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Leadership From Ambition to Vision Sadhguru speaks at IMD business school – Lausanne – Video

Leadership From Ambition to Vision Sadhguru speaks at IMD business school – Lausanne – Transcript

Sadhguru: Good afternoon everybody. So the first question would naturally be what is that prayer about? It’s not a prayer it’s an invocation. An invocation means – there is a whole technology as to how to organize your system to do a particular action. As human beings we do so many things in our lives. If you want to run a race your body your brain your energy needs to be in a certain way. You want to meet a friend it needs to be in another way. You want to do something else which needs your intellect on it needs to be in another way. Like this for different types of activities that we perform in our life we need to have our system in a certain way. Lot of people are managing to make it happen naturally or the situation will slowly set them in. People will enter a situation unprepared; gradually the situation will mold their mind their energies and everything to function well there. But there is a way that you can consciously create an inner situation where you craft that situation within yourself so that you are organized in every way; all the faculties within you your body your mind your emotion and your energy is properly organized for that specific activity. There is a whole science and technology as to how to go about this in an organization within a human being. When we say a leader or when we say ambition ambition is just an exaggeration of the existing. When we say vision as the word suggests it is about a new possibility something which is not yet. Ambition is about wanting to take as much as we can take vision is about making everything yours. One is an aggressive way of taking it another is an embrace. It is like the distinction between love and rape. Both seem the same for external viewers but it’s a world of difference; making the world yield to you willingly and trying to take a piece of the world are two different dimensions of life. As human beings like never before we are empowered. Individual human beings we have become so powerful because of technological advancement. What ten thousand men could do thousand years ago today one man can do. When we are so hugely empowered it’s extremely important that the way we exist here is in a more inclusive way. All this philosophy is it possible for a businessman? It is very much possible and especially not possible; it is very much needed for the businessman because business is about expansion. Does expansion happen because of inclusiveness or does expansion happen because you forcefully take something? If you forcefully take something you will never expand to the full capacity. Only if you learn how to make the world yield to what you want it to be only then you can take it all. Ambition is about more vision is about all. When we say leadership a leader is somebody who is trying to create a situation and people are looking up to him believing that he is going to make it happen. So that means he must be in some position within himself that he is able to see things better than the people around him. Business leadership or managing large situations if you want to manage one thousand people essentially you are managing one thousand minds. If you want to manage one thousand minds if you are not even able to manage your own mind it is going to be accidental management. And because of this accidental management you will see managers of the world are the most tense looking human beings. We are sending a completely wrong message to the world. ‘If you succeed you will suffer’ this is the message that’s going to the world. It happened in ’60s in America because all the successful people are so miserable the youth did not see that success is worthwhile. They thought ‘Just sitting on a street corner and smoking pot is much better. At least we are happy.’ So this is a very wrong message that ‘Success is a bad thing’ is a horrible message for humanity and the future generations to come. Right now this message is going out because you will see successful people are look have the most miserable faces in the planet. Success is should be a sweet thing but success has become a suffering simply because we are managing to do outside things without doing anything about ourselves. If the work that you are doing is important the first thing that you need to do is work upon yourself. What does working upon yourself mean? See as you sit here each human being is his own simply because of the accumulation of experiences that have happened in different people and how all this is assimilated within each person each human being is his own and that’s the beauty of human beings you can’t find a carbon copy anywhere everybody is unique. This uniqueness will be a wonderful thing if it functions cohesively; this same uniqueness if it does not function cohesively this uniqueness has to be called ‘You are really unique’ means… that means you are a fake. Only if this uniqueness functions cohesively this uniqueness can be celebrated and enjoyed and the world can benefit from this and the individual can benefit from this. Our idea of success has become like this right now that we are sitting You know there is a proverbial story in India about a man sitting on a tree branch and cutting it but sitting on the wrong end of it. If he succeeds he will fail. Right now we have brought the world to such a situation that if we succeed we will fail. In 2008 when I was at the World Economic Forum the recession was just beginning and I saw all these two thousand and odd people who are hugely successful people carrying very long faces -‘ Recession is coming recession is coming.’ So they asked me to handle a session called ‘Recession and Depression.’ I said recession is bad enough you don’t have to get depressed on top of it. And the way we have created this whole situation is such if we…. if we fail we will be depressed if we succeed we will be damned. That’s how we have created the situation. If all the seven billion people on this planet use modern technology and get super busy I think the planet just has ten fifteen years left. Fortunately fifty percent of the people are lazy really. Now it’s not human intelligence which is saving the planet it is not human love or compassion saving the planet it is human lethargy which is saving the planet. That’s a shame isn’t it? Simply because our ideas of success our ideas of well-being itself has not been consciously worked at it’s just like we have just grown like wilderness. Now today leadership means that we are able to re-engineer our very idea of success well-being in the world. If we don’t do this now the success will be a bad thing. All the younger generations are becoming activists who are against any kind of successful activity in the planet. I was I happened to be in a conference in London a major conference. Almost three thousand people participating all kinds of people and this is about ‘Be the Change.’ And here all kinds of things were going on; I was listening with great apprehension for what things that are being said. One man has come from India; he’s brought ten tribals from India carrying one-one bag of tea. He said ‘See I have brought the producer himself to UK and they are going to sell the tea bags right here and they are going to take the money nobody in between no corporations nothing no cash direct.’ I said when my turn to speak came I said ‘It’s okay I don’t mind buying the tribal tea but I fly Lufthansa I don’t want to fly a tribal airline where two out of the four engines are working.’ The idea of creating corporations and businesses was to make our life more efficient not monstrous. It will become monstrous if we function out of individual ambition rather than a larger vision. ‘Somehow get there’ this was the way of the ambition. ‘Somehow get there’ will work only short time. Can I tell you a story? Can I tell you a story? I seek your permission because it is probably just post lunch for many of you and the moment I say ‘Once upon a time lot of people think it’s bedtime it’s not.’ On a certain day a bull and a pheasant were grazing upon the field. The bull eating the grass the pheasant picking ticks off the bull partnership business. There was a huge tree at the edge of the field. The pheasant nostalgically looked at the tree and said ‘Oh alas! There was a time I could fly to the topmost branch of the tree but now I don’t have enough strength in my wing even to fly to the first branch of the tree.’ The bull very nonchalantly said ‘That’s no issue. Eat a little bit of my dung every day within a fortnight you will reach the top of the tree.’ The pheasant said ‘Come on what kind of nonsense is that?’ The bull said ‘Really try and see. The whole humanity is on it.’ The pheasant hesitantly started pecking at the dung and lo on the very first day it reached the first branch of the tree. Within a fortnight it did reach the topmost branch of the tree. It sat on the topmost branch of the tree beginning to enjoy the scenery. An old farmer who was rocking on the rocking chair saw a fat old pheasant sitting on top of the tree pulled out his shotgun and shot the bird off the tree. The moral of the story is ‘Many times bullshit can get you to the top but it’ll never let you stay there.’ If if an external observer looks at our world the human activity over a span of a few hundred years and looks at what we have done with ourselves this will be our story. We just somehow made it and then collapsed. This is It is no more about ‘somehow making it’; we are right now allowing social and other environments to shape human consciousness. No human consciousness should shape our business environment the social environment and the world’s environment instead of allowing the human consciousness to do the other. Right now we are allowing the circumstances to change the human consciousness. The essence of being human is every other animal adapts to its situation; we can create our situations this is the fundamental of being human otherwise we are no different from any other creature on this planet. Everybody else is capable of adapting; we are capable of crafting the situations that we want. Now leadership means just this that we have a vision to craft the situation where everybody can fit in and everybody can prosper and our ideas of prosperity has to change because right now if we have to provide what an average American citizen has to seven billion people the Living Earth statistics says that we need four and a half planets. We just have one and there is another one eight million light years away. If you are up for the travel there is just one more another two and a half we need to find somewhere. So our success itself is working against us this is not a good thing. If we do well we will do badly. This is not a good way to craft our situations because our idea of doing well is just being little better than yesterday. Just being little better than yesterday is not doing well. This happened in 1910. There was a man in India his name was Topiwala. Topiwala means a hat seller. You have this culture here also that somebody’s second name happens to be his profession – Carpenter Goldsmith Blacksmith whatever; like that he is a hat seller he is a Topiwala. He has gone from village to village in tropical heat selling hats. One afternoon he is tired sat under a tree opened his meager lunch ate and dozed off. When he opened his eyes he looked all the hats were gone. He looked all over the place no hats they’re just gone disappeared. If you do everything that you can do and it doesn’t work what do you do? Usually look up in prayer. So he looked up. There he saw a bunch of monkeys all sitting with hats on. He screamed at them they screamed back at him. He abused them they abused in their own language. He picked up whatever he could and threw it at them; they picked up whatever they could and threw it back at him. Not knowing what to do frustrated he took his hat and flung it on the ground. All the monkeys took their hats and flung it on the ground. He picked up his hats and went about his business. Two thousand and twelve 23rd of September another Topiwala going from village to village selling hats. He came in the afternoon sat under a tree opened his elaborate lunch (21st century) had his lunch promptly fell asleep. When he opened his eyes hats were gone. He didn’t look here and there he looked straight up. The monkeys were sitting with hats on. He got up and jived they all jived. He made funny faces they made funnier faces. He had all the fun he wanted to have. When he was done he took his hat and flung it on the ground. One baboon of a monkey quickly came down the tree picked up the hat walked up to him gave him a tight slap in the face and told him ‘You idiot you think only you had a grandfather?’ So just one step ahead of yesterday is not leadership. Leadership has to craft Today we have come to a place where the economic leadership has moving into a certain position. In the sense about three hundred years ago largely religious leadership was controlling the world. From mindlessness of religious leadership we moved into the tyranny of the military leadership. From the tyranny of the military leadership we moved into the confusion of democratic leadership confusion and incompetence of democratic leadership in many ways because hundred people are running to trying to run the place. In India it’s five hundred and forty two people trying to run the nation. By the time you make these five hundred and forty two people understand what is needed and what should be done tomorrow morning it will take five years and they are not there by then. So today we are moving into a place where in the next ten fifteen years’ time the economic leadership will be the most important leadership in the world. We are definitely going there. The good thing about the business leader is he has no qualms about anything if there is a good deal he will make a deal with the devil. He has no prejudices about anybody. You are a white you are black you are yellow you are this you are that – he has no issues he will make a deal with the devil if the deal is good. So the economic leadership is in many ways in the very nature of things it is very flexible leadership. If we train this leadership if we bring about now an institution like this and many others if we bring about the necessary shift from economic leaders operating out of narrow personal ambitions to a larger vision that will be the greatest thing for the future generations of the world where a clear message that ‘Success is the sweetest thing in your life success is not a miserable thing’ this message has to go. If this message has to go economic leaders need to do something about themselves; they are doing a lot about many things they need to do something about themselves. When I say ‘Doing something about yourself- why is it important? Do you see me? Are we on talking terms or is there a issue? Are we in talking terms? Do you see me? Participants: Yes. Sadhguru: Yes. Use your hands and point out where I am. Ah you got me wrong. You know I am a mystic from India? No this light is falling upon me reflecting inverted image is going through your lenses inverted image in the retina don’t you know the whole story? Where do you see me right now? Within yourself isn’t it? Where do you hear me right now? Within yourself. Where have you seen the whole world? Within yourself. Everything that you have ever known and experienced is only happening within you. Right now if somebody next to you touches you you think you are feeling their hand but that is not the reality. The reality is you are experiencing the sensations within your own hand. You cannot feel the other hand. You are completely incapable of experiencing anything of the outside. The way it is projected within you that is the only way you will experience it. That is why what is light for you is darkness for some other creature. Suppose you and an owl sit together – you have owls in Switzerland? If you and an owl sit together and start an argument as to which is light and darkness where will you go? Hmm? Endless argument isn’t it? Who is right you or the owl? You or the owl who is right as to which is light and which is darkness? Hmm? Participant: Both. Sadhguru: Both? If you are saying both either you are in the Diplomatic Corps or you have a successful marriage. These are two areas where you should learn to say ‘Both both both.’ Now I am asking you which is light? What you see is light or what the owl sees is light which is the real light? You don’t know. The thing is your sense organs have opened up as it is necessary for your survival it has opened up as it is necessary for his survival. You really don’t know what is what. You only know the world the way it is projected within you. So working upon the inward nature of who you are is the most essential thing. If you are in any position of responsibility and power it’s extremely important you do something about this otherwise it will give you completely wrong images which look right. I want you to look back on the history of this world – how many horrible things human beings have done to each other believing they were doing the right thing. Yes or no? No? At that time when they did these horrible things they really believed they were doing the right thing. They did not think they were doing the wrong thing. This happens because we have done nothing about the interiority. When I say interiority what did you have for breakfast? What did you have for breakfast? Participant: Egg. Sadhguru: Egg chicken. So he had an egg for breakfast but over the morning this egg has transformed itself into a human being isn’t it? It goes into you and it’s becoming a human body. Isn’t it so? Yes? If you eat a piece of bread you eat a banana what you call as your body is just accumulation of the food that you’ve eaten. Isn’t it so? Now what a phenomena he is! He can make a chicken egg into a human being over the morning. If you ask Charles Darwin this would take millions of years. He can do it over the morning and every one of you can do it over the morning. So here there is an intelligence here there is a competence here which is capable of transforming a piece of bread or a egg or a banana or whatever into a human body. When I say human body I am not talking about you me like this this is the most sophisticated machine on the planet. Yes or no? This is the highest level of technology. Isn’t it so human body? Every other gadget that you see on the planet has come out of this. This is the gadget. This the gadget Yes you are too involved in the iPhone you never looked at the ‘I’. This super gadget with what kind of raw material are you manufacturing? With a chicken egg with a banana with a piece of bread. So there is an intelligence here there is a competence here which is of that level. If only if you found access to this intelligence even if a drop of this intelligence entered your daily life you would live magically. People around you will think you are super human. There is no such thing as super human. People talk about being super human simply because they have not realized that ‘Being human’ is super. Being human is super because see he can make a egg into a human being a chicken egg. Is it not super? Is it super human or super? It’s just super isn’t it that you can make a chicken egg into a human being over the morning. If your digestion is good in three hours otherwise four hours. If you have a weak stomach four hours otherwise three hours. Fantastic isn’t it? Does this intelligence exist in everybody? We have mistaken that intelligence means thought no. The intelligence in the body is so phenomenal. That which is the very source of making this body happen is right now functioning within you and there is a way to find access to this. This is what we are offering as Inner Engineering process and this inner dimension is needed the moment you are taking a position of leadership in the world in whatever capacity. It is your fundamental business to see that first this one is fixed because once you are a leader every thought that you generate every emotion that you generate every action that you perform is going to impact millions of people. Once you have such a privilege in the world I think leaders have this business that they have to do something about themselves that the way they think the way they emote the way they act is not destroying the world in so many different ways. May be good intentions; good intentions alone will not produce results. It is the right kind of action with the right kind of consciousness that produces the necessary results. We are going with ambition right now; we think that’s the only driving force. There is a There is a beautiful story in the India lore. A monkey goes into a house and it finds a jar full of nuts. So he puts his hand inside. It’s a very narrow necked bottle or a jar – puts inside handful of nuts want to take it out. It won’t come it’s stuck. It has to let go some but it’s ambitious. It cannot let go even one nut. Pulls and pulls it doesn’t come. Then another wise monkey comes – some monkeys are wise you know. Another wise monkey comes and says ‘This is not the way you leave it’ and together they overturned the jar and all the nuts are out. Now we have to move from ‘more’ to ‘all’. If you journey from ‘more’ to ‘all’ that means you have travelled from ambition to vision. If you have questions any kind of questions. Any kind of questions. Questioner: If I understood you the changes the change can only happens by individual action. There is no social movement or political movement corrective action. Your thought is only sort of individual one or not? Sadhguru: See I want you to look at this properly there is no such thing as society; there is you me and that person and that person and that person. Together we gave it a name called society but there is no such thing in Existence. It’s only in our perception isn’t it? In reality there is you and me you and me and you and me and you and me so many. You think there is a society there is no such thing. Everybody is individuals. If ten individuals behave properly you think ‘Oh this society is wonderful.’ No society is not wonderful; there are ten individuals who are doing wonderful things. If a million individuals do really wonderful things then you say this is a fabulous society. There is Society is not functioning wonderfully individual people are doing wonderful things. That is why society gets the benefit isn’t it? But actually there is no society. It is just a word it doesn’t exist. It’s individuals. If you want to transform a society you have to transform the individuals; how else? You can make one mass teaching. Even if you make a mass teaching still to what extent each individual takes it that is the extent you find the result isn’t it? Now as a humanity – when there is no society is there a humanity? There isn’t there are only human beings but as human beings on this planet we are entrusted with a certain responsibility right now as a generation of people. Why I am saying this is for the first time for the very first time in the history of humanity we have come to a place where we have the necessary capability resource and technology to address every human problem on the planet – nourishment health education whatever whatever. Name it for everything we have resource we have capability and technology. The only thing that is missing is individual human beings who will stand up and make it happen. Yes or no? Never before this was possible. Twenty five years ago even if you dreamt of it we were not capable but now we are capable. If we are not capable of doing something that is fine if we are capable of doing something and if we do not do it – if we do not do what we cannot do there is no issue but if we do not do what we can do we are a disastrous generation isn’t it? It is my wish and my blessing that we should not become a disastrous generation. We we should be able to turn it around because everything else is on the plate only the man is missing isn’t it? Do you see everything else is on the plate? Only the man is missing. Earlier it was not like that. There was no resource there was no technology there was no capability. Now everything is there only you and me. Questioner: You are speaking to an adult audience today and asking adults to change is obviously more difficult to address the problem in an earlier stage. How would you recommend to have the children changing at an earlier stage and having them doing something else than playing with the iPhone? Sadhguru: In your perception do you believe a child is more supposed to be more sensible and intelligent or an adult is supposed to be more sensible and intelligent? What do you think? Questioner: A child. Sadhguru: A child? That’s a dangerous perception. The reason why everywhere in the world the laws are made like this even if a child commits murder we will not punish him as we punish an adult is because there is a margin. Because he is still growing he doesn’t his faculties are not fully there. He is not fully responsible for his actions isn’t it? Yes or no? That’s the reason why everything in the world is structured like that. So to put it in the right perspective we are definitely expecting adults to behave more sensibly and more intelligently than the child. Child is given a huge margin because he is not yet there. He he is humanity in the making. You are a human being. So if you think it’s an adult prerogative to be rigid un-flexible ‘This is how I am’ I thought this is only an Indian problem. In India there are many people you tell them something you say ‘I am like this only.’ Now you are saying you are like this only. No no no you are not like this only it is just that to dissolve your rigidity you have not found a solvent. I will give you a solvent we can dissolve your rigidity. Right now your rigidity has come to your body because of a certain lifestyle and because of certain attitudes to the mind nothing else. Your body and mind – let’s look at it this way this is too little a time to look at these aspects but I want you to think about it. Your body your physical body over a period of time you gathered. Isn’t it so? It’s an accumulation eggs bread bananas this this this this. Body you accumulated or no? Why are we not on talking terms? I came all the way to speak to you. Is body an accumulation? Participant: Yes. Sadhguru: Yes. What you call as your mind is an accumulation of impressions. Yes? What you accumulate can be yours I will not dispute that for now but cannot be you isn’t it? I am speaking now using this microphone suddenly I say ‘This is my microphone’ you will think ‘Oh Sadhguru has got some problem. After some time I say ‘This is me’ then you will say ‘Let’s go.’ Let’s attend Martha’s class. I am sorry. If I claim this microphone is me just because I am using it would you think I am insane or not? Yes. Right now you are doing this every day. Food appears on your plate you say ‘This is my food’ you ate it and then you say ‘This is me.’ You need to look at this I am trying to do this shortcut it’s not a good way to do it but I want you to think about it. What is not you if you think it is you what is not you if you think it is you even the medical explanation for insanity is that. Yes or no? The medical definition of insanity is ‘If I think I am the microphone’ the psychiatrist will say ‘You need treatment.’ Yes or no? What you gather can be yours; can never ever be you isn’t it? So there is something that gathers all this that is an intelligence which can make a egg into a human being. Should you not access it? Should you not make that dimension of intelligence possible? I am not asking you to change; I am not asking you to change. Change is just a little improvement of the past. I am not asking you to change. I am telling you as a human being you have come with a potential which is enormous. When I say enormous about two years ago the cell phone companies in India did a survey. India is one of the biggest not one of the the biggest growing cell phone industry growing right now. Sixty million phones we are adding per year. So the company has made a survey and they found ninety seven percent of the people are using only seven percent of a cell phone’s capability. This is we are not talking about your smart phones the dumb phone. Of the dumb phone ninety seven percent of the people are using only seven percent of its competence. So they must be contemplating even if we remove ninety percent of the software most people will not know. Three percent complaints we can handle it business you know. Now if a simple gadget like a cell phone if we are using only seven percent of its competence what do you think is the percentage of this super gadget we are using right now? I don’t want to talk percentages; it’s too low to talk about. Questioner: Yes you are comparing the body and the mind and in fact for the body whatever you eat the body will select which is good for you and will evacuate which is not useful. How does the mind evacuate? Sadhguru: The mind is also doing this but its decision making may not be as good as the body is because a part of it has been handed over to you. If the mind was not in your hands suppose the digestive process is not in your hands you put something the stomach itself will decide what to take what to throw out. But now in the mind you choose so that’s why it’s a mess up. What should go out is not there but even now there is a certain selection in the mind. See everything that your five sense organs come in touch with in wakefulness and sleep is recorded in your mind. Suppose you walk from here to there actually there may be twenty five different types of smells. Everything is recorded you won’t feel it. Consciously you will not know it; only if somebody smells really bad or really good you will know otherwise if you just walk like this there are three hundred smells floating around in this hall; every one of them is recorded in your mind. To what extent means suppose you are fast asleep let’s say you are fast asleep I come into your room and I speak in an Indian language of which you have no clue but you are fast asleep you didn’t even hear. But twenty years later – let’s say I spoke twenty sentences twenty years later we can hypnotize you and make you speak those twenty sentences in a language that you do not know; experiments like this have been done. So everything is being recorded whether wakefulness or asleep but still all of it is not in your memory conscious memory all of it is not finding expression in your life but all of it is influencing you one way or the other. So I want you to know even with food what your body absorbs also has impact on the food what your body rejects also has impact on your food on your system. What what your body rejects don’t think it has no impact; it has impact on your system. Questioner: We hear in the video that your Isha Foundation has four million two millions of volunteers. My question is how do you manage to attract them? Sadhguru: If anybody has to go crazy it’s me because doing all this activity running various institutions do you know creating huge events on a daily basis all over and making this happen with volunteers means I want you to understand what it means to work with volunteers. Nobody is trained for the job. That’s the first thing. You try to do something like this here you will know what it is. And the next thing is you can’t fire them they are volunteers. If the ability to fire people is taken away from you you manage people and see you cannot fire anybody for incompetence. So what happens is in a corporation what you can do with one word I do the same thing with one hundred words because I have to win over this person otherwise she won’t do what she has to do. But the efficiency with which we function you come and see we are super efficient in everything far more efficient than most corporations. That’s why they are coming to us for training. I was conducting a program a three-day event for the top thirty executives of Microsoft India and I had about eight volunteers. They were running around doing everything. After two days these executives their mouth watered you know they are always looking for attrition elsewhere. They said ‘Sadhguru where do

Leadership From Ambition to Vision Sadhguru speaks at IMD business school – Lausanne – Notes

Please note that this video titled Leadership From Ambition to Vision Sadhguru speaks at IMD business school – Lausanne is from Sadhguru’s Youtube channel. More information about Sadhguru is available on his website at isha.sadhguru.org. The transcriptions on this page are automated transcriptions. In case you find any errors please leave a comment below. If you would like to watch this video on the Youtube channel of Sadhguru then please search for Leadership From Ambition to Vision Sadhguru speaks at IMD business school – Lausanne on Youtube