A highly motivational and enlightening colloquium was conducted at the Amrita School of Business by Swamiji Nijamrita Chaitanya on July 22nd, 2006. Using the mission statement of ASB as a base Swamiji, who is renowned for his meditation classes, both nationally and internationally, spoke to a very receptive audience consisting of the MBA and MCA students of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham.
He asked us a very pertinent question regarding what we would do as managers when we encounter a new environment. The answer was clear…we have to study the environment, the people and the situation and aim to optimize these factors.
When we join an organization we usually study only its statistical data and base our decision on that…this becomes a predefined notion. If we are not careful, this can lead to a mental block. What is really required is an open mind. In short he asked us to understand the situation as well as the ethos and what makes things work within an organization.
The common concept in most of our minds is that maximum utilization of resources leads to profit, profit leads to money and, finally money leads to happiness – simple, but not true! What can money really get us? Materialistic satisfaction and that too only temporarily…!!!
Having money in a desert…..it is of no use…you cannot eat or drink it…!!!!
There is no way that we can equate satisfaction, success or even life. Is one new car equal to one unit of happiness, a bungalow equal to ten units, and a palace equal to fifteen units of happiness??? No. Stress here must thus be laid on spirituality and maximizing well being, not worldly success and wealth. These have to be maximized in an internal sense.
Success and happiness is a state of mind, an attitude, no one can tell you the amount or measure of your level of satisfaction Looking for happiness in tomorrow is an error most of us make, we believe wholeheartedly in tomorrow. We think about tomorrow today. The present is where you need to be happy in. The future is just a dream, a dream not in your control.
We don’t know what will happen tomorrow, there is no optimum situation where we can make everything run smoothly.
Spirituality and the ashram thus teaches you to be happy in the present and in any given situation. This is life management. It also helps us understand our feelings and deal with how our mind works….for in life we learn
¼ from our teachers
¼ from others
¼ from our own study
¼ from the passage of time
Complete satisfaction is not impossible to achieve and it brings along with it success and happiness. After a particular stage you don’t ask for more, that stage is actually a particular attitude of mind and practice will make this state of mind become a part of you.
Possibility of things going wrong are endless and thus to be fully satisfied,we must go by our own experiences and our responses as satisfaction is a changing process.
Spirituality is the key to life,the key to success,the key to happiness in the eternal sense.
The ashram helps u in this process.There are many people who are confused about spirituality only because they cant understand it or have not really made the effort to understand it.
This colloquium was overall a scintillating experience and managed to open new avenues of thought,merging business management and life and created a lovely symbiotic relationship between the two.
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