Management learnings from the Bhagavad Gita

Abstract

I chose this subject for my project work, after attending a course on "Spirituality and Self Development for Global Managers", conducted by Dr, Ramnath Narayanaswamy, This course awakened me to the possibilities of the spiritual aspect of management. In this project work, I have made a study of various commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita. I have primarily looked at it from the point of view of the spiritual goal of Self-realization. With this as the goal, I have looked at what should be the nature of the person and how he should perform actions towards the goal. I have restricted my study only to the Bhagavad Gita, and not to other texts like the Upanishads. In order to give the essence of the Bhagavad Gita, up front, I have initially presented the 42verses identified by Ramana Maharshi as containing the gist of the Bhagavad Gita ..I have then given a short section on spirituality in management and provided leads to additional resources in this area. I have then identified about 300 verses as applicable to my study (see Appendix) and then classified and arranged them three perspectives - the Self (Divine), Actions and the Person behind the actions - in a logical flow order. These have been presented in this report. I have then described some basic learnings applicable to management that directly flow from the Bhagavad Gita. I have concluded this report by mentioning what I have directly gained from this work.