Pulitzer prize-winner Annie Dillard famously said: “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.“ This also implies one’s workplace in a world where businesses are fast-growing.
The hustle and bustle demands one’s peace of mind. And, to achieve it, business leaders and corporates are embracing the path of spirituality for better work outcomes.
For example, Arianna Huffington, the Greek-American author, meditates for 30 minutes a day. Oprah Winfrey, producer and actress, has publicly spoken about her daily spiritual practice. Suzi Ashworth, mindset and business coach, meditates daily to create the space for inspiration that comes from beyond logical thinking, and the list goes on and on.
To imply spiritual practices at the very core level, business schools and universities in India, such as the IIMs in Kolkata and Kozhikode, Universal Business School (Mumbai), Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya (Uttarakhand), North Eastern Regional Institute of Management (Guwahati), are integrating spirituality within their management courses. They are doing this to make the young minds practice activities like meditation, self-awareness, vipassana, yoga, etc.
Professor GPS Cheema, from the Universal Business School, said the following on incorporating spirituality in the curriculum:
“Various disciplines of management studies viz, Finance, Marketing, HR, Operations, etc, enable young managers to learn the ropes of managing business organizations. A degree embedded with spirituality, aids an aspiring professional’s connection with their inner-self. It brings a positive change, thus, resulting in holistic development, better performance, and achievement of self-excellence.”
Here is the list of 5 top Indian, corporate leaders, who follow spiritual practices in their day-to-day lives; and are an inspiration to a generation out there:
Ratan Tata
This 83-year old chairman emeritus of Tata Trusts, is a practitioner of yoga and meditation. He has trained under the famous yoga guru, Bharat Thakur. He practices yoga daily in the evening as it helps him to stay calm in every situation. “Spiritual practices are an integral part of my day,” he stated on his Instagram.
Narayana Murthy
The founder of Infosys, a business consulting and IT company, Narayana Murthy’s secret to success is yoga and meditation. He also follows other spiritual practices such as honesty and transparency in his organisation.
“One should be serious at work but should not take oneself too seriously. Meditation and yoga help us to ease the stress and thus work more effectively,” he said.
Mukesh Ambani
India’s richest man in the Forbes List, and the managing director of Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani meditates for a half-hour every morning. The business leader believes in a healthy body and mind for better work productivity.
Roshni Nadar Malhotra
The chairperson of HCL Technologies, an IT servicing and consulting company, Roshni Nadar Malhotra is a yoga enthusiast. She believes that it prepares her for exclusive challenges at the workplace. She has been ranked 54th in the Forbes “world’s 100 most powerful women” list.
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw
The chairperson of Biocon Limited, an Indian biopharmaceutical company, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw practices spiritual activities such as yoga. She had tweeted: “Yoga is all about creating balance in your life to live a healthy life.”
She believes that other than a good degree from a business school, it is better to find one’s spiritual core, which makes one a better leader.