Does the recent interest exhibited in non-fiction titles such as The Soul of Business, A Spiritual Audit of Corporate America, The Stirring of Soul in the Workplace, The Three-Minute Meditation etc in the US point to the possible evolution of the "enlightened corporate sector"?

Do Indian managers, born in a land that has offered "yoga and meditation" to the world corporate sector (to overcome stress), have the "first-mover advantage"? These are the questions that should interest "enlightened" managers in "progressive" Indian corporations.

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

In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna explains the virtues of detached action. As a professional manager, I find that there's a lot in the Gita that makes me a better practitioner of the art and craft of management. It is, I have discovered, a work on the philosophy of work.

My favourite shloka from Chapter II contains the essence of the Gita: "You have the right only to action, never to the fruits thereof; let not the fruit of your action be your motive; nor let there be any attachment to inaction."

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

All religions are unanimous in denouncing the amassing of wealth. The Bible declares: Easier indeed it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven. "Wealth undoes a man" - artham anartham, said Adi Sankaracharya. Fakiri, meaning voluntary poverty, is a way of life highly commended by the Sufi saints. Aparigraha, non-possession, is a value emphasised by the Bhagavad Gita.

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

Managers have to be very careful while making decisions. The first step is to collect the right information from the right sources. The Chief Executive spends a lot of time collecting and analysing various information.

Such information is categorised by Kautilya as three types:

"The affairs of a king (leader) are of three kinds: directly perceived, unperceived and inferred"

(This article explores the relevance of principles discussed in the 3rd Century BC treatise, Kautilya's ÔArthashastra', in Today's Corporate World)

(See also: Practising Affirmations, Affirmations, Practising Affirmations, Life Transforming Affirmations, Essence of Affirmations, Faith and Belief, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Body Mind and Soul)

If you are a corporate leader and you would like to include spirituality in your organisation's culture, you are not alone.

Business leaders we've met, and management students sometimes ask us if it's really possible to make spirituality an overt and explicit part of an organisational culture - without causing religious conflicts or being inappropriate to an otherwise secular way of operating.

(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)

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.

(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)

There's this story about a writer who drifted into journalism. Sent to a distant island to cover a civil war, he happily lazed around in a beach house, watched spectacular sunrises and breathtaking sunsets, and occasionally heard the distant 'musical' rumble of guns.

He faithfully recorded all this, and was promptly sacked for missing the 'big story'. But while he was an utter failure as a journalist, wasn't he an astute observer of the relative truth of the waking state?

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

Imagine what your workplace would be like if it fostered service, sacrifice, balance, good order, endurance, attentive regard, sharing, kept promises, courageous respect for others, and a check on the appetite for excess.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes your parents can be a great resource of ideas for your work, especially in ways you least expect? We experienced this when William's mother recently sent us an article entitled Finding Spirituality in the Workplace . It was written by a Jesuit priest named William Byron, and published in the Texas Catholic (USA) magazine.

See also: Spirituality At Work, Work As A Spiritual Practice, Spiritual Based Leadership)

In February of 2000, we began writing an in-depth programme for working people which explores five human values that are found across all spiritual traditions: Truth, righteousness, love, peace and non-violence. The title is Human Values in the Workplace: Making Spirituality the Inner Context for Your Work.  [1]  

We were inspired to write this programme because our collective business experience showed us that these five human values were the fundamental roots of a healthy, vibrant, viable organisation - and of healthy, vibrant, viable individuals.

See also: Spirituality At Work, Work As A Spiritual Practice, Spiritual Based Leadership)

Several years ago William spoke at a large business symposium in New Delhi on the many varied aspects of becoming a spiritual-based leader in the workplace. During the question and answer session, a business executive asked him in a strong tone, "You've talked about how you can be spiritual and successful in business at the same time. India is known to be a spiritual nation. If we're so spiritual, why aren't we more successful in business and why is there so much corruption?"

William answered, "Over the last 10 years in the US, there has been a growing awareness of a distinction that you may or may not make here in India - the distinction between "being spiritual" and "being religious."

See also: Spirituality At Work, Work As A Spiritual Practice, Spiritual Based Leadership)

While searching through some quotes from our spiritual teacher, we found one that has left a profound impression on us. It continually invites us to stop and ponder as to how it can be applied by leaders in the workplace.

If man is valued at his true worth, and treated as a Divine Spark enclosed in the body, then he will rise into new heights of achievement and produce all the necessities of life in profusion. He will not grab or cheat; he will be a good worker, a pure person, and a sincere spiritual aspirant. (Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. IX)

See also: Spirituality At Work, Work As A Spiritual Practice, Spiritual Based Leadership)

"Sacrifice" is a word that has many unpleasant connotations for people, especially in the workplace. When a manager says, "We have to make some sacrifices around here," it usually means giving something up, or doing without something, either of which would make things more difficult.

But there's an entirely different way to look at sacrifice, from a spiritual point of view. From its Latin roots, the word sacrifice actually means "to make sacred." Following the chain of original meanings, sacred means "holy," holy means "whole," and whole means "healthy." Thus, sacrifice is anything that takes a situation and makes it sacred, holy, whole and healthy.

See also: Spirituality At Work, Work As A Spiritual Practice, Spiritual Based Leadership)

Twenty-five union leaders showed up one morning for a surprise visit to the company president. Security officers called the president for instructions. "Send them up to my office," he said - and told his assistant to "prepare tea and coffee for 25." The leaders didn't trust the president to handle an important HR issue fairly. They stood and shouted what they were unhappy about.

He spoke calmly and respectfully, inviting them to sit and enjoy their drink while they talked. He reassured them that he'd quit before compromising his principles for fair and just hearings - and would reach a judgment based purely on merit, without giving in to favouritism and pressure.

See also: Spirituality At Work, Work As A Spiritual Practice, Spiritual Based Leadership)

In all major religions, the path of spiritual wisdom ( jnana yoga) is the awakening of consciousness to see the inherent Divinity in all beings - which literally means to be aware of the "substance behind the form." As the Christian mystic Meister Eckhart once wrote:

Whoever has God truly as a companion is with Him in all places... When a person keeps their gaze fixed upon God, all things become God for him or her.

Imagine the difference it could make in the quality of your work, and in the satisfaction you derive from your work, if you were steeped in this unitive consciousness that Divinity resides in all of creation.

See also: Spirituality At Work, Work As A Spiritual Practice, Spiritual Based Leadership)

When an executive operates his or her business from a spiritual point of view, does it change their definition of the "bottom line"?

The term "bottom line" originally meant the last line of an income statement, the profits that remained after costs were deducted from revenues. Over time, it has come to mean something broader: "the key results" or the "most important outcomes" of an enterprise that drive its activities.

That shift in definition has followed the shift in the nature of business over the past century where the purpose of business and its bottom line measures have seen an evolution through four over-lapping contexts

See also: Spirituality At Work, Work As A Spiritual Practice, Spiritual Based Leadership)

Fred Schwettman, former president of the circuit technology division of Hewlett Packard, once told us:

We had a discussion one time about values and beliefs in our staff meeting. I think one of the most important things we can do is to articulate what our personal purpose is - really trying to understand what we're doing to grow, and to work on that. An example could be for me to know God or to find love associated with God and to practise that in whatever I do.

See also: Spirituality At Work, Work As A Spiritual Practice, Spiritual Based Leadership)

When your source of motivation comes from your spiritual basis, you will naturally experience an equanimous detachment, while at the same time being fully dedicated to and acting toward your goal.

The chairman of a large corporation once told us:

If you worry about the fruits, then you have your attention on the scoreboard and not the ball. If you concentrate on the ball, the scoreboard will happen automatically. If you are looking at the scoreboard, you will lose the ball. If you do good work, you will get the returns, so do not worry about them.

The Bhagavad Gita further explains:

Do your worldly duty, but do it without any attachment to it or desire for its fruits. Keep your mind always on the Divine.

See also: Spirituality At Work, Work As A Spiritual Practice, Spiritual Based Leadership)

As we began to write this article on peace , which is the fourth of five human values we've been writing on (truth, righteousness, love, peace and non-violence), two things came to mind. The first was a Christian scripture that has meant a lot to each of us since childhood:

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds .

See also: Spirituality At Work, Work As A Spiritual Practice, Spiritual Based Leadership)

When love comes from the heart, it is the motivator, energiser and strengthener that gives you the power to speak boldly and act courageously - all the while respecting the people and conditions you find yourself in.

One day, this statement from Sathya Sai Baba really caught our attention: 

There is no power more effective than Love.

See also: Spirituality At Work, Work As A Spiritual Practice, Spiritual Based Leadership)

In our 1st article on spiritual character ("The Power of Spiritual Character"), we shared with you the following equation that we use to define and develop spiritual character:

Spiritual Character = Spiritual Context + Spiritual Purpose + Spiritual Values

______________________________________ Ego Desires

The first element of this equation, your spiritual context, represents your spiritual view of life. The dictionary defines context as: the interrelated conditions in which something exists or occurs: an environment . So your spiritual context is the spiritual 'container' or 'frame of reference' within which you experience all of life, including your work.

See also: Spirituality At Work, Work As A Spiritual Practice, Spiritual Based Leadership)