Spirituality in Business & Nations Governance

Spirituality in Business & Nations Governance

I will be speaking to you on spirituality in Business & National Governance. Let me
begin by telling you a story:
One of our Swamis was addressing the employees of an MNC on the concept of work
culture. One of the participants asked the Swamiji: I joined this organization 25 years ago as an
engineer trainee. Over the last 25 years I have gone through every experience in the organization.
I am now the senior manager looking after Materials Department independently. During the
initial part of my career, the job was very challenging and interesting. Every day was exciting. I
looked forward to each day with lot of interest. However, since there is nothing new in my job
now, I no longer find my job interesting. As I have seen and handled every conceivable situation
there are no more challenges in my work. I am now feeling bored because I am doing a routine
job.
However, Swamiji, I am living in the same house for over forty years. I am a son to the
same parents, a father to the same children, and husband for the same lady for so many years. In
these personal roles I do not feel bored. The passage of time has not taken away the zeal from
me. Please tell me why I am bored of the routine in the office and not in the house?
This was a very interesting question and we were all curious to know what the Swamiji
had to say. He in turn asked the executive: Please tell me for whom does your wife cook?
The executive replied Obviously my wife cooks for all of us the family.
The Swamiji pointed Since your wife 'serves' others, this service-mindedness doesnt
make her feel tired or bored. Similarly, when you are at home, you do not perceive your role as
work.
But in an office, we 'work', not 'serve'. Anything we consider as service will not make us
feel bored. That is the difference between serving and working.
Coming back to our topic Spirituality in Business & National Governance; first of all I
wish to point out that there is a fine line between religion and spirituality. The dividing line is so
fine that for all practical purposes it doesnt exist. Hence we feel that it is impossible to get
spirituality without the channel of one of the established & organized religions of the world. In
search of spirituality we enter into one of the innumerable religions and then what happens? All
religions have their own religious institutions which have vested interests. You cannot enter into
a religion without having anything to do with the religious institutions associated with them.
Once a business house or a Govt Official starts aligning with a religious body, an unmistakable
but subtle form of corruption starts setting in. Hence it is any day better for corporate houses and
the Govt to stay equidistant from all religions.
But if business and the Govt stay far away from the established religions, what about the
spiritual evolution of those people engaged in businesses and in running the country?
The solution is to find out a path for the spiritual evolution of people completely
independent of the established religions of the world.
Let me tell you another story to drive home this point.

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A young monk went to a forest; there he meditated and practiced Yoga for many years.
One day he was sitting under a tree. Some dry leaves fell upon his head. He looked up and saw a
crow and a crane fighting on the top of the tree. It made him very angry. He said, "What! How
dare you throw these dry leaves upon my head?" As he looked angrily at them, a flash of fire
went out of his head. Such was the monk's power. The birds got burnt to ashes. He was
overjoyed at this development of power. He could now burn the birds by a mere look!
After some time he had to go to the town to beg his food. He went, stood at a door, and
said, "Mother, give me food." A voice came from inside the house, "Wait a little, my son." The
young monk thought, "You wretched woman, how dare you make me wait! You do not know my
power yet." While he was thinking thus the voice came again: "Boy, don't think too much of
yourself. I am neither a crow nor a crane." He was astonished. At last the woman came, and he
fell at her feet and said, "Mother, how did you know about what happened in the forest?" She
said, "My boy, I do not know your Yoga or your practices. I am a common everyday woman. I
made you wait because my husband is ill, and I was nursing him. All my life I have struggled to
do my duty. When I was unmarried, I did my duty to my parents; now that I am married, I do my
duty to my husband; that is all the Yoga I practice. But by doing my duty I have become
illumined; thus I could read your thoughts and know what you had done in the forest. If you want
to know something higher than this, go to the market where you will find a butcher who will tell
you something that you will be very glad to learn."
The monk came to the market and there he saw a big fat butcher cutting meat with big
knives, talking and bargaining with different people. The butcher looked up and said, "O Swami,
did that lady send you here? Take a seat until I have done my business." And he went on with his
work. After he had finished he took his money and said to the monk, "Come sir, come to my
home." On reaching home the butcher gave him a seat, saying, "Wait here," and went into the
house. He then washed his old father and mother, fed them, and did all he could to please them,
after which he came to the monk and said, "Now, sir, you have come here to see me; what can I
do for you?" The monk asked him a few questions about soul and about God, and the butcher
gave him a lecture which forms a part of the Mahabharata, called the Vyadha-Gita. It contains
one of the highest flights of the Vedanta. When the butcher finished his teaching, the monk felt
astonished. He asked, "Why are you in this trade? With such knowledge as yours why are you
still a butcher, and doing such filthy, ugly work?" "My son," replied the butcher, "no duty is
ugly, no duty is impure. My birth placed me in these circumstances and environments. In my
boyhood I learnt the trade; I am unattached, and I try to do my duty well. I try to do my duty, and
I try to do all I can to make my family and customers happy. I neither know your Yoga, nor have
I become a monk; nevertheless, all that you have heard and seen has come to me through the
unattached doing of the duty which belongs to my position."
Notice here the conditions that the butcher mentions as responsible for his own spiritual
growth. He did not follow any established religion. He merely performed his duties in life. And
he did it in an unattached manner. This unattached manner of working is called Service.
Most often, we do not get the proper perspective for converting our daily work into
service. That is where religious people come in and tell the corporate houses and the Govt, Give
some money to the work that we are doing; that is service. But that alone is not service.
Anybody can serve. Serving is not the monopoly of any particular group of people. Any person
doing any kind of work can convert it into service if he gets the right perspective. And by
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converting his daily work into service, he invariably achieves an expansion in his consciousness,
which is what spirituality is all about expansion of consciousness.
You are engaged in some business activity. It is not the profits you earn that matter. Of
course, I agree that profits are essential in a business enterprise. But, the profits that you or your
company earn alone are not the issue that should be on your mind. What is your contribution to
the national economy? You may be manufacturing a small item. But all the time you will have to
be aware of the role your small item plays in the national economy. It may be a very small item,
but make it the best possible quality. This way of running your business will itself take you to the
place where I will reach by my daily meditation on the Lord.
Similarly, you may be a Govt officer or a clerk or even a minister. Try to constantly keep
in mind the people who are getting affected by the signature you are putting on a paper. They are
all your own. Thus gradually, you will find your sphere of consciousness expanding without
involvement in any religion. And by working like this, you will reach the same place that I will
reach through my meditation on the Lord.
The underlying idea in this whole thing is do not go about creating a new God and then
neglect this world in pleasing that God by a series of rituals that have relevance only to you and
no relevance to the world. Rather recognize the God that already exists, this vast, complex world.
Immerse yourself in your daily allotted duties and thus worship the already existing God. God
exists as the Nation. God exists as the national economy. Participate in it with a worshipful
attitude and achieve all the spiritual growth you aspire for.
I bring my lecture to a close with these words of Swami Vivekananda, This, our great
Mother India. Let all other vain gods disappear for the time from our minds. This is the only god
that is awake, our own race - "sarvathah paanipaadam tat sarvtokshi shiromukhaha;
sarvatashrutimalloke sarvamaavritta thisthathi: everywhere his hands, everywhere his feet,
everywhere his ears, he covers everything." All other gods are sleeping. What vain gods shall we
go after and yet cannot worship the god that we see all round us, the Virat? When we have
worshipped this, we shall be able to worship all other gods The first of all worship is the
worship of the Virat of those all around us. Worship It. Worship is the exact equivalent of the
Sanskrit word, and no other English word will do. These are all our gods men and animals;
and the first gods we have to worship are our countrymen. These we have to worship, instead of
being jealous of each other and fighting each other.
Thank you all.
Swami Vedatitananda
Ramakrishna Mission Shilpamandira
Belur Math, Howrah

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