74. Responsibility of enlightenment

Understand, enlightenment comes with a tremendous responsibility. It comes with a tremendous 'pressured' compassion. 'Pressured' is the right word to use! Your whole being will be vibrating with an intense compassion, with a very deep compassion.

Let me tell you one incident:

Early one morning, Vivekananda suddenly got up and said, 'I have a deep pain in the right hand.' At that time he was lying down on a bed. He said, 'On this side of the ocean, some country is suffering from some natural calamity. Please find out where we are needed, and send our swamis to go and do the relief work.' The next morning they received the news that there was an* earthquake on a nearby island. All the swamis rushed to do the relief work.*

Vivekananda was sensitive to and actually felt the pain felt by people so many miles away!

With enlightenment, practically the whole cosmos is felt inside your body. A deep pressured compassion lands on you along with the enlightenment experience. Understand, it is a great responsibility. It is not just freedom. It is a great responsibility too.

State, not status

Most of us wait for the status to come in order to take up the responsibility. Be very clear, it doesn't work that way. Only if you take up responsibility will the status come. Those who wait for the status will not take up responsibility even after they get the status! They will simply find another reason or excuse, that's all.

Be very clear, responsibility is a consciousness.

Many people think that if they get enlightened, they will get a golden throne. They think that somebody will give them food and a place to stay. They think that

Swami - A honorific term used for a sannyasi, a monk.

people will worship their photograph. If you see the status of the enlightened master and try to achieve enlightenment for that, you will feel cheated! If you see the state of the enlightened master and try to achieve it, you will be successful. You will be happy. You will enjoy it. That is the difference between state and status.

LIVING ENLIGHTENMENT

When we become responsible for others, we no longer are focused on us. We move towards serving other people. Serving other people is leadership. Pandering to one's own needs without a care about others is absence of leadership.

Background

There are so many books these days about leadership and how it is an important part of making an organization successful. There are so many so-called leadership gurus who teach and train people in organizations to 'develop' leadership. Yet when we look at all organizations, whether they are doing business to make a profit, or in government service or in the area of social services, true leaders are rare.

If you look at any organization you will find that less than 1% tends to become the so-called leaders in the organization. If you look at business organizations, we can say that there are probably only 1% of these organizations that can claim to be true leaders in their fields who are excelling in all areas of their business – making a profit, delivering good products and services, providing service to society, providing satisfaction to their employees, etc.

So we can say, true leaders are actually 1% of the 1% of successful business organizations. It means just 0.01% of the overall working population actually has true leadership qualities in them! We can say the same about organizations in other fields. This is what I mean when I say true leaders are rare.

Let us now try and understand why this is the case. For this, we need to understand:

1. What is Leadership?

2. Can leaders be 'created' or do you have to be a born leader?

3. What are the key ingredients that make a successful leader?

4. Why do some individuals effortlessly and 'naturally' lead and most others struggle?

5. How do we start the process of our individual journey to become leaders?

Let us now understand step by step all these points.

What is Leadership?

So many books have been written on this subject of leadership by management gurus, professors and consultants. Most of them have spoken about how a successful leader should be. There are a lot of courses conducted by companies on leadership, team work, etc.

My disciples who have come from the corporate world have described to me how

Leadership is not a quality, but an experience that can radiate from an individual who has experienced personal growth.

these courses are conducted and what they have been striving to achieve through these courses. They

have also told me that while the courses have been helpful to them, the effect from the courses tends to wear off within a short period after the courses are completed.

I am told of weekend boot camps where team spirit is built by climbing ropes, playing games, creating a sense of friendship, etc. The gist I picked up from hearing my disciples is that these training programs tend to work on the outer attributes but do little to change or improve the 'inner software' of the individuals so that leadership can radiate from the individual. Leadership is not a quality, but an experience that can radiate from an individual who has experienced personal growth and transformation.

Now let me give you some explanations of how leadership is described traditionally. If you search the internet under the terms 'Leadership' and 'Leader', you will be amazed at the millions of hits that come up! Just recently when I typed the word 'Leadership' on Google it had 156 million hits and the word 'Leader' had 278 million hits!

So whatever needs to be written or said on these topics has been said! So I am here to mainly give you a few examples from the leading management gurus and their concepts of a leader and more importantly to give you the real understanding, tools and techniques on how to become a leader and how anyone can radiate leadership as a result of personal transformation!

Understand, every human being is a potential leader. Leadership is not a quality only some people have been born with as is viewed and understood currently. Everyone can become a leader and the quality of leadership arises from one's ability to take responsibility for a particular organization, a situation or a particular group.

I have here some definitions of leadership you can get from an internet search:

Peter Drucker* defines a leader as 'someone who has followers'.

John C Maxwell* says, 'Leadership is influence - nothing more, nothing less.'

Warren Bennis* says, 'Leadership is a function of knowing yourself, having a vision that is well-

Peter Drucker - Management guru considered to be the father of modern management.

John C Maxwell - Leadership expert and writer.

Warren Bennis - Management and leadership consultant.

communicated, building trust among colleagues, and taking effective action to realize your own leadership potential.'

John Gardner* defines leadership as 'the process of persuasion and example by which an individual or leadership team induces a group to take action that is in accord with the leader's purpose, or the shared purposes of all.'

Here is yet another definition of a leader from an unnamed source, 'Leadership is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent. Leaders carry out this process by applying their leadership attributes, such as beliefs, values, ethics, character, knowledge, and skills.'

I am sure there are thousands of such definitions on what a leader should be and what leadership is. I am not going to go into too much of detail into this, but I wanted to point out some of the quotes from leading management gurus on leaders and leadership. All of these experts tell us what a leader should be and the traits that define a successful leader. Yet, there is very little of how one can attain this state of a leader. So it leads to the question: Are leadership traits inborn or can a leader be created? To understand this, we need to delve into the composition of the mind and the science of the so called inner world. This is an area where the eastern mystics have spent thousands of years exploring and discovering the inner world. They have created tools and techniques to create the right 'inner software' to cultivate leadership skills. Let us explore this in greater detail.

Can leaders be 'created' or do you have to be a born leader?

A lot has been said by many people on what a leader should be. But there is very little that has been said about actually how to get there. What exactly do I mean by this?

Is leadership some quality you have to be born with or can it be cultivated? How can one develop leadership skills? Can a person truly lead an organization if he or she is caught up in personal struggles and confusions?

Before we get into these details, let me first say that leadership skills can be cultivated. It is all about achieving the state of consciousness of a leader and not the status that is achieved by becoming a leader.

When you read this, please do not think I am going to take you through a spiritual journey! The process I am going to take you through is a time-tested, proven

John Gardner - Author of a number of books on leadership.

science of personal transformation. It is a product of ten thousand years of research and development from the Eastern system of inner science. What do I mean by this?

Firstly, understand that every civilization has focused its energies in certain fields. In the West, they focused their efforts on the outer world science, innovation, discovery and creation of products and services to improve the quality of life and comforts. These outer world scientists have discovered so many products and services which have greatly benefitted humanity and improved the quality of life of humans all over the world.

Just as there is science of the outer world, there is a vast science of the inner world, something that lies within all of us. The scientists of the inner world or rishis* worked on various tools and techniques to handle the different emotions we experience and our mind. Over the last ten thousand years, these scientists of the inner world have created tools and techniques that help us handle our emotions and overcome the stress and depression from emotions. They have created techniques for us to live blissfully with ourselves. These tools and techniques are what I call meditation techniques.

So most of my discussion on leadership will be focused on giving an understanding of human emotions, the mind and how we can use these simple understandings from the inner scientists to help us lead a successful and fulfilling life.

In most organizations, those who have become leaders have achieved the status of the leader. They may not have necessarily achieved the state of the leader. What do I mean by this? To understand this, first let us understand the key ingredients that make a successful leader.

What are the key ingredients that make a successful leader?

A small story:

There was once a great war between two countries. The war had been going on for some time and the soldiers were starting to feel tired of the long battle.

On a hot afternoon, a man in civilian clothes was riding past a small group of tired soldiers digging a huge pit. The group leader was shouting orders and threatening punishment if the work was not completed within the hour.

The man riding the horse stopped and asked, 'Sir, why are you only shouting orders? Why can't you help them yourself?' asked the stranger on horseback.

Rishi - Sage.

The group leader looked at him and replied, 'What do you mean? I am the leader. The men do as I tell them.' He then added, 'If you feel so strongly about helping them, you are welcome to do so yourself!'

The man got down from his horse and started walking up to the soldiers at work. The group leader was simply shocked! The man took up the tools and started helping the soldiers and worked with them till the job was finished!

Before leaving the man congratulated the soldiers for their work, and approached the group leader. He said, 'The next time your status prevents you from supporting your people, you should inform your higher authorities and I will provide a more permanent solution.'

The group leader was now completely surprised. Only now he looked closely at the man – and realized that the man was the army general!

We now need to ask ourselves how many so-called leaders in organizations exhibit the qualities of the group leader. And how many people do you know who exhibit the qualities of the army general?

Regardless of the status in an organization, you will agree that the majority of the socalled leaders exhibit the qualities of the group leader. They achieve the status of the leader but not the state of the leader.

There are very few people who are ready to really help the work get done.

The army general exhibited some of the key qualities that are important for a true leader:

• 1. Honesty and Responsibility
• 2. Caring genuinely about people
• 3. Confidence
• 4. Efficiency and lateral thinking skills
• 5. Attention to detail
• 6. Efficiency and Effectiveness
• 7. Broad-based thinking and doing

I will discuss these traits in greater detail in the following sections.

Leader consciousness

Leadership - a result of a conscious choice made by an individual

What do I mean by this term, 'Leader Consciousness'?

Most of us achieve the status of a leader, but not the state. State is totally different from status. Status comes from society.

A responsible leader is a person who is able to respond spontaneously to situations.

When you are leading a group of people, if you are forced to take the responsibility

of some department or if you take the responsibility out of your greed, the status comes. But the state is totally different.

When I use the word 'state' I mean your inner space or your being should be mature enough to handle what you are entering or the responsibility which you are assuming. When we just get the status without achieving the state, all the problems which exist in the corporate world start - stress and tension in the personal level, and backbiting and politics in the level of the team. All these problems start when you don't achieve the state but just achieve the status.

Here I am trying to express to you the truths from the great traditions of the East, how to achieve leader consciousness, how to achieve the state of the leader and not just the status. See, status is very easy, state is something which we really need to achieve.

Status will simply follow a man who has achieved the state of a leader. Even if the status takes its own time, he will not be bothered, he will live like a king! His very life will be totally fulfilled. The invaluable feeling of fulfillment happens to beings who achieve leader consciousness.

State of a leader Vs Status of a leader

What do I mean by the word, 'state of the leader'?

A true leader is a person who is ready to take responsibility consciously, who is ready to handle life consciously, who is not constantly dependent on the past or his memory. If you are dependent on your memory, if you are dependent on the past to take decisions, please be very clear, you will be a follower. You cannot be a leader.

Responding spontaneously to situations is what I call responsibility.

A responsible leader is a person who is able to respond spontaneously to situations, who is fresh and continuously keeps himself alive, who is not caught in the past.

Let me try to give you a small diagram on how the mind works, how the state of a leader is achieved, how leader consciousness happens in us. Let us understand how the mind works - how we receive data, process it and make decisions.

For example, you are seeing something through your eye. Of course, you receive information through all the five senses -

eyes, ears, nose, tongue and touch. For now, let us take the example of the eye. When you see with your eyes, immediately the file goes to a space called the chakshu* , it is just like a Digital Signal Processor (DSP). Whatever you are seeing through the eye is converted to a bio-signal, just like a digital signal file. This file moves to a space called chitta* in Sanskrit which is just like memory in a computer. Here the process of identification starts. For example, you are now seeing this book the whole file goes to the DSP, chakshu* , and the whole file is converted into a biosignal file, and then it moves to chitta* , memory.

The memory starts analyzing - 'This is not a stone, this is not a tree, this is not an animal…' The elimination process happens in the memory. This process of elimination happens in the memory. Next, the identification, 'This is a book,' happens in the mind or manas* . In the mind, you start identifying, 'This is a book', 'It is a book on spirituality', 'It is written by an enlightened being.'

After identification, the file then moves to a space which I call 'ego', the decisionmaking center. In the ego you start thinking, 'In what way am I connected to this situation?' If your past experiences with similar books were good, you decide to continue to read. If your past experiences were not good, if you felt, 'O, this is not worth it, I felt very bored last time,' or 'I read similar books but did not feel any benefit,' if you feel negative you will decide not to continue reading. The ego decides based on your past experiences. This is the way your mind functions.

Now, the important thing which you need to understand is, the decision is taken unconsciously. If the process happens like this, in a straightforward way, you will not have any problem and things will go very smoothly in your life. Everything will be clear and straight!

But this process does not always happen in a straightforward way. Sometimes things start happening in an unconscious way. For example, if you were hurt or disturbed by

Chakshu - Energy behind the power of sight.

Chitta - Memory.

Manas- Mind.

something that was said in a similar book you read before, the moment you see this book, unconsciously that memory will be awakened.

You see, in your life, if you are hurt or disturbed in a particular place, or by a particular situation, or by a person wearing a particular colored dress, the next time when you go to that place, or the next time you see another person wearing the same colored dress, you will go through the same low mood even if you know logically that the place or that person has nothing to do with your past experiences. You will have that same memory again in your mind. You will again have that same experience. This is what I call 'samskaras' or 'engraved memories'.

These engraved memories distort or disturb your decision-making capacity. You see, if the whole process of the mind map I just described happens consciously, then it is a straightforward and logical process. But due to the unconscious mind, a lot of times, the process is not straightforward. As I described earlier, we tend to get biased based on our experiences we have had with a particular person or a particular situation. This is the space where politics happens! This is the space where things move illogically. This is the space where the past memories or engrams will be sitting and you do not even know what decision you are making!

Let me give you one more example to give you more understanding of the unconscious mind. If we analyze logically or consciously, all of you know that smoking is injurious to health. If we follow through the process from eye to the mind, you know clearly that smoking is injurious to health, according to the data collected by your senses. But suddenly, even though logic tells us not to smoke, you decide to smoke, beyond your logic and consciousness. This is where the unconscious engrams are sitting.

Even though you consciously know that smoking is injurious to health, when the data moves to the ego, when the file takes a quantum leap, you just decide to smoke. Maybe some memory, or some experience which you had in the past must have made you feel relaxed when you smoked. Or maybe when you smoked during your youth, you may have felt like a hero. So these engrams have been associated with this habit, and suddenly, because of this engram you decide to smoke, even if you consciously know that smoking is injurious to health.

In the same way, many times in your life, even if you know what is right, simply you decide unconsciously because of your engrams. Your life is under the control of unconscious engrams, it is not under your control. You may think that you are taking the decision, but your unconscious engrams are taking the decisions!

These samskaras or engrams are the root cause of our behavior. They are the reason why we behave in a certain way with certain people. The engrams tend to cloud our judgments when we have to take decisions. They influence how we accomplish our tasks in an organization. It is these engrams that dictate our productivity, interpersonal skills, teamwork, judgment and all our responses and behavior. But engrams are never understood and more importantly given any importance in the field of corporate training and leadership development.

The Eastern mystics and inner scientists have spent thousands of years developing tools and meditation techniques to cleanse us from these engraved memories. These samskaras can be effectively erased through meditation techniques.

Recently I visited one of my devotee's houses and saw a beautiful one-liner in the living room:

'I am the boss of this house, I have my wife's permission to say so!'

Similarly, you may think you are the boss, but your unconscious engrams are leading you! As long as you are caught by these unconscious samskaras, you can never achieve the state of a leader. You may achieve the status of a leader with a lot of suffering and struggle.

Be very clear, if you sit in the leader's chair If you take decisions consciously, you will never have any stress.

with a lot of suffering and struggle, you will tend to create the same suffering and struggle for your subordinates!

Again and again, your mind will say, 'When I suffered and struggled so much, why not them!' You will just reproduce your old mental setup on others. This can be a very demotivating factor in organizations.

Decision making and stress

Now let me share with you some very important truths.

If you take decisions consciously, you will never have any stress.

Stress happens only when you take decisions unconsciously, when engrams interfere with your decision making. If things are straightforward, you can take thousands of decisions and be completely relaxed. Your life will flow, just like a river!

But if you are filled with engrams, even after taking two or three decisions, you will be completely tired. You don't even have to work, just sit in your chair and think about work, and within half an hour, you

Everyone is a leader in some way or the other of your team or your house.

will have shoulder pain! This means you are caught with

engrams. They do not allow you to take decisions.

When the file takes a quantum leap from the mind, each engram writes its opinion on the file! The more the number of engrams, the more the number of decisions, so when the file reaches the ego, it is completely confused! When three hundred opinions are there on that file, what decision will you take! Your ego says 'Just do whatever you want, just leave me!' You don't have any patience to take any decision and decisions are taken in a very haphazard way, without any clarity.

If you are continuously deciding without any clarity, and you sit in the leader's chair, please be very clear, not only will you be suffering, you will be torturing others also! Everyone is a leader in some way or the other. Either you are the leader of your team or you are the leader of your house. In some way or the other, every one of us is a leader.

A person who is caught by engrams, who is always suffering with engraved memories, can never relax or have a vacation. You can see in your life, early in the morning when you get up and go from your bed to the bathroom, you are brushing your teeth but your mind is already in the office! If you are sitting in the office, the mind is already in the evening at the beach. When you are sitting in the beach and relaxing, your mind is already in the house. One thing is for sure, if your body is here, your mind is not here!

You don't stay in the place that your body is. You are constantly somewhere else. I always tell people, if you are sitting in the house and worrying, it is working from home! If you are sitting in the office and worrying, you are doing your job. If you are sitting in the beach and worrying, you are having a vacation, that's all! The places may be different, but the mental setup is the same!

A person filled with engrams can never relax. If a person is not in a relaxed state of mind, how can we expect creativity or unbiased decision-making? One who is caught up in his engrams can neither have a vacation, nor can he live his life completely. Vacation or work, living or leaving, are both directly related to your consciousness. It is not related to what you are doing, it is related to your being. Only a man who is aware of his being can achieve leader consciousness.

Productivity

Definitions and understanding

A small story:

Once a boss asks his employee, 'Why did it take you six months to complete such a simple task?'

The employee replies, 'Because of your confusing directions, continuous changes and short work days!'

The boss replies, 'I was looking for something like you being lazy!'

So much has been written and said about productivity in organizations. Productivity has become the mantra in organizations for the last two or three decades. As a result of invention of computers and new communications technologies such as the internet and cell phone, the world has become a much smaller place. While there has been an increase in productivity in companies, it has often come at a huge price on the health (physical and mental) and well being of the employees. Let us now start to understand what is productivity and how productivity can be enhanced without the side effects of stress.

In simple terms, productivity can be measured as:

Productivity = Output / Input

The measure of output may be certain number of tasks completed by a particular individual or team or revenue in the case of a manufacturing company. The measure of input may include the number of hours worked on a particular project, manufacturing costs etc.