How does Islamic Capitalism differ from Vedanta and Karma Capitalism? Islam does not share this idea of relative scarcity. Capitalism breeds competition and promotes individualism, whereas Islam says you compete to see how humble you can be and how much you can contribute to the community
Instant karma capitalism catches on
By Indrajit Basu
KOLKATA - Here’s a challenge. How many times have you woken up in the morning so overwhelmingly joyous that you get up with a deep sense of well-being and go to work to a job you love so much that you would pay to do it?
If you don’t experiences that feeling very often, you’re living in a “miserable world”, say advocates of Vendanta, who include hundreds of high-profile management executives in the United States and Britain. It’s a Hindu philosophy that says such a life is not only possible, but also one’s birthright. Many are using Vedanta to improve their job performances as well as their personal lives.
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Top business schools such as Columbia Business School, Kellogg and Wharton in the US and the London Business School have included the Vedanta philosophy in their regular curriculum. And more recently, global companies including Microsoft, Ford and Lehman Brothers have also started conducting workshops on Vedanta teachings to help their executives acquire new management skills for making profits with serenity.
Eastern stress reduction methods such as meditation and yoga are not new to the West. But now, driven by increasing pressures on life due to globalization and technological advances, an increasing number of high-profile corporate executives in the West are turning to what might be called “ancient Eastern management texts” - and branded as “karma capitalism” by some - to chill out and improve productivity.
“In the flat world as it is today, work hours are getting increasingly long while the distinction between work hours and off-work hours has pretty much vanished. In this, if you’re living only for work then it is a sad world,” says Srikumar Rao, an ardent follower of Vedanta. Rao shuttles between New York and London to teach a course called “Creativity and Personal Mastery” at the Columbia Business School and the London Business School.
With a PhD in marketing from Columbia University’s business school, as well as a master’s degree in marketing philosophy from the same school and a master of business administration from the Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad to boot, Rao says that in his long corporate career he has seen it all.
“One of the mistakes we make is the mistake of hanging our happiness in the modern age in the achievement of a particular outcome,” he says. “We live in an ‘if then model’ where only if this happens, then we are happy. That is a fundamentally flawed model because there’s nothing that you can get, do, or be that will allow you to be happy. Happiness is inbuilt and should come from within.”
New Jersey-based Gautam Jain, a teacher in the Vedanta Cultural Foundation USA, a non-profit organization that expounds Vedantic philosophy, says that one of the biggest reasons why managers fail to perform these days is because they can’t manage themselves.
“Most managers know what they have to do but often they find it difficult to execute their responsibilities and concentrate because their mind is full of worries and anxieties,” says Jain. “The source of the problem is lack of self-management. If you cannot manage yourself, you cannot manage anything around you.”
According to him, this further affects productivity and the ability to maintain healthy relationships. Work degenerates into monotony, boredom and even causes physical ailments. People look forward to getting away from work to enjoy themselves - in weekends and vacations. Jain adds that “if you can’t find happiness in your work, you will never find it”.
But what is Vedanta and how can it be applied in daily life and work? The word Vedanta is derived from two Sanskrit words “Ved”, which means knowledge, and “Anta” meaning end, and together they mean the culmination of knowledge.
When many are aspiring for success in their field of activity and trying to find peace and harmony thereafter, Vedanta, according to advocates, provides the technique of combining success with happiness and peace.
“Success is achieved through the three disciplines of concentration, consistency and cooperation while peace is gained by cessation of agitations through control and direction of one’s desires,” says Jain. “And Vedanta provides a clear means to attain these two ends.”
Rao’s courses, as well as those of the Vedanta Cultural Foundation, revolve around stress management and disciplining of the mind. The main objective, says Rao, “is to help you discover your purpose in life, and to show you how you can mobilize resources to reach your goals most efficiently.”
But Vedanta teachings are not always easily accepted. Both Rao and Jain say they constantly come across skeptics who find it difficult to accept that ancient theories can be applied in the modern world. “Which is why, the first thing I tell my students is, don’t ask the question whether they [the principles of Vedanta] are true or false,” says Rao. “Just find out if the concepts work better for you, and if they do, go ahead and adopt them.”
But even as Eastern philosophies are mesmerizing the busy and harried executives of the Western world, there aren’t too many takers in the East. For instance, none of the business schools in the East has included Vedanta courses in its curriculum, while companies conducting workshops on the Vedantic management styles are virtually unheard of, according to Jain.
“That’s because when it comes to innovations, the Americans [and the British] were the first to adopt it,” says Jain, although he quickly adds that the Vedanta Academy in India - the parent of the Vedanta Cultural Foundation in USA - has conducted quite a few workshops for “top Indian companies”.
Ironically, Rao says that while business schools and companies from many parts of the world have approached him to launch Vedanta courses or workshops, he is “too busy to take up additional courses, but I might try to work out a way though, soon.”