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You can't have anything great without having this || Acharya Prashant, with XLRI (2021)
4.6K views
4 years ago
Spirituality
Goodness
Purpose
Money
Superconscious Leadership
Corporate World
Relationships
Description

Acharya Prashant explains that there is a fundamental relationship between everything good in life and spirituality. He asserts that there can be nothing good in life without spirituality. Therefore, if superconscious leadership is something that has goodness, it is bound to be spiritual. He cautions against evoking traditional or conventional images of spirituality, such as singing devotional songs in a corporate office, clarifying that spirituality is not the same as traditional religiosity. To illustrate his point, he states that it is impossible to be a great student, a great politician, a great judge, a great parent, a great lover, or even a great scientist without being spiritual. The underlying reason for this, he explains, is that you are at the center of everything you do. If you are not alright internally, then your work, actions, and relationships cannot be alright. Essentially, one cannot be anything good without being spiritual, as the state of the individual determines the quality of their actions and interactions. Addressing the perceived conflict between spirituality and the corporate world's focus on money, Acharya Prashant states there is no need to balance them. He posits that one can have as much money as is needed, but the crucial question is, "Needed for what?" If one has a great purpose in life, then earning a lot of money to serve that purpose is perfectly fine. He refutes the implicit assumption that spirituality is indifferent to or forbids earning money, describing money as a resource to be used towards a specific end. He uses an analogy to elaborate: money is like a gas cylinder. If you don't know what to cook but accumulate 45 gas cylinders in your kitchen, you are inviting an explosion. People often don't know what to do with their lives (what to cook) but accumulate a lot of money (LPG). He points out that the means of accumulation are often dubious, making the person internally sick. Secondly, once the wealth is accumulated, they don't know what is healthy for them or what to do with it. Lastly, they have no one to share their meals with, as they never had time for meaningful relationships. Thus, the focus should be on having a clear purpose, which then determines the right use of resources like money.