Karma Capitalism

Found this article on management and the Bhagavad-gita. Karma capitalism.

I think it's great that they're finding their ways to holistic ways of dealing with their lives and the planet. The Bhagavad-gita has so much in it for us all. But when using it we should consider it in a holistic way too. It is possible to use it to increase our ego, or as a tool for domination, if we just pick out a verse here and there. But of course, detachment to the result of our actions, which is quite a central theme, cannot be achieved through devious means.

Yes, we should consider all our employees, and all who profit and are affected by our business (including the earth), but that can only be achieved by putting God in the centre. We did not create the earth, after all, so whatever we use should be done as an act of gratitude to the creator. Otherwise we're thiefs, aren't we?

It's about perspectives, and stretching them just a bit further to include an increasingly bigger picture. If we move away from the 'competitive' paradigm to a more 'co-operational' one, we see how we also benefit by looking out for each other. In fact, we derive a greater satisfaction and pleasure by doing so.

The 'new' management paradigm further suggest that business become more successful and satisfying when leaders see themselves as servants to the employees, and the greater interest (society as a whole, the environment etc).

What the Bhagavad-gita is trying to do is to stretch our perspectives even further, to include the source of the creation. When we manage to do that, and to connect to that source with love, then everything just clicks to place, and makes complete sense. It will connect us with our deepest truth and dreams, and unleash a tremendous amount of satisfaction.

Midnight stream

Brambles and bumbles, and beer - naaaa
No alcohol here
We're as straight as Euclid's line, but real
Real blood, sweat, and tears
With love and tenderness,
with affectionate regard
Embarrassed at our feable need,
and here we are -
little ones, but oh so precious.
Precious to God,
- what else do we need?

Another quote

Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.

Nelson Mandela

Henry Miller

I've just come across some beautiful quotations by Henry Miller that I want to share:

"Imagination is the voice of daring. If there is anything Godlike about God it is that. He dared to imagine everything."

"Life has no other discipline to impose, if we would but realize it, than to accept life unquestioningly. Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source of beauty, joy and strength, if faced with an open mind. Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such."

"Sex is one of the nine reasons for reincarnation. The other eight are unimportant."

"Confusion is a word we have invented for an order which is not understood."

"If there is to be any peace it will come through being, not having."

"The real leader has no need to lead - he is content to point the way."

I've never read anything by him, but he seems quite insightful.

Misfits

Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round heads in the square holes. The ones who see things differently.

They're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status-quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them.

But the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

Jack Kerouac

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Maybe we shuld just go mad - and change the world!

I would say that Srila Prabhupada was such a person, in a spiritual sense. I read briefly yesterday a talk he gave to some international student society in 1969. He started of by speaking about the meaning of 'international', in that we want to bring people together, in e.g. the UN, but that we can only do that when we put God in the centre. That's a truly revolutionary thought, isn't it?

When you throw a stone in the water you get rings of ripples expanding from it, without them colliding with each other. But the opposite happens when you throw in a few stones at the same time. Real harmony can thus only be there when we place God is in the centre.

We expand our concerns from ourselves to international matters, like the expanding ripples in the water, but it will only work when the centre is right. It's such a simple concept, but, O so deep.

Some say that religion is the cause of all the troubles in the world: that we have too many people putting God in the centre and thus we have so many conflicts. I would say that we have too few putting God in the centre - far too few.

Sometimes we use the name of God for our own self-interest, or to justify our feelings of hatred and desires for revenge, but then we've strayed away from the centre. God is a not a baseball bat, nor a ladder for wealth and power - He's so much more sublime and wonderful than that.

A devotee of the Lord (Prabodhananda Sarasvati) compares the highest achievements in this world with a flower in the sky (akasha-pushpayate); i.e. they are imaginary or without real substance. A flower in the sky is not tangible, nor does it have any fragrance - it's just an idea. You can't enjoy it because it doesn't exist. This is how this devotee feels about wordly goals, because he's tasted some of the beauty of God.

This does not mean that such a devotee feels contempt for the world - no, he'll just remind us again, and again, to put God in the centre of our lives, just like Srila Prabhupada did. And that's maybe how we can change the world...

Invitation

I got this invitation the other day:

"We invite you to submit a paper/abstract to The 3rd International Symposium on Management, Engineering and Informatics (MEI 2007) in the Context of The 11th World Multi-conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (WMSCI 2007) (http://www.iiis-cyber.org/mei2007). IT will take place in Orlando, Florida, USA, from July 8-11, 2007. "

I thought it cute. What could I speak about? 'How to manage oneself out of a waste paper basket', or, 'Life Engineering - the life and experience of a human submarine'? Anyway, thank you for the invitation, but it's little bit away from my area...