We often discuss HR and management concepts, seeking insights from thought leaders within the HR world to understand how the ideas and concepts pan out in real life. When pondered over to understand these concepts with a different perspective, what better than our very own Indian treasure of management lessons, ‘The Bhagavad Gita’?
Timeless Management Lessons
The Bhagavad Gita contains timeless management lessons for contemporary organizations and people. It offers profound management lessons that transcend time and culture. Its teachings are as relevant today as they were thousands of years ago.
It contains topics like vision, motivation empowerment, self-awareness, self-knowledge, self-mastery, emotional maturity, anger management, stress management, meditation, psychological well-being, excelling at work, workplace spirituality, and the importance of ethical means in achieving righteous ends that are relevant to modern leadership and management.
Influential Figures Who Believed in the Teachings
Some of the greatest minds in the history of the world have also been influenced by the Bhagavad Gita, be it Gandhiji, who referred to the Gita as his spiritual dictionary, or Albert Einstein, who once said after reading the Bhagavad Gita and reflecting about how God created this universe, everything else seems superfluous. People all around the world, including extraordinary names as Emerson, Pharaoh, Aldous Huxley, Robert, and Oppenheimer, have been influenced by the teachings embedded in the Bhagavad Gita.
Bhagavad Gita unfolds as a conversation between Pandav prince Arjuna and Lord Krishna on the eve of the great war of Mahabharat in Kurukshetra, where Krishna imparts profound wisdom about duty and righteousness.
The Core Question
Bhagavad Gita deals with a simple question: What is the right thing to do? A question we all ask ourselves, not just leading our own lives but also as leaders and managers: What is the right thing to do? The wisdom found in the Gita applies not only to historical battlefields but also to modern-day boardrooms and everyday life.
Gita believes that leaders and managers must primarily act for the following 4 reasons: to set an example to others, for the unification of the world, for the welfare of all beings, and for the purification of one’s own self.
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