Leadership Consciousness🔗

Here, Krishna talks about the practical aspects of why a leader needs to act in a responsible manner.

There is a difference between the state of a leader and the status of a leader. Most of us want to attain the status of a leader but not the state. When you achieve the status of the leader, it is ego-fulfilling and you feel great. Most politicians are great examples of this status. They exert the power of their position on others.

Understand how they got that position of power first. They were a little more dominating and a little more convincing than the people whom they were trying to dominate, that's all. It is not that they were more intelligent or more capable. They had greater strength of conviction, whatever it was about, and they were more energetic in convincing others about their conviction. Or probably, because there was no one else to fill in the place, they became the leader!

The state of the leader is something totally different. It is the state of the leader that affects people, whether it is people under a political leader or people in an organization in the corporate world under a CEO. Problems of all kinds, ranging from stress to discontentment and violence, result because the leader has achieved the status and not the state.

I always tell my disciples, 'Practice what I teach you. Don't just preach what I teach. Only by example can you inspire others to follow you.' It is easy to utter words and talk about what you have understood intellectually from my teachings, but that understanding is very shallow.

Deep understanding happens only with experience. Only when it becomes your own experience does the understanding become complete. Then you are unshakeable in your conviction. Otherwise, if the understanding is just based on words, it is based on somebody else's experience and not on your own. Then there is always the possibility that somebody can come and shake your belief. The roots of conviction, in this case, are not deep and strong enough to withstand all kinds of questions.

There are three types of people: the disciples (or the followers), the masters, and the leaders (or guides).

The disciple is one who has not yet experienced the teachings of the masters but who is interested and has embarked upon the path. He needs some guidance on the path. He does not yet know how to practice what is being taught.

The master is one who has had and is in the ultimate experience. He is already in the ultimate state. Out of compassion, he shows the path to reach his state to all those who would like to be in that state. It is not necessary for the master to practice what he preaches because he is beyond the common rules of conduct.

A small story:

Once, there was a Zen master who used to advise people not to smoke. But he himself used to smoke everyday.

One day, a disciple asked him, ‘Master, how can you tell people that they should not smoke when you yourself are smoking?’

The master replied beautifully, ‘Understand, I am not in the same state, the same plane, as the person whom I am teaching.’

Masters are not in the same plane as the followers or the leaders. They need not follow what they tell you to do to reach their state, because they are in a completely different state altogether. They understand the illusion of the physical plane that their body-mind system operates in. Whatever they may do physically is in a state of complete awareness.

I always tell people, they need to be aware and completely present when they eat. But if you have been around me, you will see that I never concentrate on my food when I eat. When I eat, I will be reading something or talking to someone.

It is like this: For you, you have to meditate to be aware of the food you are consuming, so that you eat only as much as is needed and not more as you usually do. But for me, if I am aware, I will not be able to eat the amount of food my body needs. I have to distract myself and remove the awareness and only then the food will go inside! An enlightened being’s system is very different from an ordinary person’s system. That is why things that apply for ordinary people cannot be applied to an enlightened being.

A leader or guide is someone who is in between the master and the follower. He has not yet reached the ultimate state of the master but he has had glimpses of that state. He is not as inexperienced as the follower. He is the bridge to lead the follower to the master. I always tell the teachers of the mission that it is their responsibility to practice what they teach because they are the bridges leading the people they teach to come to me.

One more thing: It is not that you need to practice just so that others get inspired. Understand that the very practice will give deep understanding to you. That is the first effect, the actual result. Being an inspiration to others will be just a byproduct. It will result automatically from the confidence that you radiate in your body language and words when you teach people out of the strength of your own conviction.

In these verses, Krishna beautifully explains what walking the talk means through His own example. He says there is nothing in the three worlds, the nether-world, earth or heaven, for Him to achieve. There is no duty that binds Him. Even though He has nothing to gain, lose or even to do, He is constantly engaged in action. Why?

Because people look up to Him as God, they would obviously follow the path He sets. They would simply follow what He does. He is now responsible for leading them on the correct path.

So even though He Himself has no reason to engage in work, He does so for the sake of the people who will follow Him. If He did not engage in action, people would follow His example and fall into inaction or tamas.

Every year, I take people to the Himalayan mountains. The Himalayas are an energy field; they are living energy. It is a lifetime experience to be in the lap of nature, to be in the amazing energy field there. It can be a tremendous inspiration, a powerful transformation just seeing and living life in the Himalayas for fifteen days.

In the Himalayas, we do various types of rituals at various places, at the cār dhām (the four sacred pilgrimage centers in that area). Of what use are the rituals to me? But I do them for you so that you understand their significance and you get inspired to do them and benefit from them.

After enlightenment, I came from the Himalayas to be amidst the people. I could have just stayed there happily and blissfully. But I have come here because people need to be guided on the right path. That is why masters come to planet earth - to guide people.

Seeing me work constantly, being intensely involved in work, whether it is administration or giving discourses or planning upcoming activities or healing people or teaching, whatever the action may be, people are inspired to be engaged in work constantly, blissfully enjoying every moment.

I don’t have to give you my words. You can see me and learn from my body language much more than from my words. I give you words only to silence your mind so that you can absorb my energy. Otherwise, if I don’t talk, you will be chattering inside yourself and will miss my message.

As Krishna says, I need to be careful what I do for the sake of those who follow.

The problem is, what I do is my experience. It is an expression of my experience. Unless you experience it yourself, it cannot become your truth. So the same action will have a completely different meaning and effect when done by a disciple than when done by a master. But if you follow the master's teachings and watch his body language, you will imbibe enlightenment itself.

For example, look at a simple teaching by Buddha, ‘Watch your breath.’ This very simple vipāsana meditation technique has led thousands of people to enlightenment.

But look at a seemingly powerful discovery of the principle behind the atom bomb: the nuclear fission. It was a great truth, but when it came into the hands of an ignorant person who did not understand the implications of it, it resulted in so many countries piling up so many atomic weapons that the earth can now be destroyed several times over!

It is the energy behind the action, the energy of the being that decides the quality and hence, the effect of the action. It is not the action itself that decides the quality.

You must have seen that there are some people who can get away with anything, even something that would normally appear as a disrespectful action. But somehow, the action does not hurt people. It is because there was no negative attitude or vengeance behind the act.

Children get away with so many things like even hitting you, and you actually enjoy it rather than feel hurt or insulted. Can you imagine feeling like this if an adult hits you? The innocence of the child and the honest simplicity of the child's act is what that makes even the act of hitting beautiful. The energy of the child, its intelligence, is completely behind the action. This is unlike an adult whose intellect may be behind the act, the mind is behind the act, but the intelligence is not there because there is a certain unconscious vengeance in the act.

Masters act out of pure compassion in whatever they do. That is why so often, even when I scold people, the person does not carry vengeance towards me. Scolding is also for your good, for your ego to be removed. It will seem painful because the ego, which you have been thinking is you, is being pulled out. But your being understands that it is for your good that what is not you is being removed. There is pure compassion even in scolding. That is why in the very next moment after scolding, I can be completely different, showering love. There was no vengeance to hold onto in that act of scolding. It was just complete truth at that moment, pure compassionate energy. That is why it can switch to loving emotion the very next minute. Every instance is pure in its own way.

But what happens when you get angry with someone and scold him, say your child? The anger takes you over. Instead of you controlling the anger, it controls you and you misuse it because you are not conscious during the action.

You are driven by your past perceptions, by your memories of similar incidents in the past when your child did not behave as you expected, and you react with more anger than his current act deserves. Anger is also energy but you need to handle it with respect. Just like you respect money and hence you never pay someone more than necessary, when you realize the power of the anger energy, you respect it and do not pay the other person more anger than necessary.

If you give just the right anger energy, it can be transformational, but your negative attitude behind the action creates an undesired result and the person carries a certain vengeance towards you which even he may not be conscious of.

Be very clear, the other person's vengeance is the result of your very own vengeance, which you did not realize was there in your own action because you were not completely aware when you were scolding.

I always tell people, 'When I am compassionate, I cheat you. When I scold you, I teach you. Either way, you grow.' When I scold you, you are jolted into the present moment. Suddenly, in a flash, you get the awareness that you have been missing. The energy behind my words is purely for your transformation. There is only pure compassion. There is no vengeance against anyone or any vested interest for myself.

Q: Swamiji, in India we are brought up to follow rituals and idol worship. Are you for or against these?

First of all, I am neither for nor against idol worship or rituals – or anything, for that matter!

But there is a reason why idol worship is so common in India and elsewhere in the East. For a beginner on the spiritual journey, it is difficult to conceive of the

Divine in the abstract. When given a form, the concept is crystallized into something he understands and can relate to.

With an idol, he can commune with the Divine in the language that he is familiar with. Our thousands of deities are nothing but expressions of the Divine. And yet anyone can talk to them, pray to or play with them, seek solace or offer gratitude. The whole awesome, indefinable nature of the Divine is scaled down to comforting proportions in the form of the deity. It has to be this way; the Divine without form is simply too terrifying a concept for the ordinary mind.

At a deeper, subtler level, there is one more message being reinforced - the idol before you is cast in the same form as yours, and yet it is divine. What does that say about you? Think about it. It says that you too are divine!

If you are an idol worshipper, there is no need to condemn yourself.

As you grow spiritually, you will find yourself able to commune with the Divine just as well without an idol. Just as children stop playing with dolls once they grow older, you will drop the idols of your own accord when the time comes. But right now if it gives you a sense of wellbeing to worship your favorite deity, do so by all means.

Spirituality is a vast, shoreless ocean. When you are just learning to swim, it certainly helps your confidence to hold onto a lifebuoy, something you can be sure of, something that won't let you down. As you grow stronger and surer, you will naturally shake off its hold and enter the deep waters, freely and fearlessly.

As for rituals, it has been scientifically proved that certain colors, sounds and actions can deeply impact your state of mind, activate desired areas of the brain, and expand your consciousness. Rituals have lost their credibility today only because their true meaning has been lost upon the masses over time. Only the shell of ritual remains; the spirit has departed.

So even if they seem irrelevant to you today, never underestimate the true potential of rituals. Rituals are the distillation of centuries of wisdom and the penance of innumerable enlightened masters. When performed in the proper way, rituals have tremendous power to bring about unimaginable levels of awareness and change within us.

In the ashram, you may often find me performing pūjā (worship) and yāga (fire ritual). The fact is, these mean nothing to me. I don't need a channel to commune with the Divine. These are for the people.

These are done to draw people into a familiar territory, a space where they feel secure and tranquil. In an atmosphere that years of worship have sanctified, bowing before your beloved deities and listening to the chanting of well-known mantras, a silent, meditative state is naturally induced in you.

At this time you are completely open and surrendered, receptive to my energy. This is the time when I can truly work upon you, without your intellect and without your resistance. Can you understand me now?

Of course, I have never given up being a child, and so I perfectly enjoy my play with these dolls, these deities - but that is another matter!