Wednesday, March 3, 2010

True Leadership..

Came across this interesting article today, based on "Vision of the Bhagvad Gita". Though the article was a bit long, it was worth reading and I thought it should definitely be on my blog so I could come back again, and read it frequently, to cleanse my thoughts...

It is the responsibility of the great leaders to live an exemplary life. The problem in today's society is that respect for higher (spiritual) values is diminishing, and it is hard to find role models to portray those values. With the advancement in information technology,  one could always find lots of information on the internet. But, not sure if all of those is reliable.. And there is so much details out there that they are not even necessary.. One needs a true leader or teacher, to provide guidance, and selectively take those information to ones advantage. People simply observe and implicitly follow the virtues, values, ideals, action or conduct upheld by the leader. Hence the reason, in every field of life one needs a true teacher or a leader, to observe the right ideals and learn the true values.

We may excuse ourselves by saying that we are just ordinary people, and we are not leaders, and so we lack leadership qualities.. That's not true though.. For, every person is a leader to someone in this world.. And there is always someone we look upto and there is always someone who looks upto us. At home, children see the parents as a source of love, great wisdom and strength. Children think that their parents are omniscient and omnipotent. So, no one can escape responsibility.

In this world, sometimes we across people who have no consideration for others, and they do not take responsibilty for anything, but expect others to take the responsibility and criticize others constantly. They fail to fulfill their own responsibilty, while they expect everything from others.. Even if one can't set an example for the society, we can set an example for our children.. If there is no expectation from our actions, then there is no question for disappointment. Sooner or later, greatness and recognition will come to those who do their work with dedication. It is very important to set high goals in life, and vision is necessary. And so also the ability to translate that vision into right attitudes and actions. That is a lesson our children will learn from us as well.

In Bhagwad Gita, Lord Krishna says that ignorant people perform actions with attachment, where as the wise perform actions without attachement, wishing the welfare of the world.. Ignorant people here does not refer to uneducated people.. But those who are spiritually ignorant.. That ignorance expresses itself as extreme attachement to power, position, prestige and also to be obsessed with the fruits of their action.. From the worldly stand point, they seem to achieve everything, but in that process they create restlessness and agitataion. In the process of trying to fulfill their own ambitions, they may try to hurt and agitate the minds of others whom they use to achieve their goals. Lord Krishna says that, like ignorant people, one should be obsessed with ambition, and work with great energy and dynamism, but his motivation should be noble. Our actions being the same, if the attitude changes the results can be phenomenal.

As we see again and again, there cannot be an action without some desire or motivational factor. Therefore, our motivation must be to see everyone happy, and to see only the good, and let not anyone be unhappy or sorrowful in this world.. May it be your familymembers, kids, colleagues, or anyone you deal with. If we work with this feeling, then we will see a tremendous difference in our performance.  This is very important and necessary for all parents, teachers and leaders. Most of the time, our attitude is that we are right and they are wrong. We want everyone to take interest in what we value and we tend to force them. Instead, first we should take interest in what they enjoy. Then, if we ask them to look at something that is important to us, they will do so naturally. But they will never cooperate if they are constantly told that what they do is not right. 


A person who works for his personal ambition is agitated and restless, where as the wise person, though in action, is calm at all times, and efficient in his endeavors. Because his mind is calm, he is able to achieve maximum results with minimum time and effort. His complete attention is on the action because his mind is not preoccupied with expectation or anxiety for the results. When problems arise, they are not disturbed, and so they act efficiently. The wise person remains steadfast and performs all actions with the right attitude. So, the way to true leadership is to stay calm at every situation and to share the secret of our success with others. That is the science of true leadership.