TAPPING SPIRITUALITY TO RESET CORPORATE GOALS

MANAGEMENT EXPERTS TO HOLD
SPIRITUAL MEETING IN BANGALORE

www.dnaindia.com - The global economic meltdown, for which corporate greed in the developed world is blamed, seems to be prompting management experts to bank on spirituality to reset goals for businesses. More than 100 management experts from about 60 countries will meet in Bangalore next week to “address for the first time (in India) the spiritual side of corporate management,” Ramnath Narayanswamy, economics professor at the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore (IIM-B), has said. The management experts and practitioners will be attending the three-day conference, titled The International Spirituality Conference, which starts on January 9. IIM-B and the Journal of Management, Spirituality and Religion (JMSR) are organising the programme.

Narayanswamy and Yochanan Altman, professor of management and JMSR founding-editor, are the conference directors. The conference is supported by BEM Bordeaux Management School, France, the Institute of Labor Studies, Barcelona, and the Business and Design Lab of the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.  On the role of spirituality in management, the JMSR says: “The remarkable explosion of scholarship in the field of management, business, organisations and work provides the opportunity for more specialised interest areas.” “Two areas whose time has come are that of spirituality and religion, and their role in shaping organisations,” the journal said. The Bangalore gathering is the second such conference after the one held in Vienna in December 2010.

The conference will discuss the role management plays in shaping an organisation’s decision-making models and managing resources efficiently in the context of spirituality and religion. ‘Spirituality is intimately connected with ‘purpose’ and ‘meaning’, not so much ‘religion’, and corporate work can be fulfilling if steeped with purpose. Meanwhile there is also an urgent need for businesses to be ethical, inclusive, compassionate and moral,’ Narayanswamy said.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

In Vedic times, it used to be the intellectuals who understood spiritual knowledge and the Absolute Truth, and had direct experience of it. Such people had the practical knowledge to give direction and bring stability to society; to give society a brain. A brainless society is without real direction. In such a society, everyone works in any way possible for economic development, acquiring whatever superficial prizes and heights that mean the most, while being ignorant of the true goal of life. ... This is the materialistic form of consciousness. This easily leads to activities that may pollute the earth and its atmosphere, not only environmentally but also morally, economically, politically, and in so many other ways. ... Thus, in some way, the whole world becomes affected.

Dr Stephen Knapp (Śrīpad Nandanandana dasa) :
“The Vedic Prophecies”
Chapter 3: “The Beginning of Kali-yuga”
“The Basic Pattern of Events for the Future in Kali-yuga”
http://www.stephen-knapp.com/
http://www.stephen-knapp.com/vedic_prophecies.htm