communal, national or personal activity into which the individual is ready to pour himself forth entirely in a spirit of service and dedication. Abraham Maslow’s theory of needs is generally followed by many organizations to motivate their employees by fulfilling the different needs of the employees. The Pancha-kosha description in the Taittiriya

Upanishad of Indian Scriptures not only encompasses Maslow’s theory in itself, but also reveals the transcendental aspect of one’s personality. Mentioned below are the similarities and limitations.

Maslow’s Theory of Needs

Pancha Koshas(Taittiriya Upanishad) Food Sheath – Body is made up of food, Physiological needs – food, air, water, sleep, sustains, grows by food and at death goes back sex & other basic needs. to food. Vital Air Sheath– consists of physiological Safety needs – Home, Job security, insurance, systems which keep one alive – respiration, pension etc. excretion, digestion, circulation, assimilation. Love/Social needs – Need to be loved, toMental Sheath– Faculty of emotion, feeling, belong to social groups, status, recognition etc. sentiments etc. Self esteem needs – Need for self-respect, senseIntellectual Sheath – faculty of thinking, of achievement, self-confidence, prestige etc. discriminating, analyzing, decision- making etc. Bliss Sheath – Experience of joy, bliss Self Actualization needs- Fulfilling one’sespecially in dreamless sleep when one is not potential and being the best one is capable of. conscious of Body, Mind, Intellect Nothing to represent Divinity OM or Truth is subtler than the 5 sheaths. Human beings are considered as “wanting”Human beings are considered Divine and organisms. different from the 5 layers of matter. One discovers one’s finite potential throughOne discovers one’s Infinite potential through self-actualization. Self-Realization. Ancient Indian views of management were related to every field of life. Such as;

Stress management: 1. Perform the duties without attachments & insistence on particular results. Accept the results gracefully, gratefully. 2. Spend sometime in doing pranayama. 3. Follow the Moderation-Yoga. Moderation in food, sleep, speech, exercise,

recreation & meditation eliminates stress. 4. There is nothing which is more purifying than Knowledge. Clarity in Thinking about the roles that we are playing and the Essential Reality that we are is important. 5. Faith in the Higher Reality is a great source of strength. A man is what his faith is. As the faith so will be our desires, thoughts and action. 6. Few minutes of Prayers & Meditation daily, go a long way in building up reserves of Peace and happiness within. Just when the war of Mahabharata was to begin, Arjuna, the greatest archer of his times, breaks down when he sees Bhishma, Drona and other ‘relatives.’ Physically he was shivering & sweating. He could not hold his bow – Gandiva. His mouth was parched. His skin was burning. He had tears in his eyes. Emotionally he was overcome with attachment. Intellectually he was deluded about his duty. This stress is the Arjuna-disease each one of us go through when faced with a challenge. Bhagavad-Gita Gita is the Krishnacure for this disease. After listening to Gita, Arjuna regained his clarity & strength. Modern psychology says that there should be ‘healthy stress’ in life, which motivates one towards action. Indian Masters say that all stress is unhealthy and one can be totally stress-free. The Sthita-Prajna lakshana in the second chapter of the Bhagavad Gita mentions the characteristics of a person who is completely free from Stress.

Time Management 1. High Priority Tasks: “O Bharata, there are tasks, where the investment is small, the returns are high. Hope you identify such High Priority Tasks.”– Sri Rama’s advice to his brother, Valmiki Ramayana. Never give-in to urgency syndrome, neglecting what is truly important. 2. Most important 2 words for Time management are: No and Now For action – ‘Now’ is the time. Never procrastinate. For distraction – ‘No’ is the right word. – Valmiki Ramayana

3. The Bhagavad Gita in Ch.6 Verse 17 says – “Moderation is the best policy.” Moderation in food, sleep, action & meditation increases one’s efficiency and alertness. Fatigue and illness are major time-wasters. The Ashrama system of Indian culture helps one to plan the time of one’s life. Assuming that one would live for 100 years, they divided life-span into 4 quarters. First 25 years – student life, next 25 – household life, next 25 years – Retired life, last 25 years – life of a renunciate. Whatever be the life span, we find that this pattern of living is universally applicable in any era.

Fear Management 1. Understand the Law of Karma – “As you sow. so you reap.” We get what we deserve. No one can give us what we don’t. No one can take away what we deserve. 2. Vairagya Shatakam says- Detachment alone leads to fearlessness. Attachment causes fear of losing the object of attachment. 3. Mundaka Upanishad says- Honesty and noble virtues give us inner strength and fearlessness. 4. Bhagawad Gita says - “O son of Kunti! Go and declare to the world that my devotee shall never perish.” Faith in a Higher Power makes one fearless. 5. Bhagawad Gita says - Even a little bit of prayers, meditation, giving up insistence on results etc. releases one from fear. 6. Bhagawad Gita says - It is better to die doing one’s own duties according to one’s temperaments 7. Taittiriya Upanishad says - Where ever there is duality, there is fear. In Non-duality alone there is fearlessness.

Management lesson from Ramayana Teamwork is an important principle in management, and Rama applied the same in search of Sita and was successful in the mission. Another one is in an organization one must be treated affectionately which Rama did when he met Guhan and Vibhishana.

If we describe Rama as a leader and as a manager we can say that Rama was independent assertive buy also respectful, was firm in his decisions, was open and frank, did not misuse power, delegated power to lieutenants motivated troops honorably and led from the front.

Management lessons from Mahabharata and GITA Pitamaha Bheeshma, when he was lying on the bed of arrows, had given certain advices to Yudhisthir on better management of public services. One of the greatest contributions of India to the world is Holy Gita which is considered to be one of the first revelations from God. Bhagavad-Gita is 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." 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 field Kurukshetra by Lord Krishna to Arjuna as counseling to do his battle 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 critical question in all managers' minds is how to be effective in their job. The answer to this fundamental question is found in the Bhagavad Gita, which repeatedly proclaims that "you must try to manage yourself." The reason is that unless a manager reaches a level of excellence and effectiveness, he or she will be merely a face in the crowd. The Bhagavad Gita, written thousands of years ago, enlightens us on all managerial techniques leading us towards a harmonious and blissful state of affairs in place of the conflict, tensions, poor productivity, and absence of motivation and so on, common in most of Indian enterprises today and probably in enterprises in many other countries The modern (Western) management concepts of vision, leadership, motivation, excellence in work, achieving goals, giving work meaning, decision making and planning, are all discussed in the Bhagavad Gita. There is one major difference. While Western management thought too often deals with problems at material, external and peripheral levels, the Bhagavad Gita tackles the issues from the grass roots level of human thinking. Once the basic thinking of man is improved, it will automatically enhance the quality of his actions and their results.

Now let us re-examine some of the modern management concepts in the light of the Bhagavad Gita which is a primer of management-by-values. Utilization of available resources the first lesson of management science is to choose wisely and utilize scarce resources optimally. During the curtain raiser before the Mahabharata War, Duryodhana chose Sri Krishna's large army for his help while Arjuna selected Sri Krishna's wisdom for his support. This episode gives us a clue as to the nature of the effective manager - the former chose numbers, the latter, wisdom Work commitment A popular verse of the Gita advises "detachment" from the fruits or results of actions performed in the course of one's duty. Being dedicated work has to mean "working for the sake of work, generating excellence for its own sake." If we are always calculating the date of promotion or the rate of commission before putting in our efforts, then such work is not detached. It is not "generating excellence for its own sake" but working only for the extrinsic reward that may (or may not) result. It is in this light that the counsel, "yogah karmasu kausalam" should be understood. "Kausalam" means skill or technique of work which is an indispensable component of a work ethic. “Yogah" is defined in the Gita itself as "samatvam yogah uchyate" meaning an unchanging equipoise of mind (detachment.) Work results The Gita further explains the theory of "detachment" from the extrinsic rewards of work in saying: If the result of sincere effort is a success, the entire credit should not be appropriated by the doer alone. If the result of sincere effort is a failure, then too the entire blame does not accrue to the doer. The former attitude mollifies arrogance and conceit while the latter prevents excessive despondency, de-motivation and self-pity. Thus both these dispositions safeguard the doer against psychological vulnerability, the cause of the modem managers' companions of diabetes, high blood pressure and ulcers. Assimilation of the ideas of the Gita leads us to the wider spectrum of

"lokasamgraha" (general welfare) but there is also another dimension to the work ethic - if the "karma yoga" (service) is blended with "bhaktiyoga" (devotion), and then the work itself becomes worship, a "sevayoga" (service for its own sake.) Along with bhakti yoga as a means of liberation, the Gita espouses the doctrine of nishkamya karma or pure action untainted by hankering after the fruits resulting from that action. Modern scientists have now understood the intuitive wisdom of that action in a new light. Management needs those who practice what they preach "Whatever the excellent and best ones do, the commoners follow," says Sri Krishna in the Gita. The visionary leader must be a missionary, extremely practical, intensively dynamic and capable of translating dreams into reality. This dynamism and strength of a true leader flows from an inspired and spontaneous motivation to help others. "I am the strength of those who are devoid of personal desire and attachment. O Arjuna, I am the legitimate desire in those, who are not opposed to righteousness," says Sri Krishna in the 10th Chapter of the Gita. Conclusion: all time utility of ancient wisdom: The theories and concepts of modern management from the west have dominated management literature over the last two centuries. However, a careful analysis of many of the western management theories reveals that it has been in practice in India for centuries although these practices were not in the context of organizational management but in the context of state or political governance. Today there are many professionals and industrialists who are great achievers but unfortunately suffering from stress, competition, jealousy and psychological problems. On the other hand there are people who are contended and happy but are not achievers. what is needed today is a combination of these two qualities. One should be a greet achiever and at the same time should live a peaceful life. For this purpose Indian Ethos has given a management of a mission of a life to achieve-“PURUSHARTHA”. They have given parameters of life: 1. DHARMA: it is the governing rule in nature.

2. ARTHA: it is the way of generating wealth. 3. KAMA: is sensual zing as living being through action, and 4. MOKSHA: is freedom from all bondages of life and death. Management of these all together is called “Purushartha”. No culture of the world has given such comprehensive mission of life. Thus we can say that ancient Indian wisdom as contained in Vedas, Puranas, Upanishadas etc. is total integration of management for all walks of life. The Vedic seers emphasized on single minded efforts, co-operation and human welfare. They were fully aware of resource management in private as well as public life. They also laid down compendium of guidelines for effective management of these resources. Thus we find ancient wisdom for management was unique, practical and effective. It was effective for the society of Vedic age, is equally effective for the present times and will also cater to the needs of future society with equal effectiveness. We need only to interpret and implement it according to the call of the times. Submitted by: SHWETA CHOUDHARY