Top

Published in:

2017 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

9. Leadership and Sustainability

Author : Satinder Dhiman

Published in: Leadership Today

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Activate our intelligent search to find suitable subject content or patents.

search-config

AI-assisted search

Off

Abstract

This chapter explores the inherent interconnectedness of sustainability and spirituality, and the role of leadership in honoring and maintaining this interconnectedness. We believe that unless people’s moral and spiritual qualities are nurtured and developed, the best of sustainability efforts will not work. Similarly, our political and economic thinking need to be attuned to spirituality rather than materialism—no economics is any good that does not make sense in terms of morality. After all, we are “Homo moralis” and not “Homo economicus.” We need to refuse to treat economics and politics as if people do not matter. We believe that the way to achieve harmonious living in all spheres is through ethics and spirituality at the personal level. The journey for world transformation starts at the individual level. The chapter contends that true ecological sustainability, in contrast to the cosmetic variety we see around us, depends upon our deeper understanding of fundamental spiritual values such as interconnectedness and oneness, nonviolence and compassion, contribution and selfless service.

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 102.000 Bücher
über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 67.000 Bücher
über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

previous chapter Leadership and Spirituality

next chapter Leadership and Mindfulness

K. A. Krishnaswamy Iyer, Collected Works of K. A. Krishnaswamy Iyer (Holenarasipur: Adhyatma Prakasha Karyalaya, 2006), 239.

All translations of the Bhagavad Gītā verses are by Gambhirananda (1984) and/or Swarupananda (1996). All verses of the Gītā are presented in the following manner: chapter number, followed by the verse number. For example, 13.26 means Chapter 13, verse 26.

K. A. Krishnaswamy Iyer, Collected Works., 251. This is Mr. Iyer’s rendition of Gita’s verse Chapter 13, verse 28. This author has not come across such a unique and apt interpretation anywhere else.

Sir S. Radhakrishnan, as cited in D. S. Sarma, Lectures on the Bhagavad Gita, with an English translation of the Bhagavad Gita (Maylapore, The M.L.J. Press; 4th edition, 1945), viii.

Juan Mascaró, translated and selected, The Upanishads (New York: Penguin Books, 1965/1979), 43.

Upaniṣads are spiritual treatises of Hinduism that contain the culminating wisdom of the Vedās. They are also known as Vedānta (Veda + anta: the end of the Veda). Literally, the Sanskrit word Upaniṣad means “sitting down near”: upa (near), ni (down), and shad (to sit). That is, knowledge received by sitting down humbly near a teacher. Alternatively, the word Upaniṣad could denote: upa (near), ni (definitive, doubt-free), and shad (to loosen or to destroy). So it represents that knowledge which destroys ignorance most certainly and brings the seeker close to the Ultimate Reality of his/her own existence. A book that contains such knowledge is therefore called Upaniṣad.

The greatest Indian philosopher and commentator of sacred Hindu texts, Ādi Śan˙karācārya, takes this derivation and therefore equates the term Upaniṣad with self-knowledge (ātma-vidyā) or the knowledge of the Absolute (Brahma-vidyā). This is also referred to as “secret knowledge” or “esoteric knowledge.” The secrecy is not so much a matter of unwillingness on the part of the teacher to reveal this teaching as it is to ensure preparedness on the part of the student to receive this knowledge.

Juan Mascaró, translated and selected, The Upanishads (New York: Penguin Books, 1965/1979), 49.

Thomas Weber, “Gandhi’s Moral Economics: The Sins of Wealth Without Work and Commerce Without Morality,” in Judith M. Brown and Anthony Parel, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Gandhi (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2011), p. 138. See also: Eknath Easwaran, The Upanishads, Translated for the Modern Reader (Tomales, CA: Nilgiri Press, 1987), 205.

Eknath Easwaran, trans., The Upanishads, Translated for the Modern Reader (Berkeley, CA: Nilgiri Press, 1987), 205.

Ibid., 12.

Ibid., 1.

“It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.” Edmund Hillary Quotes. Retrieved February 15, 2015, http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edmund_Hillary.

José Ortega y Gasset. (1961). Meditations on Quixote, trans. Evelyn Rugg and Diego Marín. New York: W.W. Norton and Company., p. 45.

Swami Muni Narayan Prasad in his commentary on the Gītā titled Life’s Pilgrimage through the Gītā: A Commentary on the Bhagavad Gītā (New Delhi: D. K. Printworld, 2005), 105, tells us that “such examples of mutual satisfaction are found everywhere. When mango trees bloom as spring arrives, along with it come thousands of bees to enjoy the nectar of mango blossom. The pollination that takes place with the help of the bees ensures the happiness of the tree … animals, and humans.”

Michael N. Nagler cited in Eknath Easwaran, trans., The Upanishads, Translated for the Modern Reader (Berkeley, CA: Nilgiri Press, 1987), 207.

Cohen, Patricia (January 19, 2015). “Richest 1% Likely to Control Half of Global Wealth by 2016, Study Finds”. New York Times. Retrieved July 10, 2015: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/19/business/richest-1-percent-likely-to-control-half-of-global-wealth-by-2016-study-finds.html?_r=0.

Scott Neuman (January 20, 2014). Oxfam: World’s Richest 1 Percent Control Half Of Global Wealth. Retrieved July 11, 2015: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/01/20/264241052/oxfam-worlds-richest-1-percent-control-half-of-global-wealth.

http://worldcentric.org/conscious-living/social-and-economic-injustice.

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/810#3.

Arun Gandhi, Personal Phone Interview with the author, February 2, 2013, (unpublished transcripts)

Veerendrakumar cited in the Publisher’s Note to V. Panoli, trans., Prasthanathraya Volume II: Isa, Kena, Katha and Mandukya Upanishad with the Karika of Gaudapada (Kochi: Mathrubhumi MM Press, 2006), v.

Gerardo Ceballos, Paul R. Ehrlich, Anthony D. Barnosky, Andrés García, Robert M. Pringle, Todd M. Palmer, “Accelerated modern human–induced species losses: Entering the sixth mass extinction,” Environmental Sciences June, 19, 2015, 1-5. Retrieved July 10, 2015: http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/advances/1/5/e1400253.full.pdf.

For further details, also see: Dahr Jamail, Mass Extinction: It’s the End of the World as We Know It. Retrieved July 10, 2015: http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/31661-mass-extinction-it-s-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it.

To read more about how specific environments and communities suffer from transglobal corporate profit-seeking, see: Profit or Planet: Truthout Environmental Series. Retrieved July 11, 2015: http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/22419-planet-or-profit.

A quote widely attributable to Jonas Salk. Sir Ken Robinson in his famous 2006 Ted talk titled “Do Schools Kill Creativity,” also attributes it to Jonas Salk. Transcript retrieved March 10, 2016: http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity/transcript?language=en.

Swami Dayananda Saraswati, Global Warming—A Solution. http://www.arshavidya.org/SiteResource/Site_104886/Customize/Image/GlobalWarming.jpg

Global Warning: Climate Change and Farm Animal Welfare. Compassion in World Farming, 2008. Retrieved July 10, 2015: http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/animalwelfare/GlobalWarningExecutiveSummary1.pdf.

Steinfeld H et al., Livestock’s Long Shadow: environmental issues and options. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Rome. 2006. http://www.virtualcentre.org/en/library/key_pub/longshad/A0701E00.htm.

Ibid.

Swami Nikhalananda, trans. and ed., The Upanishads: A One Volume Abridgement (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1964), 347.

Acharya Buddharakkhita, trans., Dhammapada: The Buddha’s Path of Wisdom (Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1985), 43.

This section is partially based on author’s recent book, Gandhi and Leadership: New Horizons in Exemplary Leadership (Palgrave Macmillan, USA, 2015), which devotes a full-length chapter on Seven Deadly Sins of Humanity. This book explores the spiritual and moral mainstay of Gandhi’s leadership.

Eknath Easwaran, The Compassionate Universe: The Power of the Individual to Heal the Environment (California: Nilgiri Press, 1989), 24.

Mahōpani˙sad—VI.73 (a). Alternative rendering: For those who live magnanimously, the entire world constitutes but a family. See: Dr. A.G. Krishna Warrier, trans., Maha Upanishad (Chennai: The Theosophical Publishing House, n.d.). Accessed February, 14, 2015. http://advaitam.net/upanishads/sama_veda/maha.html.

Schumacher, Small Is Beautiful, 34.

Eknath Easwaran, The Compassionate Universe: The Power of the Individual to Heal the Environment (California: Nilgiri Press, 1989), 20.

John E. Carroll, Sustainability and Spirituality (New York: State University of New York Press, 2004), 6.

Easwaran, The Compassionate Universe, 10.

Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom , Fortieth Anniversary Edition (New York: University of Chicago Press, 2002), 133.

Cited in J. S. Rajput, Seven Social Sins: The Contemporary Relevance (New Delhi: Allied Publishers, 2012), 10.

Cited in Steve Denning, “The Origin of ‘The World’s Dumbest Idea’: Milton Friedman,” Forbes (June 26, 2013).

Easwaran, The Compassionate Universe, 7.

John E. Carroll, Sustainability and Spirituality (New York: State University of New York Press, 2004), 6.

Easwaran, The Compassionate Universe, 10.

Dayananda, S. (2009). The value of values (Rev. ed.). Chennai, India: Arsha Vidya Research and Publication Trust.

Dhiman, S. (2015). Gandhi and leadership: New horizons in exemplary leadership. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Gambhirananda, S. (1984). Bhagavad Gita with the commentary of Sankaracharya. Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama.

José Ortega y Gasset. (1961). Meditations on Quixote (E. Rugg & D. Marín, Trans.). New York: W.W. Norton.

Swarupananda, S. (1996). Srimad Bhagavad Gita. Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama.

Title: Leadership and Sustainability
Author: Satinder Dhiman
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Book: Leadership Today
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-31034-3

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-31036-7

Copyright Year: 2017
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31036-7_9