MEET THE MIGHTY WARRIORS-NGO ACTIVITY ON JULY 3, 2015

Copyright@shravancharitymission


By Kamlesh Tripathi


NGO ACTIVITY BY SHRAVAN CHARITY MISSION

“Strength is born in the deep silence of long-suffering hearts; not amidst joy.” – Felicia Hemans.

So true! And quite undoubtedly, when cancer strikes, it takes you to those long and dark tunnels, from where you need only a warrior’s might to return.

And, as a part of our NGO activity today, I met two bright young, smiling girls braving it out, with cancer. They were nothing else, but an unrelenting streak of energy and confidence. And I’m more than sure they will be out of the scourge soon. And, to help them smile we made a contribution towards their treatment. So join us in wishing them the best.

1. Miss Neha Kumari, age, 15 years, is from Katihar, in Bihar. She doesn’t have her parents and she is here with her uncle for treatment, who happens to be a student. The family income is a measly five thousand rupees. She is suffering from ALL (acute lymphoblastic leukemia-blood cancer) and the treatment will cost around rupees 4 lacs. We wish her all the best.

2. Miss Sheetal Sharma, age, 13 years, is from Faridabad. Her father is a driver and earns a monthly salary of around seven thousand. She has bone cancer, for the past one year and the treatment, will cost around rupees 6-8 lacs.

We salute the uncle of Neha, and Parents of Sheetal for tirelessly fighting the battle.  

Our best wishes to them

For contributions:

1.  Account name: Shravan charity mission

HDFC account number: (04801450000140) / IFSC code: (HDFC0000480)

2.  Account name: Shravan charity mission

Bank of India ac no: (680510110004635)/  IFSC code: (BKID0006805)

3.  Account name: Kamlesh Tripathi (for overseas $ transfer)

ICICI account no: (008301504072)/ IFSC code: (ICIC0000018)

SHORT STORY: THE LONG HISTORY OF MANKIND

Copyright@kamleshsujata1

By Kamlesh Tripathi

Long time ago, in a far away kingdom lived a king. He wanted to know about the complete history of mankind beginning from the birth of the first man till the present day man. He therefore summoned all the Vidvans (scholars) in his kingdom and asked them how much time, will they take to provide him with this valuable and unique knowledge. Vidvans discussed the matter amongst themselves, after which the senior most out of them got up and humbly said, ‘Your majesty this will take a long time, but still we will try and complete the exercise in about 20 years. And it will cost around 27,000 gold coins.

    Although, the cost and time for the job was exorbitant, the king was still eager to know about the history of mankind. And, therefore he agreed to their proposal and handed over the gold coins to them and decided to wait for the findings.

    When the king had ordered for this exercise twenty years back he was 50 years old. And since then twenty years had passed and he was now 70. And, upon completion of the promised period, Vidvans reached the palace of the king with some 2000 books in 20 elephants. But by now the king had grown old and his eyesight and hearing had receded. And even his health was not as good as before; that he could have sat and attempted to read these voluminous books, because to read these fat books one required at least a time frame of ten years.

    King softly said, ‘With this health condition of mine ten years is a long period. So kindly reduce the number of books for me further.’

   Vidvans again got into a huddle to discuss the issue and came out in consensus, ‘Your Majesty, we will surely fulfil your wishes of reducing the number of books, but it will take five years and 5000 gold coins.’ The king had no choice being midway but to accord his approval.  And after 5 years, the team of Vidvans as agreed entered the King’s palace with some 200 books.

    But in the last 5 years the king had fallen sick and had become so weak that he could not even move. And his eyesight and hearing capability had reduced so substantially that he couldn’t have gone through these books.

    The king therefore smiled, and politely said, ‘I am obliged, that you all worked so hard for me, but now, I am physically not capable of reading these huge books. And, in case someone tries to read it to me, then also it will take a lot of time so kindly reduce the number of books further.’ Vidvans again agreed to the King’s request, but told him it will take one year and 1000 gold coins to complete the exercise, to which the king again agreed.

    And after a year, all the Vidvans as agreed reached the king’s palace with three voluminous books, but by now the king’s health had deteriorated further and the doctors had given up hopes, and pundits and priests in the kingdom had started their prayers to save him.

    One Vidvan went close to the king and said, ‘Your majesty we have finally summarised the entire history of mankind into just 3 voluminous books for you to read and benefit.’ King replied in dejection, ‘Now it is too late, as I am on my death bed. My wealth, time and efforts, all went for a waste in pursuit of this knowledge. And before I even start reading the history of mankind that you all have brought for me, my death will take me far away.

    ‘Nahi Rajan’ (No your majesty) said the Vidvan standing close to the king, ‘you’ll surely know about history of mankind. And, should I tell you about it, in your ears?’ King was in deep pain, but he made an effort to say, ‘Well if you can narrate the history of mankind in my ears, please do it fast.’

    Vidvan respectfully bowed at the king and whispered in his ears, ‘a man is born, he eats all his life and at the end he dies. And, in short, this is the ultimate story and reality of mankind.’

‘That’s all, only this much,’ said the king and he expired.

    This is such a story out of the Vedas (religious scriptures) that narrates, how the majority of mankind have spent their time in this world. They are born, they eat and in spare time they do some work and one day because of tension and disease they expire.

Can we not do better than this?

CONSCIOUS CAPITALISM AND SPIRITUAL WISDOM

Copyright@kamleshsujata1

Posted by Kamlesh Tripathi

CONSCIOUS CAPITALISM AND SPIRITUAL WISDOM

Is there a better way of distributing the wealth of the world than it being concentrated in few hands. And, should companies merely work for profits or should profits be a derived outcome of their pursuit of spiritual wisdom through the route of business?

CONSCIOUS CAPITALISM AND SPIRITUAL WISDOM

By Anant G Nadkarni

British author and journalist Michael Smith wrote in ‘Beyond the Bottom Line’, in 2001, that 51 of 100 top revenue-generating institutions were business corporations and not nation-states. And the then world’s three richest people owned personal wealth greater than the GDP of 34 poorest nations. Smith’s new book ‘Great Company’, published in 2015, updates that 80 richest people own more wealth than what is owned by one-half of the human race and very soon just 1% people will own wealth which equals what the rest 99% of us would have. Could the collective wisdom of business, governments, regulators, investors, leaders and people of all types bring about better distributive justice?

    Rubert Eccles, professor of strategy and Business at Harward Business School, in his book ‘Integrated Reporting Movement’ on corporate sustainability says, “The spirit of Ubuntu, an African values system, was suggested as a natural foundation for effective corporate governance.” Simply put it means something like, ‘I am because you are, you are because we are.” The authors keep stressing on ‘integrated thinking’ as being more critical than integrated reporting.

    Cindy Wigglesworth in her book ‘SQ21: the Twenty-one Skills of Spiritual Intelligence’ defines spiritual intelligence in a faith-friendly and faith-neutral way as: “The ability to behave with wisdom and compassion, while maintaining inner and outer peace, regardless of the situation.” it shows up as our ‘best of head and heart’ every moment, every day and with equanimity under all real-life or work circumstances. While appreciating the diversity in leadership profiles, spiritual intelligence is not only another type of intelligence among many, but “it also becomes a source of guidance and direction of the other dimensions of fully developing human potential”.

    In a process of broadly four clusters-knowing oneself better; knowing the world from a new position; by working hard on self-mastery; and developing social-mastery- it helps to create a spiritually resonant culture. There are 21 skills and methods that form an assessment and measuring process for leadership development. Spiritual intelligence can be acquired and it actually works. It is practised by business leaders like John Mackey, co-CEO of the $11billion company Whole Foods Market that runs 340 stores with a 70,000 team. Mackey has not only produced a famous book ‘Conscious Capitalism’ but admits that this process pulls together analytical, emotional systems and other aspects of thinking to generate a more conscious leader.

    Mackey says that the view of conscious capitalism is therefore quite contrary to what Friedman held about the ‘business of business’ just being running it well. Mackey asserts, “We want to improve the health and well-being of everyone on this planet through high quality foods and we can’t fulfill this mission unless we are highly profitable … Just as people cannot live without eating, business cannot live without profits. But most people don’t live to eat, and neither must businesses live just to make profits.”

    The critical point of convergence comes in when Mackey focusses on helping everyone create greater meaning and purpose- which resonates with the core principle of spiritual intelligence which is to cultivate the practice of reaching beyond oneself. Ratan Tata, as chairman of Tata Sons, while commenting on Mackey’s book said, “Businesses need to be driven by a purpose higher than maximizing profit, and they must ensure optimizing benefits to all stakeholders. Only if that happens, can capitalism deliver to all humanity the full societal benefits it is capable of. “The purpose of Conscious Capitalism or Integrated Thinking could perhaps be realised only when an overarching facet of spiritual-leadership guides.