Corporate Spirituality: A Holistic Way of Doing Business  

By R Venkatesan  

Corporate Spirituality: A Holistic Way of Doing Business  

Today, there is a perceptible shift in the way business operates in the world - from a mechanistic and linear view to a more organic and holistic one. Decisions are more often peoplecentred. Business ethics have assumed importance. Corporates no longer search for the elusive 'best talent'; they are seeking ways to realise the best in existing talent.

Applied spirituality" and "ecosystemic perspective of business" is now being taught in business schools as dimensions that influence individual behaviour to facilitate future managers to nourish employees at the highest levels.

Societal wellbeing cannot be addressed by policies to increase economic/income growth alone. The accent should be not only on physical wellbeing, but also on mental health. The ecosystemic perspective is a living systems perspective. More than Darwin's notion of 'survival of the fittest' it is the Gaia Hypothesis of James Lovelock that is relevant in this context.

The Gaia Hypothesis talks about the earth as an organism that can sustain itself and create conditions for more life. Cooperation and coordination is the mantra, for evolution shows that brutal species come and go, they don't survive. But adoption of the theory in business could encourage managerialinertia. Conglomerates can look towards the "applied spirituality" route to nourish the best in their workforces.

What is applied spirituality? Firms invest in research and development to increase their stock of knowledge and apply it to devise technology, which is then used to innovate. Applied spirituality is an application of spiritual knowledge in raising inner awareness. The difference between applied spirituality and applied rationality lies in the key term 'awareness'.

Scriptures mention that ordinary human beings can rise to the higher level of awareness, called the turiya state, where one obtains total awareness of reality. We have three major energy channels, sympathetic left and right and parasympathetic, and seven energy centres called chakras. Sympathetic and parasympathetic systems act on the chakras but in opposition to each other and acti vation of residual force, kundalini, maximises the impact of the parasympathetic, correcting any imbalance in sympathetic nervous systems. When this occurs, a change in awareness takes place such that the chakras can be felt in the body, particularly in the hands.

Your enhanced awareness that lets you feel your chakras makes it possible to identify imbalances or deficiencies in chakras. You can now proceed to rectify them using the five elements, panch tatva. An individual is able to practise management by detached involvement and avoid emotional residue, thanks to his transcendence to the 'witness state'.

Those who believe that the locus of control is predominantly internal rather than external are able to bring down their stress levels as an increased awareness reveals the futility of impressing others. With chakras cleansed, emotional intelligence factors associated with the chakras get leveraged. All factors that influence individual behaviour get enhanced with increased awareness.

(The writer is principal economist, NCAER)

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More from same author see: R Venkatesan  

See also: Corporate Spirituality, Faith and Belief, Spiritual Guidance, God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)