Swami Parthasarathy, who founded the Vedanta Academy in Maharashtra State, India, offers students a three-year full-time residential course on Vedanta, a system of Hindu philosophy.
The swami has also designed programmes for the corporate sector that offer a balance between outer success and inner peace. Here is an edited version of his presentation at the Gordon Institute of Business Science in Johannesburg.
Peace and happiness are sought by one and all. Success in any form in this world falls short of true satisfaction in life. For living is an art, a skill that has never been learned and practised.
Vedanta is a philosophy that provides the technique for living. It explains the subtleties of the human composition and how best to interact with the world.
The inner personality of the human being is constituted by the mind and the intellect. The physical body executes action. But the actions of the body are driven by either — likes and dislikes, feelings, emotions, impulses of the mind; or reason, discretion, judgement of the intellect; or a combination of the two.
Among all living beings, humans alone have the choice of action. When the mind’s feeling drives an action without the supervision or guidance of the intellect, then that action is said to be impulsive. And when the intellect judges, directs the impulse of the mind and decides on an action, it is termed discriminative. Discriminative actions determine the sanity of a person. As impulsive actions displace discriminative actions, one loses one’s sanity when one acts in this manner.
One needs a powerful intellect to properly control and direct the mind’s likes and dislikes. Likes and dislikes are not to be suppressed or stifled. The intellect has only to examine and deal with them appropriately to ensure that life runs smoothly. A human can ill afford to let the whim and fancy take over his personality.
The human intellect has deteriorated alarmingly. Management consultants are not aware of this grave deficiency — they themselves are victims. Self-management is the development of a powerful intellect to govern the mind’s impulses. With the increase in intellectual strength, one achieves real productivity in the field of action.
A powerful intellect does not mean mere intelligence. Intelligence is built in an individual by gaining information — knowledge from external sources.
One might be very intelligent and yet have a poor intellect. Such a person would lack control over the mind’s demands and suffer from mental agitation, addictions and ailments. Modern education is limited to developing intelligence. There is no programme anywhere to build the intellect.
The intellect is the faculty that enables one to think, to reason, to judge. It is the capacity to question.
Productivity in business and success in any endeavour requires continual intellectual application of three disciplines: concentration, consistency and cooperation.
Concentration is the technique exercised by the intellect to hold the mind on the present occupation without allowing it to slip into the past or future.
The second discipline, consistency, is the skill of directing actions towards the ideal or goal set to achieve. The practice of consistency lends power, energy and strength to action.
The third discipline is cooperation. To achieve an objective you need the cooperation of others. Hence the third essential requirement for success is met when the intellect maintains a true spirit of cooperation among one and all concerned.
An individual or organisation following these disciplines shall command success and productivity, progress and peace in any field of endeavour.