“The purpose of wealth is to create wellness. Finding balance and inner peace is essential for entrepreneurs as well as citizens. Both are a pre-requisite for growth and development,” said Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Founder, The Art of Living. Speaking on the third and final day of the CII Partnership Summit 2018 in a session titled “Special plenary with a social icon” in Visakhapatnam on Monday, the spiritual guru said, “Wealth means health. Not just an absence of ill-health but a soul functioning at the highest level of one’s consciousness.”
“You cannot squander half of your health to earn wealth and then squander half of your wealth to regain health. It just doesn’t make business or economic sense”, the Gurudev pointed out.
Pointing out to the problems that a blind resort to development can produce, he said that the “UK government had now to create a department solely to tackle the problem of loneliness in society.”
He said that “sewa” or giving back to society should be an important mark of an entrepreneur’s mental makeup as that will giving him “the greatest satisfaction” and the best use of the wealth that he has created.
Mr N Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, said that the “only way to leads one’s life is by adopting integrity and ethics as a life skill. Creation of ill-gotten wealth will create problems.” Mr Naidu explained that one of his government’s aim was to make a “happy society” even while maximising growth and development and that he had announced a “happy Sunday” to encourage citizens and their families to come outdoors and mix with the community as “human interaction was a critical ingredient in upping the happiness quotient of the people.”
On the prevailing quest for “instant gratification” by both citizens and businesses, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said that while that was a “normal human instinct”, developing an attitude of “patience” was a necessity. “We need passion but not feverishness, need dispassion but not apathy. We need dynamism infused with patience and consciousness,“ he cautioned.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar outlined three mantras for success for in the Indian situation today. One, trust in oneself; two, trust in the Indian system; and three, trust in the resilience and dynamism of the Indian people.
Asked about today’s increasing resort to the gadgets like the smartphone as a constant and demanding companion, he said, “Sometimes we need be in the airplane mode. Keep the devices aside for some part of the day and try to connect with nature, the community and experience silence. It can be therapeutic and remove some of the imbalances in your mental and spiritual makeup. Most of all, invest in yourself. Shift the context of your universe”.
The session was moderated by Pranjal Sharma, Author, Kranti Nation: India and the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
No comments:
Post a Comment