more on "religion @ workplace"

From the Bhakti List Archives

• October 28, 1999


Dear members,

After re-reading the cover-story article in 'Business
Week' on Religion at Workplace in Corporate America
(which adiyen posted y/day for your kind information
and comments) a lot of thoughts went through adiyen's
mind. I am sharing a few with you all, if you don't
mind :

(1) Now that religion and spirituality are being
welcomed back at workplace the old credo that "Work is
religion" can be safely supplemented by another
corrollary: "Religion is work".

(2)Now that it is fashionable in Corporate America to
bring spirituality into workplace, Corporate India too
will probably soon follow suit (since what is 'best
business practice' for Corporate America is 'best
business practice' for Corporate India too!).

(3) I suppose corporate employers in India now will
not shy away from sponsoring religious and spiritual
pursuits. They will now do it with same good
liberality and PR-consciousness with which they are
presently promoting or sponsorsing music, art and
culture. (Good news for mutts, ashrams and temple
administrators!). We can soon expect, for example,
"ITC-Vidvat sadas" just as today we know "ITC-Sangeet
sammelan" is a premier event in corporate-cultural
circles in India. On ZEE-TV alongwith with popular
programs like "TVS-Sa-re-ga-ma" we can also perhaps
soon expect "TVS-veda-parAyaNam".

(4) In Company Annual General Meetings in India we can
probably hope Chairman's "Statement to Shareholders" 
to now include proud declarations such as: "Your
Company places great emphasis on continuous upgrading
of its human resources. During the year the Company
conducted training programs for its employees in areas
such as TQM (Total Quality Management), Business
Process Re-Engineering, "Emerging trends in global
E-commerce" and, for senior management personnel, a
specially designed Advanced course on "Ramanuja's
VisishtAdvaita and Srategic Business Planning". 

(5) We can probably next expect Human Resource
Managers in India, searching for jobs, to soon begin
flaunting on their CVs something like this: "I did
Post-Graduate Diploma in "Advanced Advaita and
Attitudinal Change in Corporate Context (AAA-CCC)"
from the premier "Institute of Vedantic Managers" in
Uttara-Gangotri. 

(6) We can also probably expect Indian corporates, as
part of their personnel policy, to sponsor employees
going on spiritual "yAtrA-s" to SriRangam,
NaimishAranyam, Kasi, Mecca, Medina and the Vatican...
 

The above are some of adiyens expectations. I request
other members to give their own views... of course all
in lighter vein and good humour only!

dAsan,
Sampathkumaran


=====

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com