News from Bangalore, Karnataka, India

Spirituality in Corporate Culture – An Emerging Trend A Report

It was a memorable day in Bangalore’s corporate history, when the giants, came together to discuss the need of Spirituality in corporate culture. With this, the day is not far when Bangalore will have satisfied employees, reduced attrition and a better work life balance. Employees will be able to align their individual interest with the organizational goals. This was witnessed from a wide spectrum of 500 corporate audience spreading from Retailing, IT & ITES, Manufacturing, Consulting, Medical, Pharmaceuticals, and even Defense & Academia. HR Managers and Senior Department heads realized how they can inculcate spirituality to develop their organization and remain motivated.

Another attraction for the participants was Guruji’s literature which was showcased at the book stall. The performance was outstanding and beyond expectations as at the end of seminar we discovered that 450 people not only visited the stalls, but also bought literature worth Rs. 15,000. This clearly shows the relevance of Guruji’s thoughts with the present and future problems in all shades of life especially professional. The credit also goes to volunteers who did a fantastic job by guiding and helping people to buy literature which can help them resolve their problems and develop the thinking process to bring change in their organizations and society as well.
Not a single corner of the auditorium was left untouched from the high spiritual energy which was felt in the Green Room where all the speakers were introduced to each other and Dr Sahab has given all the facilitators a direction of the symposium.

What else we could have expected more than this! But with Guruji’s blessings another lime light to the occasion was added by the presence of Honorable Governor Sahib, Mr. Rameshwar Thakur, Chief Guest. This was his first public gathering. Governor sahib is associated with Guruji and pariwar from 1964 and still follow the learning to reach such heights in his life. He is indeed an elevated soul.

The show was moderated by Amitabhji and got immense values from each and every session. The Key note & Chief Guest’s address was followed by 3 more sessions each one raising the bar and standard of the symposium. Dr. Sahib’s Herbal Healing and the Yoga session by Ramneesh ji added life to it. The panel discussion was moderated by Dr. Sahib and facilitated by senior HR managers, which came to a conclusion that that spirituality should become the soul of business if India has to mentor the world and uplift the humanity along with the materialistic development.

It was audience participation and continuous interaction through ballistic questions to all the speakers and panelist which added enormous amount of value to the seminar.

The complete program got a good media coverage and Ashutosh ji gave the gist of it. As The Hindu has rightly covered it, Aligning inner resources with company mission is the mantra of the day and there is a basic need to inculcate spirituality in corporate culture.

The press coverage can be seen online at:

Hindu
Indian Express

Detailed Report with Sequence of events

26/08/07: 7:30 AM – The early morning of 26th August, 2007 (Sunday) was special. There was excitement & enthusiasm in the air. These were special moments as AWGP youth group, Bangalore geared up for the first ever test of it’s capabilities, team work, execution skills. There were occasional occurrences of elements of doubts & fear as well. It was time to see the hard work of 2 months in action.

26/08/07: 8:00 AM – The venue, Jnana Jyothi auditorium was full of activity & yellow colour by this time. The youth group volunteers with brothers wearing yellow T-shirt and sisters draped in yellow sarees with ‘Mashaal’ – emblem of Vichar Kranti, were seen in action in their respective teams…registration, book exhibition, auditorium hall etc. The police with sniffer dogs were doing their bit in ensuring security for the chief guest.

26/08/07: 9:00 AM – The stage was set, speakers arrived on time followed by gracious arrival of Adarniya Doctor Sahab at the venue which pumped in extra energy in the atmosphere. The introductory meeting between Ad. Dr. Sahab & speakers & panelists kicked off in a jovial environment.

26/08/07: 9:40 AM – It was time for chief guest H’ble Governor of Karnataka to arrive. A very special moment for AWGP as Governor was making his first public appearance after assuming current office.

26/08/07: 9:45 AM – Arrival of H’ble Governor who was welcomed by Mr. Sangram Singh ji of AWGP, Bangalore with a few AWGP members from Shantikunj & Bangalore.

26/08/07: 9:50 AM – The inaugural session kicked of with National Anthem. This was followed by felicitation of dignitaries, lamp lighting with Vedic chants by Shri Omkar Patidar ji and a kick off video prepared by EMD, Shantikunj.
Dr. Amitabh Saraf, Head AWGP Bangalore, Youth Group was in great touch with his compeering skills as the proceedings moved on.
Anurag Chhabra delivered a welcome speech setting the context of the workshop where he aligned the need and objectives of the workshop with the ground reality.

26/08/07: 10:15 AM – Adarniya Doctor Sahab was invited on the podium to deliver key note talk on ‘Excellence in Corporate World through Inculcation of Spirituality’. He outlined the true nature of Spirituality & it’s various dimensions. His talk was a total package that covered Spirituality (It’s Science, Traits, Practicality, Need etc), Challenges of Corporate World, Stress Management, Tools & Techniques to Awaken Self, etc.

26/08/07: 11:20 AM – It was time for H’ble Governor to take the podium and enlighten about his thoughts on Spirituality in corporate culture. He urged the corporate world to inculcate Spirituality in corporate culture for the holistic development of society & nation. He also stressed not to merge Spirituality & Religion together. Spirituality is all about knowing inner self and working on refinement, he said.
The message from the Dy C M of Karnataka was also read as Dy. CM who accepted the invite could not make it due to some urgent engagement. He also stressed the need for inculcating spirituality in day to day work life in the era of globalization.

26/08/07: 11:45 AM – Time for chief guest to leave. The first session of talks kicked off with Dr C Manohar, Executive Director & Dean, Institute of Business Management & Reseach taking the control from Dr. Saraf as moderator. Dr Tushar Guha, Management Consultant started his talk on ‘Inner Transformation for Social Transformation’ endorsing AWGP motto of ‘Hum Badlenge -Yug Badlega’. He made people understand that spirituality should follow the top bottom approach. He also advocated the need of creativity, uniqueness, and logical reasoning amongst the professionals. We should become more and more aware of what we are capable of and should challenge our potential to higher orbits. His talk was a mix of knowledge, humor, practical examples that glued the audience.

Mr Ammineedu, Former Director, HR, Bharat Electronics Ltd, and a known expert in the country for 6 Sigma, brought out his understanding on Spirituality from the Holy Geeta, and related Lord Krishna’s leadership styles with Level 5 leaders spoken by the management guru Jim Collins. His talk was spun in scientific research framework and was duly supported by facts & figures.

The session ended with Mr. Ramneesh from DSVV, a 4 times gold medalist in national Yog championship demonstrated some breath taking asanas displaying the power of Yog and the immense contribution that Rishi tradition of India has made to this world.

26/08/07: 02:00 PM – It was time for well deserved lunch as talks were so interesting & absorbing that no one complained about the slippage of 1 hr in the schedule.
People thronged the book exhibition and were amazed to see literature on wide array of subjects close to reality on display.

26/08/07: 03:00 PM – Dr Manohar was instrumental in doing the clinical post mortem of the talks and relating it with practical examples. It was time for another great speaker to take the stage. Dr M S Thimappa, Former VC, Bangalore University spoke on ‘Being Spiritual At Work’. He told how meditation can help people to come down to normalcy in the most stressed conditions. He also requested the corporate audiences to try being at ease in their thought process and learn how to create space zones around that will help them in their work place. “If I stop breathing now, some of the trees won’t get the CO2 released by me. We all are made up of Sprit and Matter” he mentioned to make people understand how we all are interconnected.

Dr. Thimappa made way for Adarniya Doctor Sahab who provided a brief presentation Herbal Healing. Being a gold medalist in MD (Allopathic medicine) he advocated the use of Herbs to cure the deadliest of diseases as these magical gifts of nature have no side affects and have immense power. He urged people to create space in their houses to plant rare herbs in pots which can be obtained from Shantikunj and cure themselve and others using those.

It was Dr. H R Nagendra’s, VC, VYASA, turn now to carry the baton. He talked about ‘Avartan Dhyan’ and told how individuals can practice meditation and learn to motivate themselves and balance the work related stress and personal life to get peace of mind for corporate excellence.

26/08/07: 4:40 PM – It was time for panelists to take center stage and discuss the ideas & brainstorm on how to implement Spirituality in Corporate Culture. Mr. G Ramnath, GM HR Ace Designers, Mr. Jagadish Bapat, Foot prints Management Consultants and Mr. Saraswat- DGM-HR, SIDBI Chennai joined Adarniya Dr. Sahab and came to a conclusion that Spirituality should become the soul of business if India has to mentor the world and uplift the humanity along with the materialistic development. They also answered the questions from audience.

26/08/07: 5:40 PM – Ankur Mehta closed the event with Vote of Thanks. It was again fun & frolic in the air. A sense of accomplishment prevailed on the faces of organizers as the audience walked out satisfied & contended. The elements of fear & doubts disappeared long before. Adarniya Dr. Sahab obliged the volunteers with a group photograph before making a dash to catch flight to Delhi.