Redefine success

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
I will continue my discussion on leadership principles based on the Bhagavad Gita leadership sutras we will discuss today redefine success so Albert Einstein has famously said that problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them now the Bhagavad Gita starts with Arjuna facing a heart-wrenching dilemma in the first chapter it depicts how Arjuna is overwhelmed 1.30 he describes in the Bhagavad Gita that wherever I see I see only misfortune and the mind is reeling at the prospect of imminent unavoidable misfortune that is coming what should I do I don’t know so what was the predicament of Arjuna he was about to fight a fratricidal war and if he fought the war and won he his loved ones his near and dear ones especially his venerable teacher and his venerable grandsire both would be dead and his victory would be tainted by their blood and if he didn’t fight then he would practically have to accept defeat you know the grievous insult that his wife had endured that would go unavenged and the unjust would continue to the unjust would continue to rule the world so he just couldn’t resolve and he became emotionally overwhelmed by it and he turned to Krishna and asked what should I do so now the Gita addresses Arjuna’s dilemma but not at his level of reality it raises his level of his understanding his conceptions of life and from there from a higher spiritual level of reality it offers him a new expanded definition of success now his Arjuna’s dilemma originates in a materialist in a materialistic definition of success and at that level it has no solution the solution is to redefine success and by the end of the Bhagavad Gita this redefined conception of success is expanded understanding of success that is what restores Arjuna’s morale and he becomes ready to answer the call of duty now do we also need to redefine success do we need to expand our definition of success to understand this we need to first look at the nature of our definition of success what its characteristics are and then we will see whether having an expanded definition of success that includes the spiritual will actually benefit us so we also have materialistic definitions of success and the present definitions of success that we have are often deceptive debilitating and destructive let’s see how so a deceptive we live in a culture where often definitions of success are imposed on us subtly no doubt but still they are imposed now how is that we live in an age of propaganda so consider that say company launches a new device a new expensive cell phone and immediately promotes appear all over the media say showing a young manager a young manager brandishing a new mobile while a cute girl glances admiringly at him and a sullen colleague glares enviously and now young manager in a company may well be having a good functional phone but when he sees this ad then he thinks oh if i just kept that cell phone then that will give me the admiration the respect that i deserve but don’t get and though he does not need the new cell phone still he purchased it and discarded the old phone and then he proudly parades his new cell phone and as heads turn and eyebrows rise in admiration he feels oh yes i have arrived i am successful now but his success is distressingly agonisingly short-lived soon a new device appears in the market a mobile with some new feature and all the hype shifts to that mobile and nobody also notices his old piece and in this execute this manager starts thinking i have to purchase that mobile then i will get the respect then i will be considered a success and so he purchases that and in this way he gets caught in a definition of success that never brings lasting success and that keeps one perpetually dissatisfied now what does this mean actually this is a first way using a cell phone we don’t need is just one way in which we are enamoured in which the success is defined for us and the definition is practically thrust upon us this is thrust so forcefully and often people today are prisoners of success what do you mean by prisoners of success no a person who is a prisoner is shackled by bars shackled in the movement by bars and walls similarly people today are shackled in their actions by inflexible in a restrictive definitions of success so let’s see how people get caught in this get allured into and caught in this prison of success so first there is the advertising industry there is the there is advertising industry whenever a new product is launched there is the manufacturing industry of the consumer product first there is a consumer products manufacturing industry which specialises in producing attractive and often expensive products many of which are luxury which is not really necessary so a newer and newer versions are produced brand obsolescence is created so that people purchase the new products so there is this marketing industry then there is the the advertising industry the advertising industry now once the products are made they are not vitally essential but people have to be made to feel that they are vitally essential and so what happens there may these products are market are branded are portrayed as lifestyle symbol as lifestyle products as symbols of a successful lifestyle as markers that a person is successful and as definers of social prestige and therefore the advertisements make people feel that if i don’t have this then i’ll be unsuccessful and then after that there is the whole marketing industry so showrooms and exhibits and supermarkets become filled with these products prominently in their windows or display places and then there is the banking industry which offers credit cards and loans even if you don’t have money no problem you purchase now pay later and in this way people get caught in this prison of success where they just want newer and newer and newer things and their whole life goes in pursuing that itself now the problem here in pursuing this definition of success is that it is deceptive no matter how much we purchase we can never be successful because always something new will come up which will be defined as the marker of success and we’ll have to keep pursuing that more and more now there is nothing wrong in purchasing new gadgets especially if they have new features they have good features which can offer better functionality and save time and they can be purchased the problem is not buying the device the problem is buying into the underlying definition of success now if we don’t question the definition of success then even if the device saves our time that saved time will be not ours to use it will be sucked up by the definition of success how because that definition will make us search for newer products so i got product A i saved time by using it by but then that because i still have the definition of success that the latest product possession of the latest product means success so therefore i now start looking for the latest product that is there and my time goes in seeking that product and planning how i can purchase it how can i manage my finances how i will use it and then in this way the definition of success does not allow us to use our saved time and that’s why questioning this definition is important it’s a deceptive definition that can never actually bring happiness bring success now the problem further with this reduced definition of success is that it reduces the quest for success to a quest for money because success is thought it will bring happiness and we think that success means to get money so the quest for happiness which we think will come from success which we think will come from getting the products which require money the quest for happiness gets reduced to a quest for money and most people think that i am dissatisfied because i don’t have enough money if only i would get more money then i would be happy but is it true that more money will translate into more happiness the statistics have shown that beyond that when people don’t have life’s basic necessities and certainly more money increases happiness i’m hungry and then definitely if i get money and then i get food definitely i’ll be i’ll feel better but beyond the satisfaction of basic life necessities after that more money doesn’t translate into more happiness survey after survey has confirmed this let’s consider some surveys here it was research conducted by the university of illinois with ed deaner as the lead researcher it found that the business magnates in america and the poor peasants in east africa both of them had the basic same happiness level and then similarly prince survey was connected conducted in princeton and it is its result was published in issue of science very prestigious magazine and what was the conclusion that the belief that high income is associated with good mood that means wealthy people are happy is widespread they are calling it a belief and they’re saying it’s widespread but then it is widespread but mostly illusory illusory doesn’t read it is not true that rich people are happy people and then similarly world value survey the findings of the researchers for world value survey they after they did a worldwide survey they found that the desire for material goods that people want money so that they create more and more good desire for material goods is a happiness suppressant that means it doesn’t actually lead to happiness it checks happiness it suppresses happiness because whatever happiness i have with my possessions i cannot be satisfied because i want more i want more i want more so in this way we get trapped now moving forward so now this is not to say that wealth is not important yes wealth is definitely needed in life it is one of life’s necessary primary necessities but necessity is not the same as purpose necessity is what we live with purpose is what we live for so wealth is what we live with it’s like food we need food and there’s no food there’ll be a problem but if there is if we make food itself the goal of our life then we cheat ourselves so we underutilise our life’s potential so we shouldn’t make the necessity of life a purpose of life and actually the whole idea so this is how it is a it is deceptive the idea that wealth will make me happy but beyond that it is also debilitating debilitating means the whole idea the destination of success is what okay this new product has come take it purchase it so it’s a whole idea of grabbing everything new that comes get it get it that is success so it actually makes us very impulsive and researchers have found that the the grabbers in life those who act impulsively often lack the abilities and qualities that are foundational to good leadership to effective leadership so at Stanford University Walter Mischel and other researchers in 1960 started a survey on three school children very small children and they were this is called a this can be called as the marshmallow test or the grabbers versus resistors study so this is small children they were told they were shown a marshmallow in a small plate in front of them marshmallow the kind of sweet candy and they were told that okay now you can eat this marshmallow now if you want but I’m going out on an errand and I’ll come in about 20-30 minutes if you can wait till then then you will get one more marshmallow you decide and then the researcher would leave and these children most of them they would not even wait for the researcher to leave immediately they’ll grab the marshmallow and eat it and the some children decided no they wanted two marshmallows so decided to wait now some of them they tried to it seemed like an interminable wait so some of them tried to close their eyes some of them they started playing with their hands and legs some of them started singing some of them started looking here and there some of them tried to go to sleep and somehow they killed their time and then finally they got the two marshmallows now at the these researchers these two child children were divided into two groups grabbers those who ate the marshmallow right resistors those who waited for the two marshmallows to come and waited for 20 minutes now these children were trapped about a decade later and the difference between their personalities was found to be striking so it is found that the resistors they were able to cope with stress much better they were able to cope with pressure much better they were able to when they face challenges they were able to go on without giving up and they were able to do things they were self-reliant confident that yes i can do it and when others told them to do it also they are more trustworthy and capable and not only from others they would themselves take up initiative and dive into projects and even there they were able to still resist gratification for purpose now in contrast what was the nature of the grabbers you know they were easily upset by frustrations they would think of themselves as bad and unworthy and when stress would come they would become immobilised they were on one side stubborn that they would take a wrong decision stick to it another side they were indecisive they couldn’t take any decision at all so they were prone to be mistrustful and resentful they think that oh life is not fair to me i’m not getting enough and they would make jealous and envious and they would react to small provocations with overreaction leading to quarrels and fights and still they were unable to resist gratification and even in the objective academic performances the SAT scores of the of the resistors was an average 210 points more than that of the grabbers so daniel goleman reports of studies in his book emotional intelligence and he says there is perhaps no psychological skill more fundamental than resisting impulse resisting impulse it’s fundamental psychological skill now the whole idea of the prison of success is to make us indulge in purpose by pulse see this product and purchase it immediately purchase it immediately and that idea is actually very destructive why because people spend a lot of money unnecessarily and often many sale offers they come with a sundown expiry sale only for today because their idea is when a sale with some discount or some facilities offer it’s excite the impulses of people and people immediately without thinking deeply purchase it and the sundown expiry is there because you know if people sleep on it they’ll think more about it their impulses will cool down and you’ll realise i don’t need it actually and then they’ll not purchase it so today’s culture actually focusses on making us uh making us servants of our impulses slaves of our impulses makes us think that acting on our impulses is success but no it is it is erosive corrosive for the growth of leadership potential now if you look at the quality at the character profile of the grabbers and the character profile of the resistors we’ll find that the grabbers were actually the people who were not having leadership qualities whereas the resistors are those who having leader were having leadership qualities so actually that means giving into indulgences is harmful for leaders and the materialistic worldview encourages us to give it to indulgence in fact grammarizes giving into indulgences impulses and that’s why actually this materialistic worldview materialistic definition of success is debilitating for our leadership potential and going further now this idea that wealth will lead to happiness that positions that possessions equate happiness equal to happiness is so deep rooted that actually to counter it we need to go even deeper and examine the fundamental worldview itself the worldview of materialism now how do we examine this worldview the whole idea is that material things will make us happy but have they actually made us happy so we can look at countries which are materially quite prosperous and see whether prosperity has translated into happiness now david myers in his book the american paradox spiritual hunger in an age of plenty he compares american statistics between 1960s and around 2000 our period of around 40 50 years and he found that during this period the divorce rate had doubled the teen suicide rate had tripled the prison population had quadrupled the the violent crime rate had quadrupled the prison population had pentupled pentupled means five times and the number of babies born outside marriage had sextupled and the overall depression had increased 10 times as compared to the pre-world war two level so now actually this was a phase of quite a bit of prosperity in american history and yet these various objective material parameters of material well-being have all they are giving a report that people are not happy if people are divorced people are depressed people are committing crimes people are getting imprisoned people are committing suicides how can such people be considered happy so again this point is that things to materialistic definition of success doesn’t lead to happiness so american people often have all the products that are glamorised society because they have relatively speaking it’s a wealthy country and they can’t afford the products but they’re not happy even not from a some ethereal philosophical point of view but even from objective parameters of social individual social well-being so now this raises the question why is it that they’re not happy because materialistic definition of success is an incomplete definition we need to expand our definition you know we our spiritual side is a very important side for us and our spiritual dimension if it is unaddressed gita sayaments give the example that when our spiritual side is and is not addressed then we become like fish out of water and the fish may be put on the most comfortable couch but it will be a tormented restless similarly we provided the best of material comforts the best trappings of material success but if our spiritual side is not addressed then we will remain discontent and actually the purpose of addressing our spiritual life is not just negative to avoid discontent there is a positive to it it is a our spiritual side is an opportunity with an opportunity to higher wisdom and higher fulfilment so the vedic sages explained that our spiritual faculty is a unique human privilege among all the life forms that are present on earth we humans alone have the evolved consciousness capable of perceiving life spiritual dimension and we have an opportunity for spiritual growth this is called as brahma jignasa the capacity for spiritual enquiry now when we we look at how the spiritual enquiry can benefit us see when we say it’s an opportunity in opportunities for something higher and we don’t use that opportunity then we miss the higher benefits that were there so to understand this compare say a student from an IIT or IIM in a student in IIM top college and then after getting into that college student is constantly busy thinking where is where can I get good food to eat and all the time is spent just eating good food without considering studies and career it’s a tragic underutilisation you wanted food you could have got it anywhere you’ve got now into IIM you should use it for something higher to build a bright career so similarly when we have our higher spiritual faculty it’s like we are in a spiritual IIM and do not use the faculty and to reduce or restrict our definition of success to only materialistic definition is like actually just seeking food in an IIM now this is not only underutilisation underuse it can also be abuse that is harmful how consider another example it’s like use not using our spiritual faculty using all using our human resources only for materialism is like using a mercedes for flowing let us imagine this mercedes is going through a going through a field what will happen the mercedes will get spoiled and the field will also get spoiled and that is precisely what is happening in society today in the world today now when we we use our human resources only for materialistic things then we spoil our environment and we harm ourselves too how do we harm our environment now we all know that there is a major ecological crisis that is already there and ecological Armageddon destruction may be there in the future due to the climate change now this has many causes but most of the problem that the ecology is being facing have originated from human misuse of ecological resources from human interfering with and disrupting delicate ecological balances that sustain our fragile biosphere so now there are many biologists many scientists just E.O.Wilson who have studied the delicate balances in nature and they have found that every species contributes something to the ecology so for example if the herbivore if the plants in the shrub and grass die out then the herbivores will suffer if the herbivores die out the carnivores will suffer but there is one species which doesn’t contribute anything to the ecology if that species dies out no one would suffer there will be no problem in the ecology in fact most problems will be solved if that species or dies out or is wiped out and which is that species the human species so now if we have a class now humans are considered to be among the most intelligent among all the species in the creation and now normally the most if they are most intelligent they should be making the most constructive contribution not the most destructive contribution if in a class we know a particular student the most intelligent you would expect that student to be contributing the most to the class not contributing the worst to the class isn’t it so why is it that we humans the most intelligent are making a destructive contribution could it be that our contribution is not meant to be at a material level it’s meant to be at a spiritual level and when we try to reduce our action only at the material level then our action stimulates causes destruction causes harm similarly what about ourselves now we see that actually we are in big trouble mental health problems are the biggest health challenge of the current century we have stress depression addiction suicide major problem in society and all these are problems which are of catastrophic and tragic magnitudes and significantly the WHO which calls suicide for example as a tragic social health problem suicide there are according to WHO over a million people commit suicide every day that means there are several people who commit there’s dozens of people who commit to suicide there are millions people who commit suicide every year sorry that means actually there are over a dozen people who commit suicide more than dozen people to commit suicide every hour so it’s a it’s a horrible problem and now naturally suicide and mental health problems can have many causes but a common denominator is that people are so frustrated with their lives that they feel that dying would be better than living could it be that the definition of success which they have got is so incompatible with their nature that this can’t live with it and now could it now if this were true then how would we find that out now we would find that people who live spiritually have better parameters of well being is that true if a mercedes used for riding on a smooth road then it will perform much better so if it is true that we are meant to perform or contribute if our definition of success needs to incorporate a spiritual dimension then is it that if we include those who include a spiritual dimension are better off in life yes that is what science has found out the classic in study of religion and health a major landmark was the handbook of religion it actually compiled thousands of studies from all over the world in 2000 published studies from all over the world correlating people’s religious commitment on one side and the parameters of physical and mental health on the other side and they found overall that people who attended a spiritual programme at least once a week so spirituality was defined it is difficult to define spirituality we will discuss that later but they were defined in Aher quantified it as at least once a week they attended a spiritual programme they lived on average seven years longer than those who didn’t attend at all religious people showed significantly lower levels of drug and alcohol abuse premature sexual involvement criminal delinquency and suicidal tendencies than their non-religious counterparts and elderly people with deep personal religious faith had a stronger sense of well-being and life satisfaction than their non-religious peers you know Koning was one of the researchers in this study lead researchers and he concluded that a high SQ faithfulness to God appears to benefit all people of all means educational levels and ages so in layman’s language saying that yes religious commitment as spiritual commitment is beneficial now this brings us to a interesting and important question the book is called as handbook of religion and health it is the word religion but then its conclusion Koning uses the word spiritual in spiritual quotient so what is the relationship between spiritual and religious most people today are open to being spiritual but are uncomfortable being religious why because spirituality signifies open-mindedness to openness to various principles and practises that may add value to our life that may help us grow whereas religious often conveys belief in some dogmas or adherence to some rituals it often signifies close mindedness and in that sense it seems to be undesirable so now leaders naturally would want to be not sectarian not close-minded in any way we live in a secular world so leaders will naturally want to be not sectarian so they would prefer to be spiritual but not religious now what does the Gita say about being spiritual religious issue firstly we have to these words are so complex that they can have many meanings so let’s first reduce the words to specific points spiritual as in the spiritual but not religious is that idea is that spiritual refers to openness to various experiences and methods but spiritual is also a level of consciousness a level of reality a way of pursuing things which needs to be attained so like this is the material level of reality the spiritual level of reality so spiritual is the level of reality and material religious is the process for rising from the material level to the spiritual so now philosophy is a spirituality according to Bhagavad Gita has two components that is philosophy and there is religion so spirituality has philosophy and religion so philosophy is that philosophy is that which enables people to perceive higher realms of reality philosophy explains how there are higher realms of reality existing and it gives propositions and it makes a coherent case for the existence of this higher realm of reality of existence and religion involves practises for rising to that higher realm of reality so the Bhagavad Gita talks about this in say 9.2 when it says Rajavidya Rajaguriyam Pavitramitam Uttamam Pratekshavagamam Dharmiam Susukham Kartum Aunayam so it says that this knowledge which is being given it’s a very special knowledge and then it says Pratekshavagamam it can be experienced Prateksha it can be it can be verified by direct experience from within so it is experientially verifiable that’s the point being talked about here now what does this imply it implies that actually spirituality is akin to a science in science there are two limbs there is science there is theory and there is experiment the theory say makes a case for something so it is theory of gravitation made a case that there is a force which attracts every particle of matter with every other particle of matter to every other particle of matter with the force that is directly proportional to their masses inversely proportional to the square of their distance so this is theory and now the experiment offers method is for either proving or disproving that theory so if there is just a force then even not just a fruit a stone a piece of metal should fall so now similarly a philosophy makes the propositions and religion make provides the methods for verifying so in this sense philosophy and religion form a harmonious combination so now how does this idea of spirituality as having philosophy and religion relate with our spiritual but not religious discussion so now now if somebody wants to be spiritual but not religious in the sense that they want to be open-minded the Gita definitely recommends open-mindedness because the Gita says to rise from the material level to the spiritual level there are multiple methods there is an express way and there are multiple ways Gita itself talks about multiple yogas and the Gita has a extraordinarily inclusive assertion when it states that in 4.11 it states that all people are on my path that means people people are on the express way to the divine in various ways and at various levels so now with this point let’s move upwards and see what this means is that the spiritual is a level of awareness and religion is a process to rise to that level of awareness then there has to be some practise that has to be there some religious method has to be practised so whatever people practise for what are methods they practise for rising to the spiritual level that will be their religion so in that sense to be spiritual one has to be religious but one doesn’t to be spiritual but one doesn’t have to be close-minded the Gita itself doesn’t mandate close-mindedness because there are multiple ways to rise from the material platform to spiritual platform and in that sense it is open-minded so now with this apprehension of sectarianism put aside let’s recap now once again quickly how is it that redefining success with benefit leaders if they expand the definition of success to improve the spiritual so we discussed how actually our spiritual side is a valuable resource that can promote our well-being and actually if our well-being is promoted we perform better in life in all aspects of our life so now leaders know how important that in the competitive world today how important it is to make optimal use of every resource that is available so if say the leaders discover that in that one of the team members has got a talent which is not known the leader discovers and taps the talent and that can that discovery can be like a game-changer for the whole team similarly discovering our spiritual side and tapping our spiritual resources can be a game-changer at the core Gita says lies a wire of positivity powerful intangible but indestructible when we connected with it then we get the calm and clarity to better utilise all our outer resources you can deal with stress better we can deal with life’s tensions better and actually in the past many leaders would integrate the material and spiritual side harmoniously unfortunately in contemporary times because of over-emphasis materialism the spiritual side has been sidelined but leaders and this has cost society dearly as we discussed in the various statistics so leaders have the opportunity and the responsibility to correct this wrong now they leaders can tap their spiritual side they use the latest scientific technologies and the latest spiritual and the most sophisticated spiritual methodologies then they can become leaders for