A Lesson from Corporate Environment

Recently I encountered a situation that taught me a lesson or two from the corporate world. I was scheduled to meet the Heads-CRM & HR of a multinational firm in Mumbai recently to discuss a training content on behalf of my client. Since the place was so far from home and I boarded a train that wasn't scheduled to stop at my destination I had to travel all the way back from a far-off station to reach the venue an hour late. By then the executives were upset with my late coming. However I met the HR Head and apologised a couple of times for being so late due to the lack of alertness while boarding a train. At some point I felt that I was overdoing the apology session hence I consciously decided to get on to the matter as soon as possible.

When I started the dry run of the module, I was requested by the Head-CRM to stop and he conveyed his annoyance over my demeanour of not apologising in the forum before I started the presentation. Needless to say that it was an embarrassing moment for me since I expected everything to go smooth and there was a distortion that was unexpected. At this moment though I told him that I apologised several times to his colleague he wasn't ready to buy my point. His stress was on a Customer Service Trainer practising the etiquette himself prior to training his students. I apologised to him in the forum hence he became receptive to what I had to present further on. I learnt a few valuable lessons from this experience.

1. Don't take anything for granted. I got in to a wrong train based on my earlier experiences of travelling by train in Mumbai. I did not realise that same routes have stops based on timings of the day. I always need to be alert not to repeat these kind of mistakes.

2. If a mistake is committed apologise to all involved. I did not apologise to the Head CRM as I did with the Head HR infact several times. So he did not know that I too was feeling miserable about being late.

3. The Head CRM could have addressed the issue differently at a different time rather than crashing the start of my presentation. Once it was distorted it became urgent and important for me to manage the recovery of the situation. If the discussion had to take off on a tangent the whole show would have collapsed leaving a negative taste for all the parties involved. Considering the environment, people and purpose before making a critical statement is important in life.

I am glad that God made me aware of a few more things in life.

Hatred and Spiritual State

Today we had a few seekers home from a spiritual organisation. We consider ourselves lucky to have seekers coming home with their high energies levels. We chatted about things that were happening around us – from terrorism to war fear. This organisation’s effort to fight unrighteousness around us provoked me to think of one basic principle of Spirituality and Godliness.
Spirituality is about unconditional love because so is God. The natural state of self is Sat-Chit-Ananda that can manifest pure love and nothing else. The natural state of a being is spiritual hence the highest form of bliss. When one is in a state of bliss he cannot hate anything or anyone. If he confronts something that is distasteful to the spiritual values of the society, in a blissful or a high spiritual state he can transform what he confronted. This simply means that spiritually high souls with their energy will transform what is undesirable to something desirable with the power of love.
Spiritually speaking, we cannot hate a being because of him being negatively charged. When we hate even a wrongdoer it is against the laws of spirituality. Hatred is a state of mind that is unspiritual even if it is against a wrongdoer. It doesn’t matter whether you hate a criminal or an innocent. The mere state of being in hatred attributes to one’s spiritual degradation no matter what position he holds in the eyes of the society. Therefore we understand that the religious leaders who sow the seeds of hatred in the name of righteousness are responsible for the degradation of their followers’ spiritual level as well as their own.
As one increases his spiritual practises he will gain enough subtle power which will help him operate from a domain of peace and love. One may wonder how difficult this is to practice but I have come across many occasions in my life where I have approached challenges with love and yielded positive results effortlessly. It is a matter of increasing the spiritual strength with the desired practices as per one’s own religion. I promise – One can start reaping the fruits of bliss and operate from this domain to enjoy a more meaningful spiritual life.

dreams

I was born happy and free.
My desires no bound could they see.

In my heart desires took birth.
The mere feel of them was great in worth.

Childhood,teens and youth all along ,
I remained unclear to sing that song.

I believed in what people called security
but late did i realise that life is a beauty.

As the colours are to flowers and drops are to rain,
My DREAMS are for my happiness and not to stay in vain.

Pleasures are from the things that fascinates us,
But only the realisation of our dreams completes us.

NTPC Training 1st Schedule - Banaras

Its been a few days since I blogged as I had been travelling up north. I enjoyed being with NTPC Executive Trainee Batch 08 for 2 consequetive weeks at Bijpur and Singrauli, around 225 kms  from Banaras. Firstly I pay my sincere gratitude to God and also Asif Naqvi of Noida - Director of Ocean HR who made this possible for me conduct this great training event. This opportunity to train knocked on my doors and materialised in no time as it was dropped by God in to my hands.  

My first week of training was at Bijpur and the plant is known as "Rihand" named after a river flowing in UP. The batch was of 38 boys who are recruited from IIT and NIT campuses across the country. The six day programme dealt with management skills alongwith campus to corporate transition. The entire batch is filled with energy and enthusiasm that made the learning interesting for them through all the 6 days.  My realisation is that NTPC as a public sector unit is very fortunate to have such teams to take its vision to the next levels. My next schedule was at Singrauli that is 40 kms far from Bijpur. The plant is named "Vindhyachal" - I was told that the name has a spiritual link to a mata called "Vindhyachal". This batch had 32 participants that included 9 girls. All of them are recruited from various IITs and NITs. A vibrant and fun loving team that thoroughly enjoyed all the sessions with zeal and enthusiasm. All the participants promised to think positively and make a difference in their actions to excel in life as great managers and great beings. I felt happy to be with all of them for all those 12 days. I have 2 more batches to train this month starting from 13th Oct - 25th Oct. To God, I dedicate all those participants as learners and me as a trainer to be guided to achieve the objectives of the training. 

On my way back I stayed at Banaras for a day to visit Ganga ghats and Saarnath where Buddha gave first satsang to his first 5 disciples. Though I wanted to spend some time in meditation and learning at Saarnath, I had to rush back to catch my train to Mumbai. However I have decided to keep 2 days at Banaras this time to benefit spiritually as much as I can. Being in Banaras was a dream coming true for me. From my childhood I have always dreamt Banaras ghats and the temple town. I believe that this is one way of our pure thoughts and dreams getting manifested dramatically and effortlessly. Whatever Rhonda Byrne has written deserves to be considered by all readers of "The Secret". 

The Enemy Of Personal Growth & Leadership

Today I took a break from my hectic schedule that has been on for the past few days. I am back in Mumbai after training a group of new scientist recruits at Pune for the Defence Ministry. The topic was Team Management. The preparation for this workshop made me think of various aspects of personal growth of an individual. I could see the fact that the environment where a child is brought up has a major role in his personal growth. The conditioning of one’s mind is very active through his growing years. As a child grows in to an adult, he loses his freedom to think and respond. Though we believe that a child becomes free as he grows and he is capable of taking decisions, the fact is that he is restrained by the conditioning of his subconscious mind. Let me explain this further. When a child was born, he did not have any or had less images and impressions in his subconscious mind. Each time he came across a situation or teaching, he strengthened those impressions in his subconscious mind. For eg;- When his parents criticised him for one of his actions, he developed a reaction towards the situation. It could be fear, revolt or a positive understanding. His future actions in like situations will depend on the conditioning of his mind. If a parent unconsciously promoted his career in the family, the child would have thought of a career in line with the one that of his parent. If the parent made his child believe in a secured job, he would look for job rather than opting an enterprise of his own. Mind conditioning plays a great role in one’s life. Whenever one has believed in something blindly, that belief has always manifested. That is the law of Universe. At times we wonder why things don’t happen as we believe. My researches have proved that we usually TRY to believe in something or someone. When we doubt even slightly, there is no belief present in the situation. Belief or faith can never be little or more. It can only be absolute. You either ‘have faith’ or ‘not have faith’. We can never have some faith.
Conditioning is bundle of beliefs and faith. These beliefs and faith make us perceive our life and future in advance, hence we become. Conditioning can destroy the potential of a human life. Therefore one has to come out of his conditioned subconscious mind. This may not be easy only at the mental or physical level. One has to adopt a combination of physical, mental and spiritual activities to achieve the freedom of mind as of a child. When we become fearless like children, we make better leaders, better decision makers, better implementers, better human beings and better masters. So let us take the first conscious move right away to embrace freedom...freedom of mind...freedom of soul and let us make better leaders. We will consciously wipe out the monster called “conditioning of mind”.

The Country Road Heroes

Its been 2 weeks since I blogged the first time. Since then I have been travelling and finding less time to write, I am doing this journal from jabalpur airport, where I am waiting to board my flight to Indore and then to Mumbai on my way back from a training for Sales Managers of a tractor manufaturing company.I travelled to their Nagpur factory on the 11th and 12th of June 08to conduct Sales Manager Training for delegates who joined me from Vidharbha Region, a spot which has been in news for its number of farmer suicides in half a decade. It was truely an amazing experience to interact and to be their trainer where I experienced the power of simplicity in its true sense. There were 28 partipants in all. Many of them have a great clarity of thinking. They knew that the work what they did, meant a nation's economy that depended so much on agricltureand farming. I have great regards for these men. They lead simple lives. They did not depend on internet or wifis for their communication needs.They travelled distances...day on day...month on month...year on year... to ensure that tractors worth over half a million rupees are sold to whoever thought he was a farmer.

I have a great learning from their story. They achieved a growth rate of over 400% (In numbers of tractors sold) in the last 2 years for the region, using a processed based selling system that was taught to them. I experienced conviction in their words and saw confidence in their eyes. They were open to learning a and keen to progress in all they did. Why I think that their efforts are remarkable becasue despite the prevailing negative socio-economic conditions among these farmers, these heroes achieved a significant growth over the past 2 years. Many of us may not know that a tractor costs over Rs. 5 Lacs....probably costlier than a car in the midsize segment. If this team were to be put on to car sales in any metro with the right the amount of training, I believe that they would soon change equations in the sector.

With my experience in the corporate world, I yet have to find a Sales force with this zeal. My learning from this team is that any process which has a logical base will consistently produce great results if followed with enthusiasm. I wish them all the best.

Spirituality and Religion

My understanding is that 'Spirituality' is very much individual whereas religion is all about group movement. Each individual has his spiritual progress as per his prakruti ( natural attributes gifted by the universe ie God). Whenever somebody has attempted to get in touch with the ultimate universal truth, he has been able to take a few steps ahead and experience the magic of God in bits and pieces. Later when he tries to verbalise his experience and guide his nearones, the essence is lost in transit. Therefore a cult or religion may take birth with a lot of distorted ideas. When these ideas are dissiminated to a group of people with different thinking and understanding capabilities, a religion starts forming with many flaws. However, fear being one of the biggest attributes of a human being, he tends to follow what is understood by him without any compromise and believes that any other spiritual or religious practice may go against 'God'. Since we lack sainty leaders who can streamline and control religious groups, the groups are controlled by individuals in the form of clerics who have personal inerests in religious activies. This scenario results in spiritual anarchy and degradation of the society. Therefore I BELIEVE that each individual may practise tools to improve his spiritual strength rather than focussing on group activities. One may start with simple activity of spending time on introspection about his own self. He may take help from scriptures and self help books for a better understanding of his existence and start with other activities such as meditation, chanting and being constantly aware of his actions. This will surely help him kick start his spiritual journey.