New Mantras in Corporate Corridors

Sharma, Subhash, New Mantras in Corporate Corridors: From Ancient Roots to Global Roots,
2007, New Age Publishers, New Delhi, India

Chapter 6 : Corporate Gita Pages 109 to 135

Contribution of ‘Indian Management’
“4 areas of Gita that has found corporate applications both in East & West
1. Stress Management
2. Psycho-spiritual improvement in work environment
3. Business ethics and human values
4. Enlightened Leadership

“Gita is regarded as ‘perennial philosophy’ – it’s sacro-secular text for the entire humanity and doesn’t
belong to Indians alone” Pg 110

“It deals with the ‘modes of thinking’ and ‘modes of action’ rather than ‘modes of production’ Pg 110

“manas-vacchah-karma i.e. thought, words and deeds. And thereby modes of thinking and action, are
common to all events” Pg 100

“manas-vacchah-karma also expressed by ‘walk the talk’ Pg 110

A Theory of Society: Towards a New Vision of a Sacro-civic Society Pg

111
1. Enlightened Collective Interest or Loksangraha
“Actions should be guided by enlightened collective interest and not by selfish interest alone”

2. Mutuality and Interdependence or Parasparam Bhavayantaha

“Mutual co-operation rather than through the intensification of conflicts between various segments of
society”

3. Positive Actions and the Theory of Nishkam Karma

“Action without attachment to fruits of action – implies an emphasis on creating ethical organisations
and on introducing the ethicality dimension in decision making”

4. Enlightened Leadership
“Whatever great persons do is followed by others – standards of actions are set by the leaders”

These 4 ideas constitute the 4 pillars of an ideal society – this theory is not just an utopia but has a
practical significance as it forms the foundation for a new vision of society wherein sattva guna
dominates” Pg 111

“Sacro implies dominance of sattava” Pg 111

“Sacro-civic society = evolved society while Civic society = merely evolving society” Pg 111

Theory of Self-Development: Four S Model of Self Development and Growth

“4 stages model of self-development i.e. 1. Student/learning phase; 2. secular phase; 3. Sacro-secular
phase; 4. Spiritual phase – concept of the 4 ashramas i.e. brahmacharya, grihasta, vanaprasatha and
sannyasa.
A Theory of Business: Value Addition with Values Addition
“Performance of a corporate organisation should also be seen in terms of values addition” Pg 113

“The relevance Gita in Corporate context has been provided by Swami Rangnathannanda ((1982), Swami
Jitatamananda (1992), Swami Bodhananda (1994) and Swami Someshwarananda” Pg 113

The published work can be classified in terms of 4 approaches

1st: Empirical testing – Chakraborty, 1987, 1993, 1998
2nd: Corporate Slokas – compilations & interpretations of slokas relevant for managers e.g. Chakravarty,
1995
3rd: Revisioning Gita – reinterpreted in contemporary context e.g. Ranchan, 1991 and Chattopadhay, 1997
4th: New Age Management Models – e.g. OSHA model (Sharma, 1995); negergy-synergy grid (Sharma,
1996); MBA i.e. Manas-Buddhi-Ahankar model (Sharma, 1996)

“Dynamics of the 3 gunas – Sattva asserts itself by predominating over rajas & tamas, rajas predominates
over sattva & tamas, and tamas tries to dominate sattva & rajas” pg 115

“When the intensity of tamas is higher than sattva & rajas, there’s a lot of negative energy or negergy.
When the intensity of sattva is higher than tamas & rajas, there’s a lot of synergy” Pg 115

“Hence the social processes should be designed & organised in such a way that there’s increase in rajas &
sattva in the society – establishment of a good society” Pg115

“Communism failed because it led to excessive negergy inherent in dictatorship” Pg 115

“As adharma increases, the social system craves for reduction of adharma and restoration of dharma.
Adharma leads to greater disorder and higher entropy or negergy. Hence for proper social order,
enlightened leadership is required” Pg 116

“As and when good ness declines and wickedness shows its rise, O! Bharata in such situations I myself
arise” Pg 116

“Divine-like human qualities include truthfulness, gentleness, modesty and steadiness, freedom from
anger, forgiveness, freedom from malice & excessive pride” Pg 116

“Demonic types create obstacles, act negatively and create negative force in society and organisations” Pg
116

“Indeed for the sacro-civic society to become reality, transition towards sattva is needed” Pg 116

“In Subhash Sharma’s approach to sloka compilation, poetic liberty has been taken while retaining the
essence of slokas. Key management concepts
 Nature of mind and analysis of mind
 Nature of humans: the divine-like and demonic type
 Nature of Self
 Positive action and the theory of Nisham Karma
 Guide to action and decision making Pg 117

“Gita is rich in metaphor & images e.g. sthithaprajna who is a tortoise in introversion & dynamic eagle in
extroversion … a solar dynamo in action” Pg 118

“Atlas complex – Krishna carrying the weight of the world” pg 118

“In Indian psycho-philosophy, the mind occupies a centre stage for any analysis of human behaviour as
it’s the starting point for human thought & action” Pg 118

Nature of Humans: The Divine-like and the Demonic Types

“In Gita, an individual is thought in terms of mind-stuff” Pg 120

“Swami Vivekananda – I am the total of my thought and actions-Mathematically I =$TA” Pg 120

“I am what I think. A divine-like person thinks divine-like and therefore acts divine-like. A demon-like
person thinks demon-like and therefore acts demon-like” Pg 120

“Egoism, power, violence, lust, anger and the greed.

Malicious is their intent, hate is part of this creed” 16-18

“A person essentially is his/her mind’s representation

Mindstuff reveals what is one’s natural inclination” 17-3

“Karmavada suggests that intentionality of action is crucial to the moral result of actions. Bad intentions
lead to bad results and vice versa” Pg 123

“Karma is not to be confused with fate’ Pg 123

“Motivated karma is inferior to the sacrificing kind,

Hankering after fruits of action creates an uneven mind” 2-49

“When the selfless actions are performed for the sacrifice alone,
Entire karma melts away let this knowledge be known” 4-23

“Even mindedness in success or failure, yoga is this equilibrium,

Perform actions renounce attachments and practice this equilibrium” 2-48

“With the evenness of the mind comes freedom from virtue and vice,
Skill in action is the yoga, devote yourself to this choice” 2-50

“5 factors have been identified as influencing the results of decision making viz. the ‘seat’ or the right
place, the doer (ego) or the competency, organs of perceptions or the instruments, functions of various
organs of action or the effort and the presiding deity or the chance factor” Pg 124

“The master image of the enlightened one or the sthithprajna is unique to Indian culture” Pg 125

“Mind is not perturbed by adversity and not exalted by happiness,

Perfect one shows the freedom from fear, anger and the fondness” 2-56

“Within feel the happiness within feel the delight,

With the illumination within, gain beatitude and sight” 5-24

“That person feels the peace in whom all desires merge,

Like the rivers flow into ocean for quenching heir urge” 2-70

“That person attains peace who is devoid of longings,

Freed from all desires and I and mine feelings” 2-71
Typology of Gifts, Knowledge, Deeds, Human Agency & Intellect
“Tamasik knowledge represents the nescience, rajasik knowledge is reductionist and sattvik knowledge is
holistic” Pg 126

“Nescience, science & conscience correspond to these 3 levels as do agyan, vigyan & gyan” Pg 126

“Stimulus – Vivek (Intellect) – Response

Accoridng to this model, human beings use their vivek/intellect to discriminate between ‘good’ or ‘bad’
before responding to a stimulus as against pigeons and rats whose response is automatic and mechanistic”
Pg 128

“Swadharma = performance of one’s duty” Pg 129

“In organisational context, it implies fulfilling one’s role responsibility. Also implies on shouldn’t
overstep into roles of others as it could lead to conflict intensification” Pg 129

“The essence of Gita lies in fighting the battle of righteousness for one’s dignity” Pg 129

Arrival of the Best: Sambhavami Yuge Yuge

“Arrival of the best to lead the rest is a fundamental contribution of Gita to human thought sharply in
contrst to Darwin’s ‘survival of the fittest to eliminate the rest’ Pg 130

“Law of action implies that everything in this universe s in a state of motion or vibration, Quantum physics
has come to a similar conclusion” Pg 131

“The ‘will-to-work’ is fundamental to nature’s functioning Pg 131

“Skills-values combination is indicated in the last sloka

If you have the will and the skill,
You can make it to the top of the hill” Pg 131

Concluding Comment: A Values Struggle View of History

“Thus, history is viewed as a struggle between dharma or the good values and adharma or the evil values”
Pg 132

“Thus in Gita, we find not only a theory of society but also a theory of history – has claim to a greater
appeal because of its emphasis on humanistic values & on an optimistic future” Pg 132-133
“In conclusion, we can say that GITA stands for grand Integration of Though & Action” pg 133

A Summary of Key Management Ideas from Gita

Sloka Sanskrit Phrase English Equivalent

2-38 Sukhadukhe same krtva Treat pleasure & pain alike
2-47 Karmanye vadhikarasthe Continue to perform the action
2-47 Ma phalesu kadachana Don’t be attached to the fruits of action
2-48 Samatvam yoga uchyate Equilibrium is Yoga
3-8 Karma jyaya hyakramanah Action is superior to inaction
3-11 Parasparam bhavyantaha Recognize mutuality interdependence
3-20 Karmnai’va hi sansiddhim Achieve perfection through action
3-20 Lokasangraham eva pi sampasyam Keeping in view protection of the people, perform
 kartum arhasi action
9-22 Yogaksemam vahamayaham Take care of peoples welfare
18-45 Swakarma niratah siddhim Through one’s role-action one attains perfection
18-63 Yathicchasi tatha kuru Act as you choose

Metaphors and Images from Gita

Metaphors / Images Managerial Interpretation
Many branching and endless are the decisions of the Don’t get lost in unnecessary branches of a decision
infirm mind (2-41) tree
A tortoise withdraws its limbs with ease and For facing adversity, keeping calm and acting in a
spontaneity (2-58) rational manner is the best strategy
Thus revolves the wheel of life (3-16) The need to follow the virtuous cycle
Fire enveloped by smoke, Mirror enveloped by For deeper understanding of a phenomenon, we
dust, Embryo enveloped by the womb (3-38) need to go beyond the enveloping factors
Lotus leaf is unaffected by water (5-10) Decision maker must take decisions with a detached
attitude