Education of Bhagavat Gita’s Philosophy, Spiritualism and Ethics and Their Role in Stress Management in Corporate Sector involving Economic and Financial Resources

An attempt has been made in presenting a broad overview of Spiritualism and Ethics in Business and their Role in Stress Management of Managers in Corporate Sector, involving Economic and Financial Resources. Emphasis of the role of Bhagavat Gita and Christian Spirituality on stress management has been outlined. Ideas and statements of great Management Gurus in support of the use of Spiritualism and Ethics in Business, and their Role in Stress Management of Managers have been discussed. An expression has been suggested to relate spirituality factor of the manager and his stress. It is felt that the paper should be of good utility for the managers to reduce their stress level, and hence improve their performance, along with creating a good environment at the work place.


Introduction to Education of Spiritualism in Top Management Institutes for Corporate Sector involving Economic and Financial Resources
Emphasis of the role of Bhagavat Gita and Christian Spirituality on stress management has recently been a subject of great interest for the researchers from different angles. Many studies have been made on this topic by various researchers, and a good account of these studies has been given in the papers edge, then you are taking up too much space". The contents of the course are divided into two equal parts on: (i) cutting edge materials on corporate strategy, and (ii) cutting edge materials on creativity.
Narayanaswamy's innovation in education started about a decade back, when he offered an elective called "Tracking Creative Boundaries" (TCB) at the Institute. He was deeply interested in making education more relevant to real-life situations, being faced by the managers in corporate world. He came across a philanthropic organization based in Bangalore-India Foundation for the Arts, which was working in the area of arts and creativity; and with their help, started this venture.
IFA Director Anmol Vellani, has also contributed a lot in developing the course content, which follows an unconventional evaluation method. The students have to record their impressions on the lectures, their learning and their dilemmas in a diary, which are used by the organization to assess the students' ability to grasp abstract ideas and relate them to real-life situations; which is supposed to help them in management of the companies they later on join in life.
Recently, Biz Ed, the official journal of the American Association of Advancement of Collegiate Schools in Business, has also emphasized the importance and requirement for Innovations in Management Education. Interestingly, it has been stated in the literature, and also well understood, that a divine power is bestowed on all teachers, which provides them an opportunity to train and mould young minds. In the same way, Ram Prasad Krishnamurthy of Oracle, has emphasized the need of the managers, and business executives to attend the workshops on spirituality by citing that (i) there is a quest for knowing what Spirituality can offer to them, and (ii) there is need for offering them something different from the routine set of subjects and topics. Also, Srinivasan Tatachari of Wipro Corporation, is of the opinion that it is interesting to see how the material world maps onto the spiritual domain. The managers, just like ordinary individuals, wish to know the meaning and reason for their existence on the earth. Also, Ram Prasad has suggested that spirituality acts as an effective safety valve through which "managers under 'pressure cooker' situations can vent their stress, clearly meaning that spirituality can be used fruitfully for stress management". For quite a large number of the people today, making profits is not the only motive in life and business. Instead, values and ethics have become increasingly important. Such people are committed to the dictum-"people, planet, profit". In this way, the employees and the environment are gaining in importance and concern. This happens when the managers put the spiritual values into their workplace. One study on this topic carried out in the USA (published in "USA Today"), showed that about 60% people are of the opinion that a great sense of spirit will benefit in their work environment. Spirituality in business serves the community, and helps in creating a better world. As emphasized by Corinne McLaughlin (2009), Spiritual values embraced in business imply many things including integrity, honesty, quality, cooperation, accountability, trustworthiness, respect, and justice, and keeping away from unfair business practices.
It has also been realized that spirituality and profitability can coexist; since the introduction of the ethics and spiritual values into the workplace leads to increased productivity and profitability. In addition to increasing the employee retention, customer loyalty, and brand reputation, this has led to an increase in the number of employers being encouraged to embrace spirituality as a way to boost loyalty and enhance their morale resulting in the growth of the company.
An interesting observation has been made by Mark Orlitsky of the University of Sydney (Australia) and Sara Rynes of the University of Iowa (USA) on the basis of their reviewed studies over the last three decades, in the Corporate Social and Financial Performance report, which is that there is a good relationship between socially responsible business practices and financial performance, the variation being from moderate to quite large.
It has been reported in Management Accounting that companies following ethical principles are observed to be doing better financially than companies ignoring ethics as management component.
Many examples of this observation are provided by Business giants like Nike's 27% drop in its earnings several years ago as a result of wrong slave wages; and recently, the shocking disregard of ethics and subsequent scandals leading to financial disaster for Enron, Arthur Anderson, WorldCom, and Global Crossing, among many other similar firms.
On the opposite side, as reported by Business Week magazine on the recent research by McKinsey and Co., in Australia, it has been found that productivity improves and turnover is greatly increased when companies engage in programs using spiritual principles and techniques for their employees.
Another important finding reported in the literature is that in researching companies for his book, A Spiritual Audit of Corporate America, business professor Ian I. Mitroff has observed that "Spirituality could be the ultimate competitive advantage." This has given an impetus to the application of Spiritualism in Corporate Sector.
It is interesting to note that Ed Quinn, a top business consultant in Philadelphia, has stated on the basis of working with various firms that he is asked to be confidential about the techniques of Spirituality being taught by him to employees, because of the fact that they don't want their competitive companies to know about the positive gains of the Application of Spirituality in their business.
In addition to the many messages given by Lord Krishna to Arjuna, as mentioned in Bhagavat Gita, it can also be said that He helped him in managing his stress level, and thus taking the decision to fight his relatives, elders, and teachers in pursuit of righteousness. So, the role of Bhagavat Gita in stress management has its hidden origin in the series of advices given by Lord Krishna to Arjuna in the battlefield. In Bhagavat Gita, Lord Krishna succeeded in persuading Arjuna that waging war is not necessarily wrong, if fought in pursuit of righteousness. However, in addition to this advice, the holy book develops into a full exposition of belief and practice that has had an immeasurable influence on Hindu thought and practice. It is in this direction that the modern Gurus of management have emphasized the role that Bhagavat Gita can play in the stress management of the managers facing cut throat competition in the Corporate Sector.
According to Bhagavad Gita by Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, we must understand and follow that (i) "A gift is pure when it is given from the heart to the right person at the right time and at the right place, and when we expect nothing in return"; and (ii) "No one who does good work will ever come to a bad end, either here or in the world to come". Following these rules helps in stress management.

Education of Bhagavat Gita's Philosophy, Spiritualism in Work Place of the Corporate Sector for Economic and Financial Growth
The importance of spiritualism in work place is considered of immense importance, and has been emphasized at length by various experts in the field, including Ashmos and Dunchon (2000), Hilpern (2000), Lewin and Regine (2000), Caudron (2001), Groen (2001), Rosner (2001), Uhrich (2001), Weston (2002), Bell and Taylor (2003), Bell and Taylor, (2003), Garcia-Zamor (2003), Kinni (2003), Wong (2003), Carole and Robert (2004), Gockel (2004). Marques (2005), Marques et al. (2005Marques et al. ( , 2007, and Mehta and Joshi (2010). A report by MIT's Sloan Management Review has stated that, "People are hungry for ways in which to practice their spirituality in the workplace without offending their co-workers or causing acrimony". This conclusion from a top Management Review shows very clearly that the managers are very anxious about bringing Principles and Approach of Spiritualism in their respective companies, though being cautious about the resulting effect on the employees. In fact, they are trying to apply their beliefs in the company without emphasizing the religious sentiments of the employees. It is here that the desire free action (Nishkam Yoga) is able to provide the solution, since this is provided in the Bhagavat Gita, which though a holy book of Hindus, does not bring religion in a direct and discreet manner. Two important studies on Spiritualism have been made by Stephen (2006), and Paul and Nada (2006). An off shoot of Spiritualism, "Community involvement" has also been found useful for the companies. This has been shown clearly by the Research carried out by David Lewis, Business Professor, UCLA, who has observed that the companies that increased their community involvement showed an improved financial growth in a couple of years. Another off shoot is that of the production of eco-friendly products, which , as reported by two year study by the Performance Group (a consortium of seven leading European companies such as Volvo, Monsanto, and Unilever), enhances significantly the earnings of the companies besides helping them in getting contracts in the emerging markets related to such products. This is to be noted that the work culture at work place is also very important for the success of the firm.
Spiritualism in Business has been very clearly explained in the Bhagavat Gita as a very effective work culture useful for the growth of Business, in order to make strong and arduous efforts in pursuit of achieving the aims and goals of the tasks in hand. This holy book touches on two types of work culture-"daivi sampat" or divine work culture and "asuri sampat" or demonic work culture. It has been emphasized that the Daivi work culture is based on many qualities including fearlessness, purity, self-control, sacrifice, calmness, no fault-finding, no greed, gentleness, modesty, and most importantly absence of envy and pride. As against this culture, the Asuri work culture is based mainly on egoism, personal desires, improper means of functioning, and the orientation of work not towards service. The managers must follow the work ethics at the workplace. According to the Gita, the managers must All these developments have led to the beginning of transforming corporate America from the inside out, with the result that growing numbers of business people want their spirituality to be more than just faith and belief, as they want it to be practical and committed for bringing their whole selves to work, i.e., with body, mind and spirit. The managers and employees in the corporate world are increasingly interested in nourishing their spirit and creativity for the benefit of the organizations.
It is important to note that the CEO of Rockport Shoes, Angel Martinez, believes in the path of Spiritualism in Business practices, and his spiritual mission encourages the employees for spending work time envisioning ways for understanding and expressing their deepest selves in their work. Also, the companies like Evian spring water have been able to use successfully spirituality in their advertising, e.g., "Your body is the temple of your spirit".
Another interesting case in this direction is that of the Service-Master Company, with six million customers world-wide, providing cleaning, maintenance, lawn care and food services, which lays emphasis on its spiritual values in its annual report. It begins with a quotation from holy Bible, "Each of us should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in It has been realized that the people are the most important resource, and hence by increasing the numbers of business people, it can be found that the application of spirituality implies as to how the employees are treated. According to Marc Lesser, founder of Brush Dance, simple things can be learned by taking a few minutes each day by appreciating some employees, thanking them for a job well done, or even just listening to their concerns. The important thing to understand is that generosity with our time is as important as generosity with our money. Similarly, Southwest Airlines, has improved it's profitability by treating their employees as their most important resource, and treating their employees like family, thinking that if they are treated well, they in turn will treat customers well.
They have a "University for People" with a unique policy-that of hiring people based on their attitude and then training them for skills, rather than doing the reverse.
The importance of the moral values for the growth of the companies can be judged from the example of Aaron Feurenstein, CEO of Malden Mills in Lawrence, MA, producing popular Polartec fabrics, who believes that the labor is the best asset for any company, and that too has an moral responsibility to both its community and to itself. After a major fire destroyed three out of its four factory buildings, he kept all 3,000 employees on his payroll, since his town has high unemployment. This had a great positive effect on the workers, who in response to this generosity, worked hard to produce a 25% increase in productivity, and 66% drop in quality defects, thereby increasing the profitability of the factory by about 30%. Another case worth mentioning is that of Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, with stores all over the world, who purposely built a soap factory near Glasgow, Scotland, since it had high unemployment along with urban decay, and demoralization. She took a moral decision and not only employed the unemployable, but also invested 25% of the net profits back into the community, as she considered this as something that is what "keeps the soul of the company alive." Saturn auto manufacturing emphasizes that their success is as a result of their novel experiment in corporate democracy and participatory governance, in which the Empowered teams take most of the company decisions.

Application of Spiritual Education in Business
It has become quite clear from the Teachings of Bhagavat Gita that in order to achieve our goals in business, we must focus completely on them, even if there are times when we are worried and under lot of stress. At certain times, things are going against our wishes and expectations, and our finances are really down. In such situations, we must try not to get upset; and instead plan to wisely reallocate our finances, by investing in a way so as to attract the customers, and also to enhance the credibility of the company.
We must do business on a war footing, by constantly changing our strategy suitable for the particular period, by taking hard steps within the rules and regulations of the company, and also of the Government. The Bhagavat Gita teaches us never to give up, and try hard to use failure as a stepping stone for achieving further success. In a nutshell, the managers have to work relentlessly for the smooth and improved functioning of the company, as warriors fight relentlessly in the battlefield. As the warriors hope to win by taking the appropriate fighting steps, the managers hope to do well in business by withering the unexpected storms in the shape of financial and other types of hardships. Another important dictum of the Gita for managers is that, they should surrender the Fruits of their actions to God, i.e., they must take desire free actions.
The biggest and most important aspect of the use of the Bhagavat Gita in management is that it teaches many virtues including Honesty, Sincerity, and Truthfulness, thereby giving the managers peace of mind to face all tricky situations. To be a successful manager, it is essential that he should have integrity in public life, which requires perfect coordination, in addition to synchronization in thoughts, action and deeds. Also, the values he believes should be the same as those he practices.
As we know that the Bhagavad Gita was delivered by Lord Krishna to boost Aruba's declining morale, motivation, confidence and to increase his effectiveness; and thereby having peace of mind while fighting a difficult war involving the persons he respected, and also those very dear to him. He just fought for the noble cause of getting justice, in spite of having too much turmoil and pain in his mind.
In modern corporate world too, there are many professionals and industrialists who are great achievers, along with having great social prestige; yet not being able to enjoy life. However, there are many individuals who are contended and happy but have not been able to achieve much. It has been emphasized by the management gurus that today a combination of these two qualities is required to lead a successful and stress free life. It is important that in addition to being a great achiever, one has to be at the same time, leading a peaceful life.  The Bhagavad Gita recommends that individuals in public life should follow the principles of Integrity, Ethics, and fairness in all their dealings, if they want to have a conflict-free emotion and intellect.
Though emotions are essential part of life, as they make life pleasant, but only when they are sensible and within limits. The Bhagavad Gita provides all the management tactics in order to achieve the mental equilibrium in the form of stress free mind.
The Holy Gita provides a secret driving force for creating wisdom. It has been experienced that in a difficult and doubtful situation, this divine book supports all spiritual searches, and contributes to self reflection, and deepening the individual's inner process. It is thus very clear that all this helps in reducing the stress of the manager.
The Gita's practical psychology of transformation is that it helps us to connect us with our deepest essence and teaches us (i) to learn for participating in the battle of life with right knowledge; and (ii) to handle the situation with balanced mind no matter what the situation is, and keeps us telling what the right action is in the situation before us. It has been reported in the literature, and considered absolutely true that understanding the Developing mindfulness of the connections between mind and body is a form of intelligence just as important as IQ, or EQ (emotional quotient), or even social intelligence.
After the development of awareness bodily sensations and reactions in body provide feedback to mind and guidance to the body about the various aspects and characteristics of our life, which enhance our performance at work place, in addition to reducing the stress, and maximizing our innate potential for creativity, and spiritual growth of self. The most important guidance of the Bhagavad Gita comes from the important ideas and principles of our cultural life, which help us in dealing with our search for eternal entity which is the source of ultimate truth and joy.
As explained and emphasized by Ritcher (1997), the business managers can significantly increase the productivity, along with having a stress free environment in the company; just by practicing spirituality.
"Spirituality in Business" does not refer to religion, which in fact is an organization which professes and teaches spirituality to people. In simple terms, Spirituality is an individual matter; not in any manner, related to any external organization, and in fact, is not just an experience of the deep meaning of life, but is equivalent to living life with dedication and heart, and just not normally. It is also defined as having belief in God, and an experience of some extra thing other than just life. It has been observed that individuals after developing spirituality in themselves are blessed with lightness and noble nature of admiring others, and making them laugh and relaxed by their humorous talks and activities, appreciation and humor. In addition, they become optimistic about life, and are not disturbed unduly by problems, which they face courageously. They radiate liveliness and happiness all around. This is just opposite of the situation in case of Business, which is quite hard, with cut throat competition controlling which is limited by the financial resources. Thus, we can see that this is the main difference, as the Spirituality is very humble approach with human values. Though it appears that the two approaches are strong opponents, and each can not bear the presence of other in it's action, yet it is increasingly been realized by the exponents of each that their optimum combination is good for carrying out business, as it helps in stress management of the managers, and creation of relaxed atmosphere for the employees, and thereby increasing the output and profit of the firm.
On the basis of discussions in conferences held around the world, it has been established that there is a lot of interest being shown by the researchers, academicians, and corporate sector managers in the field of spirituality in business, which is mainly from people who have done some spiritual work themselves, and are interested in passing the fruits of their experience to their workplace. In fact, they are very optimistic about the possibility of each job being completed in time. This results in the growth of the Business, and also more businesses will start achieving success in both, the financial and humanistic realms simultaneously. It is worth mentioning here that Spiritualism is also considered to have a link with mathematics. The union of Spiritualism and Mathematics has been clearly stated by the great Indian Mathematician Ramanujan, who stated that he received the mathematical inspiration and sometimes whole formulas, through contacting the Hindu Goddess of Creativity, Namagiri while dreaming. As expressed by him, he often understood mathematics and spirituality as one, e.g., zero represented Absolute Reality, and infinity represented the various manifestations of that Reality.
Another statement in this direction made by him was that "An equation for him had no meaning unless it expressed a thought of God". He also quoted that the Vedas interpreted dreams, because of which he was regarded by his friends to be a mystic.

Business Firm
The information technology can be used for stress management. Initially, we can make use of the knowledge that Stress of the manager (Sm) can be expressed in the form of the following Equation: (Sm)=(1-K.SpF) where SpF is the spirituality factor of the manager, which can be considered to vary from zero to unity, and K is the constant. This expression can be used to collect a large number of values from different managers, and then a correct value of the constant K can be arrived at.
Hence, the Stress of the manager (Sm) goes on decreasing with an increase in the value of SpF of the manager; and in fact becomes zero when SpF becomes unity, i.e., completely stress free mind, which in fact is achieved by the manager following Nishkam Yoga (Desire free action), as emphasized in the philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita.
It has to be understood that achieving higher value of SpF is really difficult, and becomes a reality only after practicing a lot of self control for a long period of time. This is possible when the manager undertakes discourses on spiritualism in right earnestness, and is able to lead a life (i) free from greed, envy, anger, and use of unfair means for achieving targets; and (ii) full of concern for the welfare of the employees by listening to their problems and suggestions, and finally showing eagerness to solve their problems, along with accepting their suggestions at work place. It has to be appreciated that this process is very slow indeed, but still achievable by strong resolve and will power. It has also been experienced that as SpF approaches close to unity (e.g., 0.9), the remaining increase of (1.0-0.9=0.1) is really difficult to achieve. However, completely enlightened individuals after full understanding and practicing of Nishkam Yoga (Desire free action) can succeed in achieving this. It is useful to undertake discourses in spiritual organizations. A spiritual organization is just like any common organization, in which the individuals discuss, do sales dealings, and other normal activities of business. The only difference between the spiritual organizations and other organizations is that they are very humble in holding and reacting to the events surrounding them, since they are much clearer in understanding that their presence over there is due to their own choice, and that they are there as masters of their own destiny, capable of modifying it. Thus it is easy to visualize that a spiritual organization has a much better "self-righting" mechanism, in which the individuals have a tendency to rectify anything going wrong in spite of any possibility of an emotional risk. In ordinary organizations, people have a tendency to fight when something goes wrong. It is important to note that the stress management is one of the basic ingredients for the optimum performance and all round economic and financial growth of the corporate Sector.

Concluding Remarks
The importance of education of spiritualism especially the holy books-The Bhagavad Gita and the Bible for the improvement of the business and environment in the work place is being considered increasingly important. Now the emphasis is being laid on the stress management of the managers in the corporate world, as they face cut throat competition for meeting targets for the economic and financial growth of the firms in which they are working, which will certainly help them in in avoiding So, we can understand that the role of Bhagavat Gita in stress management has its hidden origin in the series of advices given by Lord Krishna to Arjuna in the battlefield, in order to arrive at the difficult decision of fighting his relatives, elders, and teachers in order to follow the path of righteousness.
Hence, it is clear that the Bhagavad-Gita's philosophy can guide the managers in taking steps to manage their stress level, and thus to optimize their performance.
It has to be appreciated that the Global Bhagavad Gita Convention, themed "A Call for Personal Growth and Universal Well-Being" was held on September 15-16, 2018 at the Center for the Arts, Concert Hall, George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. More importantly, everything about this stupendous event was sheathed in sublimity and elegance. The beautifully decorated concert hall with its grand stage and an excellent sound system, which created the perfect nest for the hatching of spiritual awakening for the mankind especially for the managers of the Corporate Sector.
The focus was on explaining that Bhagavad Gita is a sovereign response of the inmost dimension of human personality to the crisis of emotions and paralyzing fears, when life's course begins to stifle www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/ijafs individuals, especially the business managers beyond measure. It was emphasized that the Life on the earth is, at its best, beautiful and harmonious; but at its worst can be tormenting; and Bhagavad Gita suggests that unless the great impersonality of the inmost Self is discovered, human mind will not be able to successfully course through the challenges and vicissitudes, preserving peace and poise for oneself, and extending welfare to others. This has to be well understood by the company managers in order to manage the stress and hence to give optimum performance. Thus, it can be safely concluded that the subject is on a firm footing, and is evolving fast It is expected that this paper will give an impetus to the growth of further activities in this direction.