educated elite, who went to the extent of proclaiming that religion is a private affair and that it has no role in social life. It is the received wisdom of many educated people at present. They are bent on removing cultural ethos from our life, because of a way of life which strives to differentiate between the private and professional life, and which we have imported into our thoughts without its cultural context.
Those Indians who learnt in English presumably say that there should be no place for the ‘organised religion’ in the social sphere. Dharma is an all-encompassing idea or a way of life in the cultural sense in India. It is the sum of all traditions in the Society. All values are preserved in that idea of Dharma. In that sense you cannot keep Dharma out of our social discourse. Since educated Indians have forgotten their sense of ‘self’ and as they do not have a clear concept about the word Dharma, they have attempted to banish Dharma from social life creating a vacuum in the society as far as good thoughts and behaviour are concerned. They are unleashing the individual desires without any control mechanism and giving them free reign over their actions. People are therefore running in pursuit of unending desires and their fulfilment in whatever way possible. People have lost the peace of mind. Taking Drugs, and violence are growing unchecked and we expect government, which is the weakest finger in the social context, to control these activities. It is a losing game.
Swami Vivekanand has put this problem in the following words. He says: Everyone has two options. You either idealise the reality or realise the ideals. You have to make a choice. If you say that whatever exists is good then nothing remains to be done. Once you accept this softer option then you become free to engage in mental and verbal gymnastics.
In India those who think in English have denied their umbilical cord with the traditions of this land. The members of the English-thinking minority are regarded as intellectuals, and they have disproportionate influence in the social discourse. They consider this search at the roots for values as a foolish endeavour. They call it a retrograde attitude.
The first question that arises is whether as a manager you are ready to take ideological jump? Once you take a jump, then you will realise that there are very few ready fixes. You will have to check every action of yours in the context of these basic tenets. There will be a lot of bumps and wrong turns. The accepted wisdom and solutions will have to be given up. Many new solutions will emerge. There will be mistakes and many experiments will have to be made. Then in consonance with the mind of the people working with you, new paths will be visible and you will have to traverse them. Many of our old rituals will show new meanings to the discerning eyes. New meanings of our actions will become visible. It is possible that we will find the reasons and replies to the original question of
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