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India Today Conclave

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Day 2 March 14, '08

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Human bodies and minds are tools for self-preservation: Vasudev

Damayanti Dutta

New Delhi, March 14, 2008

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"Is spirituality relevant to leadership?" On the second day of the India Today Conclave 2008, the first session post-lunch was all about mind, body and the elusive concept of "experiencing life". An existential agenda that was a far cry from the hard number-crunching, visions of wealth creation, virtual connectivity and dualities of democracy that did the rounds in the morning.

Unlike the previous sessions, however, the spotlight on spirituality turned tetchy, with people on the podium locking horns, exchanging harsh words and refusing to yield even one graceful inch to each other.

Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, Yogi, Mystic & Spiritual Master; and Danah Zohar, Thought Leader, Physicist, Philosopher & Author

For Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, spirituality is one's ability to experience life

In a landscape where no one agreed to anything anyone else had to say, the only buy-in rested on the definition of leadership. If to Javed Akhtar, the session chairperson, leadership is all about thinking and walking ahead, to Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev — yogi, mystic and the founder of Isha Foundation — a leader is someone who can 'see' things others cannot. To Danah Zohar — management thought leader, physicist, philosopher and author — a leader is someone who can make a difference that others cannot. But up on stage, clever play of words stifled the underlying continuities as the performers refused to acknowledge that connection.

"Spiritualism, like socialism, is losing its shape this century," said Akhtar, setting the tone for the session. "I have never come across a guru who could define clearly what they meant by spiritualism."

It's one's ability to "experience life", retorted Vasudev. Human bodies and minds, he held, are tools for self-preservation ("to protect the boundaries"). Spirituality is the "longing" to transcend the boundaries. If the five sense organs are outward-bound, spirituality is the journey inward and it's premised on the singular assumption: "I don't know."

For Zohar, however, spirituality is not outside the mind-body experience. She called it "spiritual intelligence" — a combination of spontaneity, visions and values, holistic perception of the world, the ability to reframe one's paradigms, positive use of adversity, celebrating diversity, standing out against the tide, humility, compassion and a call to vocation. "Spiritual intelligence is how we understand the deeper meaning of life," she pointed out, "the deeper purpose, the deeper values that underlie our behaviour."

Is there any tectonic difference between what the speakers preached? "Not really," went the audience verdict. Yet, the session ended with Akhtar and Zohar on the war path, questioning Vasudev's assumptions ("All gurus are anti-mind") or labelling his views regressive or outdated ("What he is saying is outdated…one of those old Indian truisms").

As the session came to an end, the guru continued to smile like the Buddha, the audience left the hall a wee-bit chafed at the disharmony, old news hands smiled the Cheshire grin. Controversy sells, after all.

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from the chairman

What India needs is political vision and a leadership that has nothing at stake except India.

Aroon Purie
Chairman & Editor-in-Chief
India Today Group

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