Spirituality At Work: Spiritual Business  

By Mahendra Ved

Spirituality At Work: Spiritual Business  

"We are all spiritual beings first and foremost, we exist beyond our bodies'', say Debra and William Miller, an American couple who have launched an international research programme on spiritual-based leadership in business. William began his spiritual journey at Puttaparathi in 1982 under the guidance of Sri Sathya Sai Baba, and made frequent trips to India thereafter.

But after marrying Debra in 1999, "we have come home to India, leaving our home in the US''. In an interview to Mahendra Ved, they say that they believe it is their dharma to help awaken spirituality in business, "and India is the best place to grow in our ability to do this'':

You are both Americans. How does the West look at spiritualism?

When people in the West talk of spiritualism, it typically refers to spirits, the occult, things supernatural. We speak of spirituality, which for us means realising, being, and living in oneness with the essential nature of life and the source of creation. Spirituality is evoked by religions like Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, and by practices such as meditation and yoga, but a person does not have to be religious to be spiritual.

Since spirituality is all-pervasive, how do you identify a spiritual context?

We like to apply a spiritual yardstick to everything we think, say or do. If you think of a person's life as a spiritual pie, one slice would be the individual, the other the family, another would be work, and yet another society. By seeing the whole pie as spiritual, you can then begin to define your individual, family, work, and society roles from that basis. One way we guide people to identify their spiritual context is by creating a theme that best describes their spiritual view of life. William's spiritual context is Ôdivine love' and Debra's is ÔMahaleelaananda'. If you look closely at our website and writings, you will see these two themes are always present in some way.

We see work as a two-way street: A place for Ôsadhana' where people can evolve spiritually and then, from that basis, improve their ability to contribute to others through their work. Work is a very wide concept for us Ñ from individual work to household work to the job one does for a living. And work includes how one relates with neighbours, with society and with one's country.

You want to share your spiritual work in business on the Internet. The idea is relatively new here. How has this networking helped in the West?

The idea is new to us as well, although there are many websites in the West that have information about spirituality in business. We want to be easily available and provide high quality information to anyone who is looking for how to live their spirituality in their work.

Our website, Ôglobaldharma.org', was born two years ago when we started our non-profit Global Dharma Center. We are beginning to develop a number of self-improvement programmes, all based on a spiritual context for life and work. We will soon start to publish them on the Net for free, to help build both confidence and competence about spirituality at work. For example, through the international research programme on spiritual-based leadership, we will put stories on our website as examples to be followed across the world.

Where do business and spirituality link up? In India, or in South Asia as a region, work ethics or business ethics often spring from a spiritual approach. Is it possible elsewhere?

Not only is it possible, it is actually happening all over the world. We are highlighting how to do work and define business dealings by starting from a spiritual context. Let us give you an example Ñ an Indian example at that.

While delivering a workshop on the spiritual basis of corporate innovation, we asked each executive to identify their most challenging need. A human resource (HR) executive was in the midst of negotiations with a union. Since his spiritual context was Ôawakening the inner self and peaceful coexistence', we helped him see that he could create a negotiation process that would help Ôawaken the inner self' of each person involved and from there negotiate a peaceful contract.

At a time when loyalty at the workplace is being threatened, employer-employee relations are under strain, and a sense of meaningfulness is vanishing, a healthy, if not an ideal relationship, can be revived by working from a spiritual context. It is like this: Take a fruit tree. Fruits are the contentment at work and in relationships. The tree is drying up. People are trying to water the branches and the leaves. They are trying to figure out things psychologically. But they are not watering the roots. The roots can be reached only through a spiritual approach.

Let us cite another example Ñ again an Indian one. Division A of a company was competing for customers with Division B. This caused conflict and impacted customer relations. The head of ÔA' sought to adopt a spiritual perspective. He was confident that he was good at his work and that his team was doing a good job. He also felt that the ÔB' chief was a good, understanding person and that his team was doing a good job. Fundamentally, from his spiritual context, he believed that there was enough for everyone. He felt strongly that prosperity and abundance would allow him his due. So the ÔA' chief allowed the head of ÔB' to have the first pick of customers, saying, "We will develop a separate market. I trust that whatever is ours will come to us''. Once he took that approach, he found that the ÔB' head was ready to give him the first chance as well. Now they ask each other: "Do you want to make your choice first?'' And both divisions are thriving.

But this is completely at variance with the way capitalism works and the way competition is inculcated the world over.

Maybe. But in India you have the example of Lord Rama and his brother Bharat. One was insisting that the other should ascend the throne of Ayodhya.

But that is not how modern day business takes place.

Which just shows how modern day business sub-optimises its own performance. In the example that we have just narrated, this novel competition Ñ call it competitive goodness Ñ also taught everyone concerned that love, faith and trust were good operating principles. Inner peace was the barometer of the head of ÔA', which was also transmitted to his counterpart at ÔB'. The short point is that when you begin to work on this line, there is harmony. It is, as stated in our logo, "Divine love boldly in action''.

Debra & William Miller

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More from same authors see: Mahendra Ved

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