vr Page 1 Sankara: 8th Century Philosopher Or The 21st Century Management Guru? “Tomorrow’s successful leaders will value principles more than they value their companies” ---- Stephen Covey Possession of Knowledge is an intelligent dimension to Leadership. But possessing enough wisdom to use the knowledge wisely makes the true leadership! This is the projected difference in leadership of today and tomorrow. Tomorrow’s leaders need to have enough wisdom to translate their intelligence and knowledge into definable actions. Francis Bacon says “Knowledge is power”. Modern science and technology have risen to those heights that these two –knowledge and power have become demons ready to wipe out humanity from the world- Knowledge supplemented by Science and Technology and Power supplemented by Ego and in satiated Desire of the human beings! Knowledge and power need to be handled by a true leader very carefully. Both these along with some personal traits of leadership, bring extremely interesting dividends to leaders that result in huge success. If knowledge has been power and if this power was giving all success, then why are leaders not making histories? Why organizations crunch for leaders?
Transcript
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Sankara: 8th Century Philosopher Or The 21st CenturyManagement Guru?
“Tomorrow’s successful leaders will value principles more than they
value their companies”
---- Stephen Covey
Possession of Knowledge is an intelligent dimension to Leadership. Butpossessing enough wisdom to use the knowledge wisely makes the trueleadership! This is the projected difference in leadership of today andtomorrow. Tomorrow’s leaders need to have enough wisdom to translatetheir intelligence and knowledge into definable actions.
Francis Bacon says “Knowledge is power”. Modern science andtechnology have risen to those heights that these two –knowledge andpower have become demons ready to wipe out humanity from the world-Knowledge supplemented by Science and Technology and Powersupplemented by Ego and in satiated Desire of the human beings! Knowledgeand power need to be handled by a true leader very carefully. Both thesealong with some personal traits of leadership, bring extremely interestingdividends to leaders that result in huge success. If knowledge has been powerand if this power was giving all success, then why are leaders not makinghistories? Why organizations crunch for leaders?
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These questions are much deeper than what they seem to be! How canknowledge and power that a leader has, be tamed to suit the future scenario?
The future may be characterized as a world of drastic competition,excess knowledge and information, net work economy, with a new fightwithin capitalism itself. New world order or government can emerge at theend of this .As the world is becoming increasingly complex, change becomesnon linear, discontinuous and unpredictable, says Robert Gibson. It is goingto be a totally unfamiliar terrain that is ahead of us, Gibson continues. Weneed an altogether concerted, unique and different approach to reach there.There is always an excitement that the future is being created by us. Eachorganization has a future in front of it and the leader’s responsibility is tocreate the future with the help of the team. The knowledge and power thathe has to acquire to move to success, propels him to go further and realizethe vision of the organization. Whatever be the difficulties that lie ahead ofthe leader in realizing the vision, he has to look at as opportunities foraction and not impediments. It is going to become imperative today andtomorrow for organizations to move from managing knowledge to usingthat knowledge for generating insights--Generating, prioritizing and actingon insights is the natural progression to knowledge management. The leaderhas to act and not react as the Bhagavad Gita says. For right action, heneeds right thoughts. For begetting right thoughts, he needs to get rightimpressions. For getting right impressions, he needs to have right attitude!Right impressions lead to right thoughts and right thoughts lead to rightactions!
How to get right impressions?
Spiritual values and principles are to be ingrained in the basic thoughts ofthe leader and that create impressions. One has to imbibe quality
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impressions in order to give quality thoughts. These quality thoughts lead toquality action and quality action results from good and quality thoughts. Theresults of these actions make the psyche and thereby form personality. Howa personality is formed determine the kind of action that can be expected ofthat person. The personality is also refined by the right attitude of theleader. The perceptions that he forms are greatly tainted by his attitude.
The world is moving from information management to knowledgemanagement. What kind of knowledge management the organization adoptswill depend to a large extent on the leader. Most of the leadership stylesthat are being followed today somehow have grown with a feeling thatwhatever has gone wrong can be fixed by any means. Michael Crichton in‘Jurassic Park’ says ‘straight linearity does not exist. Real life is not a seriesof interconnected events occurring one after the other like beads strung on anecklace. Life is actually a series of encounters in which one event maychange those that follow in a wholly unpredictable, even devastating way”.Extrapolating this concept to life of business organizations and corporatesectors of today, we may assume that leaders will have to explore thehorizon for themselves anticipating untoward challenges. The implicitmeaning is that linear thinking is impossible in a non linear world, as put byAlvin Toffler.
For practicing a non linear thinking, the leader needs to face challenges!
What kind of challenges that are awaiting leaders is something thatneeds a thorough study in the light of the current advancement that istaking place around us. Unfortunately there is no resting place in the path
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to the future as everyone is in the race. Without losing the direction, withthe courage and conviction of the vision of the organization, to take thevehicle along is indeed a tough job for a leader. Even if he/she has theoperational efficiency, lacking a sense of strategic direction may lead anyorganization to deep perils. The leaders will have to constantly reinventtheir future and there is no room for complacency. Therefore the ‘Law ofKarma’ fits all the leaders very aptly. As Charles Handy says, ‘you have toinvent the world not respond to it! This means, in simple terms “action’.“Ability to cut through the clutter and provide clarity is one of the traits ofgood leadership.
What are the threats of knowledge based tomorrow?
By itself, Knowledge may not be able to manage the ‘tomorrow’.Knowledge wealth is immense and is scattered. It is an infinite asset and tomanage this knowledge one needs great skills. Human element adds value tothe knowledge and information. Then to do justice to day after tomorrow,there has to be a world view. What does this world view consist of?‘Perception of one world” Jay Jagat” as AcharyaVinoba Bhave put it.Patriotism does not remain confined to a geographical outlines or a country.Today we have to speak on “International democracy”. Now the leader’scentre of action will be like “Circle with centre everywhere and nocircumference”.
The simple question that comes up immediately to everyone’s mind ishow we prepare organizations for this kind of a massive reinvention and isthere any such example for a role model of leadership? The simple andstraight answer is the principle of Advaita and leadership style adopted bySankara! Advaita gives a basic fundamental principle of “oneness” forLeadership. Adisankara was a spiritual leader. We can take him as an
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example for a perfect leadership from ancient scriptures. There have beenmany philosophers in the world in the past who have created revolutions inthe thinking process of the people of the world. Either they have allremained as individuals in their own cocoons or known only to very fewsects of the society. None have been that popular like Adi Sankara who haslived way back in the 8th Century in India! His name thrives even todayafter several centuries in the whole world for popularizing the “AdvaitaPhilosophy” and simplifying the concepts illustrated in the Upanishads. Hehas been a spiritual master to many, yet a leader in the large sense.
Advaita and Adisankara
Philosophy is the mode in which mankind finds a way for self expression.Sankara was the creative thinker of the first order. It was a very criticaltime for Hindu religion because of the advent of theism, Buddhism andMimamsakas. There was a general sense of weariness among all the people.The era needed a religious genius to break the past traditions, yet holding onto the strength that it gave and fusing with fresh thoughts and goodinfluences. In the words of Dr Radhakrishnan, Sankara ‘set to music’ thetune that had been haunting millions of ears and he offered his ‘AdvaitaPhilosophy ‘as a common basis for religious unity”. “His travels throughoutIndia, resulted in promoting religious harmony among the Hindus”, saysGeorge Victor (pg 42 in “Life and teachings of Adi Sankara”).The Vedantasutra had been commended by other thinkers as well. But Sankara gave adifferent magnitude and dimension to it representing a unified truth – theTruth of Brahman!
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The four mahavakyas of Sankara stand even today as the testimony forhis Advaita philosophy and its acceptance all over. They even standtestimony for the truth of the Brahmavada that Sankara upheld.
Aham Brahmosmi –“I am Brahman” (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad -1.4.10)
Tat Tvam Asi –“That art thou” (Chandokya Upanishad -6.8.7)
Pra -jnanam Brahma-“Brahman is wisdom” (Aitareya Upanishad -3.5.3)
Ayam atma Brahma-“This self is Brahman” (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad-
2.5.19)
Even today these Mahavakyas live without a challenge shows the kind ofauthority on what he preached. These vakyas have withstood the time andspace for more than 14 centuries. The criticism raised by Buddhists,Ramanuja, Bhaskara all have once again ascertained what he has beenupholding so far that Brahman is one. His monistic philosophy is unparalleleven today.
Establishing the Advaita Philosophy was not that easy during his times.The major difference between Advaita propounded by Sri Sankara and otherphilosophers is that the former does not need any reason to believe in thereality of the process of becoming, whereas the latter revolves around faithto evolution, creation and manifestation as real. The depth of Sankara’sBrhmajnana earned him the supreme title of “Jagat Guru”. When Sankarasays nothing else besides self exists, he says Atman is Supreme reality and Itis birth less and Non dual. All duality is mere imagination due to ignoranceand hence unreal. He continues,
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““ASATO MAYAYA JANMA TATVATO NAIVA YUCHYATE,
VANDHYAPUTRO NA TAVENA MAYAYA VAPI JAYATE”
“The unreal cannot be born either really or through Maya. For the son ofthe barren women is born neither in reality nor in illusion”
Perception plays a very important role in a leader’s activities.Sankara’s commentary says that perception of duality is due to Chittavrtti -actions of the mind” All these dual objects comprising everything that ismovable and immovable are perceived by the mind, for, duality is neverexperienced when the mind ceases to act. “When the mind does not imaginean account of the knowledge of the truth which is atman, then it ceases tobe mind and becomes free from all ideas of cognition for want of objects tobe cognized”. Perceiving oneness in everyone is the basis of relationship!
Yes, the thought that is basic to any leadership is that all –master andservant are one, but performs different functions! This is the basic Principleof Advaita and that is the foundation of all Relationships. And leadership isall about Relationships! The basic difference between Sankara’s style thenand the leadership styles now is that Sankara possessed the wisdom todisseminate the knowledge that he had and he believed in the humaneness ofpeople unlike many others who consider knowledge only as a tool to fixproblems.
The personality of Sankara possesses different images to different people.What Adi Sankara did was the same kind of reinvention of future when hissociety was going in a clueless direction. He did think in a non linear wayand he was not travelling in a straight terrain. He was a visionary! He gavethe people a right direction for the path of self discovery and with a visionhe encouraged the people to realize their own self worth. He believed that
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any change will last long if it is internalized first and hence he concentratedhis eloquence in discussions in motivating people to look with in first. Aleader has to touch the lives of people! He improved the quality of life ofpeople! And that is what will sustain for generations! Awakening this élanvital in all the followers is the primary duty of a leader in any organization.This leader we are talking about will have the worldly wisdom to evoke thesensory organs of the individual self in order to perceive the ultimatepurpose of Karma and action required for that. This is what Sankara didcenturies before!!!
A great leadership is the need of any organization. The leaders shouldhave some personal traits that supplement the knowledge and power thatthey possess. Leaders have an aura/energy around them that is magnetic--people gravitate to leaders naturally--not on the basis of authority. Leaderslead by example--actions is more powerful than words. Principle CenteredLeadership--The unchanging core principle which withstands tests, time andagain but is never compromised .Empathy--the ability to be one with all isanother wonderful trait of a great leader. Mastering ability to deal withcomplexity and the stamina--working tirelessly at the symptom and rootcause level add lustre to his personality. A conviction generated throughworking selflessly for a strong sense of purpose makes him an inspiringleader. Adi Sankara is considered as an embodiment of such an evolvingleadership!
Tomorrow’s leader has to be an egoless person- a total human being. Hewould respect the fundamentals of all religions of the world withhumaneness anointed with wisdom. He will be able to see the relationshipwith himself, with world and environment. Sankara is the role model forsuch a leader.
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The leader has to be a person free from greed, desire, anger andattachment because all these traits entangle the leader in a very dubioustrap and he loses his relationship with people. Relationship, people andpower have to come to oneself by virtue of his qualities. Sankara hadconquered all these human aspects of behavior.
Chanakya Neeti identifies 4 aspects of human character as worst and aleader should not have them at all. They are Kama (desire), Krodha (anger),Lobha (greed) and Moha (attachment). If a leader has these traits as part ofhis personality, then he cannot inspire the followers. Sankara was very keenin conquering these worst aspects of the character
A brief note on Sankara and his personality traits
According to Telang, Sankara flourished about the middle or end of 6th
century AD Sri R G Bhandarkar proposes AD 680. According to Max Mullerand Professor MacDonnell, Sankara was born in 788 AD and died in 820AD. He was a solitary ascetic thinker who gave equal importance to workand meditation. Sankara belonged to a simple, learned and hardworkingNamboodiri sect of Brahmins of Malabar in Kerala, supposed to have beenborn at a place called Kaladi in the West coast of the Peninsula.
Sankara was an illumined, sage, philosopher, scholar, poet and also aman of action, great -reformer and organizer and stabilizer of society bythe resuscitation of ethical and spiritual values. He defined the universalspiritual religion called Advaita Philosophy. The nectar of Sankara’scommentaries churned out through Vedic wisdom saved people from the ageof ignorance and conferred on them immortality of divine knowledge. Herefuted all hostile doctrines- with in16 year span of his life..
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Sankara is a typical example for a world class leader. When the westwas in the idealistic mind set in the 19th century it was Sankara’s idealismthat gripped the western thinkers. In the early 20th century the interestshown by the Western philosophers in the works of Sankara, shows the kindof impact he had even after 12 centuries of his existence. Leaders do notpreach. They show by action! Sankara did not preach any singlemethodology of salvation. He did not preach even a single person, butallowed everyone to follow their own beliefs of salvation in a refined way Heworked with his disciples to empower them; enhance their self realizationprocess by being part and parcel of the whole process. He wandered as ateacher from place to place. With him, the 7th and 8th centuries saw therise of Hinduism.
It is a rare trait of a leader to accept suggestions from his teammembers. Madugula (pg46) says Sankara even accepted suggestions from hisfollowers. “If it is untenable, he would indicate the problem with them”.Though Sankara belonged to the Advaita Cult, he had respect for all thePhilosophies and treated them all with respect. Even his opponents weretreated with respect by Sankara and he gave an ear to their philosophies too.Sankara does not ignore those who believe in the external realities and whobelieve in external objects as real. He is generous enough to say that thebelief in the reality of external objects is not all serious. One of the mostimportant quality that is seen in Sankara was that he did not reject whatwas rational in others system of philosophy also Vedic or non Vedic/ Thebasic urge that he was interested in was only in search of Truth wherever itis. (Acharya Sankara-an interpretation-Swami Mukyananda) This shows thesupreme quality of a leader to accept and respect others views also and alsofocused on his goal. The encounter with the great Mandana misra standstestimony to this trait in him. Buddhism totally denies Vedas and its
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supremacy. Yet Sankara has adapted many good philosophies of Buddhism.Advaita uphold Brahman as supreme and rituals as useless. Sankara was notan atheist –but he realized that everything is just one! His philosophy’s coreidea is to help the individual realize the inner beauty of the soul and itsassociation with the Brahman. For this purpose of spreading the philosophy,he wandered from Malabar to the Himalayas.
A leader is in the midst of action all the time yet very calm. Just as theBhagavad gita upholds it, Sankara was always in the action mode ofrefinement of Hinduism, but he was very calm and appeared passionless.Ordinary people, who are day in and day out struggling in emotional battles,may feel that Sankara lacked color and joyful cheer of social amusement oflife. Some consider him as a person who did not love his life. But that is thetrue nature of people who pursue higher realms of life and fellowship withthe Supreme Being. He appeared, says Dr Radhakrishnan, at one and thesame time, as an eager champion of the orthodox faith and spiritualreformer. He spent his time in bringing back the glory of the Upanishadswhich he believed will lead the soul to higher life.
Quoting the words of Dr Radhakrishnan, “The life of Sankara makes astrong impression of contraries. He is a philosopher and a poet, a savant anda saint, mystic and a religious reformer. One sees him in youth, on fire withintellectual ambition, a stiff and intrepid debater, another regard him as ashrewd political genius, attempting to impress upon people a sense of unity:for a third, he is a calm philosopher engaged in the single effort to exposethe contradictions of life and thought with an unmatched incisiveness; forthe fourth, he is a mystic who declares that we are all greater than weknow. There have been few minds more universal than this”.
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A leader is immensely talented and knowledgeable. This leader Sankarawho inspired many, is described by Madhava Vidyaranya as, “In theknowledge of Vedas he was like Brahma, its auxiliaries like Gargya, of sacrednarratives like Brihaspati; of the doctrines of rituals like Jaimini and ofphilosophy like Badarayana”. The extensiveness of learning was so great thathe looked the very embodiment of Vyasa’. All branches of learning wheninterpreted by Sankara gave an altogether different significance. Hisinterpretation of the Vedas gave him the status of an Acharya. Ordinarypeople were left clueless at the eloquence of Sankara. The Buddhistphilosophers began to tremble while teachers of Sankhya lost their eloquence.
A leader does not lose his cool very easily and is self restrained. Sankarawas greatly self restrained. He got control over all defects of human mind bypractice of their opposite qualities and reflecting on its evils-anger andviolence by cultivation of patience, greed and duplicity by earningcontentment, pride by recognition of others merits and the demoness ofunquenchable desires by learning to be satisfied with what one possesses. Aleader is a great communicator. Sankara’s rare virtues were Power ofspeech, Great intelligence, and Compassion. Sankara was full of humankindness and filial affection.
A leader has to be teacher himself. All those teachable points inmanagement of an organization have to be communicated in such depthand passion to all the people in the organisation by the leader himself. Themeeting of his Guru Govindapada at a cave and his reply to the question ofthe guru “who are you?” and Sankara’s reply as ‘I am neither the Earth norwater nor fire nor air nor sky nor any of their properties. I am not thesenses or the mind even. I am the division less of the consciousness”. GuruGovindapada happened to hear about his disciple’s prodigious feat from the
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reports of the people” Truth is at the dawn of knowledge” The guru acceptshim as disciple. This disciple becomes the master himself later! Respect forthe Guru was something that is worth emulating from the Acharya.Humility of Sankara in front of Guru is something worthy of emulation to allat all times. Sankara requested Vyasa, the Guru to make a critical estimateof the commentaries that he has made on Brahma sutra –a work of Vyasa.Vyasa appreciated its methodology, clarity and profundity. Vyasa says “Youare unrivalled in your grasp of technique of interpreting the Vedic passagesuniversal mastery of grammar”. I S Mudgula writes to say that Vyasa thegreat sage acknowledges the skill of Sankara by saying” What is mostimpressive is the lucid style in which you discuss the profoundest conceptsembodied in my sutras. The powers of reasoning are remarkable” (pg43,Madugula, (‘The Acharya Sankara of Kaladi’,, by Motilal BanarasidassPublishers). Madugula continues to say that “Sankara elevated every humanbeing without exception to the level of the greatest god” (pg 45). He hadgreat respect for humanity. On instruction from Vyasa, Sankara went on aspiritual conquest of the whole world through debates and to establish theAdvaita philosophy.
Sankara was a brilliant writer in Sanskrit also, another feat-a skill towrite well- that is desirable for a leader. His Sanskrit is mellifluous and atthe same time very forceful, impressive and direct – befitting a leaderwhose characteristic trait should be forceful communication skill. Sankarahas written commentaries for almost all the important Upanishads like theChandokya, Brihadaranyaka, Taittriya, Aitareya, Svetasvatara, Kena, Katha,Isa, Prasna, Mundaka and the Mandukya. He has written commentaries onmany other Upanishads too He has not only written commentaries on theten major Upanishads, the Brahma Sutra and the Gita but also produced alarge number of other illustrated auxiliary works like “Upadesh Sahashri”,
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“Vivekachudamani” etc. His writings include clarity, sweetness and powerthat surpass a river of nectar. By his “Kanakadhara Stotra” he broughtprosperity to a family. By ‘Soundarya Lahiri’ he revealed the divine glory ofthe mother. Through the ‘Shivabhujanga Stotra’ - he produced a cure forthe obsession of fear in men-His compositions excelled with lucid flow ofwords, communication with the eloquence of language. The very complextexture of his Personality found their expression in his writings, says, DrRadhakrishnan. He writes with such a lucid style that it reflects the qualitiesof his mind, its logic, its feelings and sense of humour.
Madugula says,” He was accessible to all people at all times. His patienceand his courtesy were proverbial, his compassion overflowing. His only desireand ambition throughout his life had been to make each and every humanbeing see the Almighty in himself and in everyone else, everything else, andeverywhere else. Joy could not elate him nor does sorrow sadden. He was, atall times, unruffled.
Taking challenges was something very unique of the Acharya. Leaderschallenge status quo and while that may not the consensus position, throughinspiration, reason and persistence they shift the needle and create a newnorm. Sankara always loved debates and establishing the unparalleleloquence of the scriptures and the Brhmajnana. When Ubhaya Bharati,challenged the Acharya during a debate on matters related to “Kamasastra”, though he was a Sanyasi, he requested for a month’s time from herto know the sastras, which is one of the 64 sastras. He promptly returnedafter learning what he did not know and challenged Ubhaya Bharati andwon her in the debate. He was a great learner. With just 4 disciples in thebeginning, he started 4 mutts in the country establishing the non dualistphilosophy. He was just not a leader, but elevated the disciples from their
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ordinary self and identified second line leaders. He identified Padmapada,Hastamalaka, Totaka and Sureswara as leaders who would establish the fourrenowned mutts. He created second line leadership while serving others.
Sankara was highly a modest person and his modesty makes him saythat the doctrine he is expounding is nothing more than what is containedin the Vedas, says Dr Radhakrishnan ( pg 467, Indian Philosophy, Volume 2,published by Oxford University Press).
Sankara’s Advaita philosophy is a system known for its logical subtletyand intellectualism. It is free from theological obsessions, religion and thewhole approach is based on purely philosophical study. Sankara stands as aheroic figure of the first rank in somewhat motley crowd of the religiousthinkers of medieval India. “His philosophy is complete, says DrRadhakrishnan needing neither a before nor an after. “It has a self justifyingwholeness characteristic of works of art. It expounds on its ownpresuppositions, is ruled by its own end and holds all its elements in asstable reasoned equipoise”. His disciples propagated Sankara’s’ work andphilosophy even after 200 years, throughout the length and breadth of India.Swami Vivekananda, Ramakrishna Parmahansa also propagated thisphilosophy.
Sankara gives a lot of weightage to avidya (ignorance) and howignorance causes bondage. Sankara acknowledges the good influences ofBuddhism and accepts it as a vital force in the life of the country. Sankaragave an ending treatise to all loose thinkers who existed then through hispowerful philosophy. Sankara is the most remarkable rationalist India hasever produced. He says, the Brahman, appears itself through infinitenumber of things (Namarupa), all of which are only appearances and notreal. Real is the Brahman.
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Though Sankara is very popular Philosopher, he is one of the mostmisunderstood leaders. Sankara accepted ’Intuition’ as a source of Knowledge.The questions that Sankara faced were about the nature of Brahman,relation between Jivatman and Paramatman, Maya, Vidya, Cause effectrelationship etc. He was expected by the scholars to bridge the logical gap inall these speculative themes. Sankara grew up as a unique leader here by notimagining things or giving fake answers but by incredibly fine philosophiesthat proved as answers to all questions leveled against him. Deep intuitiveabilities--gained through experience externally and internally, support theleader. As a spiritual leader, he depended largely on his power of intuition.
This great leader Sankara had to face challenges to his Advaitaphilosophy in various forms and various thinkers. Ramanuja from South whoupheld theism- duality of Brahman was his first opponent. Vignanavadins ofBuddhism also challenged the Advaita cult. It was not a very easy path thisascetic had to take up while initiating the principles of Advaita in a dualistsociety and a society that was embedded with principles of Buddhism andJainism. The main aim in front of him was restoring the traditionalconcepts of the Vedas. Sankara’s views are greatly influenced by Gaudapadawho first propounded the Advaita Philosophy. Naulaka says, “the very factthat Sankara undertook to write a commentary on his Mandukya Karika,and thus to associate himself with him, is adequate enough to show that heendorsed at least some of the fundamental ideas of his predecessor” (pg 29).
It is however the Upanishads that form the major component ofSankara’s Advaita Philosophy. The most fundamental doctrine of Sankara’sBrahmavada is the ultimate identity of every individual self with Brahman,the eternally immutable and pure consciousness, says Naulaka (pg23)
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Some charge Sankara with the argument that Advaita does not have aplace for God. Sankara refutes it by bringing the concept of higherknowledge and lower knowledge and establishing that the highest knowledgeis Nirguna Brahman and the Lowest is Saguna Brahman. (pg111, “what isAdvaita? By P Sankaranarayanan, published by Bharatiya vidhyabhavan,1999) .Upanishads speaks about Saguna Brahman (possessing qualities) andNirguna Brahman (devoid of qualities). Sankara uses a technique ofreconciling them as ‘Paravidya (Higher Knowledge) and ‘Aparavidya (inferiorknowledge) Sankara says that only by knowing the inferior, one can aspirefor the higher knowledge.
Sankara was a great and systematic coordinator. He coordinatedthe thoughts that were scattered otherwise in loose formats. Sri Sankara’sglory lies in the systematic work done by him on Upanishad thought. He wasable to relate his philosophy to those of seers of the past, present and futureincluding Buddhist philosophy. Shri Sankara’s approach to all systems ofthought is very systematic befitting a leader. He tries to accommodate allseers in all possible ways. He counters in them only those aspects that arenot conducive to the welfare of man. This illustrated his concern formankind. There is scope in his philosophy for Brahman, self, Jnana, Maya ,Karma, Bhakthi , Yoga, rituals, worship Tantra, mantra, mythology &legend ,even physical sciences, and technologies . He was himself a Jnani saysSwami Mukhyananda in his work “Acharya Sankara”
The leader in Sankara gives a very important place for reason and logic.He gives scriptures/srutis primary importance. Sankara, as a nation builder,gave support to the different religious sects whether they worshipped Vishnu,Shiva, Sakthi, Ganapathi etc. He is known as “Shanmata Sthapana”-
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Acharya (Leader who established six religion sects) ,through, his philosophyhe gave a broad basis to all thinking.
It was Sankara’s concept of Unity in Diversity which is inherent inIndian culture and thought that put away religious conflicts in Indian culturepre Muslim period. It was his genius thinking that brought the countrytogether. “There were so many ascetics in the country. He organized all ofthem into Dashanami Sampraday under the designations Puri, Giri Bharati ,Saraswati Tirtha , Vana, Parvata , Sagara, Aranya, Ashrama, and inspirethem with the Mission of uplifting the country” says Swami Mukhyananda.These people were trained by him to work in cities, forests, sea wafts, -places of pilgrimage to cultivate philosophical knowledge. The whole countrywas rejuvenated to the Vedic Dharma by his constant appeal and leadershipqualities and his teams’ untiring work.
One can say, looking at the team he has created within 32 years of hislife that he brought about a revolution in the social, religious, spiritual andphilosophical life and thought of the country. He had such a brilliant mind,scientific view point and rational approach that he appeals to the modernman, he appears as modern in many respects as if he were living today forhe was concerned with eternal universal thoughts. The solutions that hesuggested in those times to some problems are even applicable now.
Sankara had immense faith in the Vedanta sutras –the Upanishads!The Law of Karma from the Vedanta sutras states that every sorrow orhappiness in man’s life is the predetermined actions committed by himsometime, either in the present life or one of his numerous past lives. TheBhagavad Gita upholds this view of Karma strongly. This means that one’sbirth is a bondage to one. This is the reason life becomes weary, absurd andawesome.
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Verses from the Bhagavad Gita talk about the Law of Karma inabundance and the need for action. The Bhagavad Gita focuses on thoughtsand actions and not on outcomes. It calls for actions rather than reactions.According to the Gita, greed is bad. This is what exactly Sankara followed.Enlightened leaders are compassionate, selfless and they treat everyone astheir equals. This is possible only if the élan vital is awakened. As YKesavamenon says, in his book “The Mind of Adi Sankara” ( pg 121, Jay coPublishing house,2006), the Acharya was a ‘Master’ –who shines in theIndian Philosophy as a luminary of the first magnitude. He was somethingmore than a clever intellectual”
Conclusion
Advaita philosophy as the unifying spirit enriching the process of seeingoneness in everyone and Sankara as the role model of leadership are the twopossibilities in 21st century management philosophy. Philanthropy wasconsidered as an obligation by the business world till recently. But now, it isconsidered as an edge of winning the battle of existence in the businessworld. Once upon a time, leaders thought ‘greed is good’. But now‘compassion’ is the leading word in the business world. The seeminglyethereal world view of Indian Philosophy has suddenly become the charmingconcept for the business world. Stephen Covey the great management gurusays, Character without competence is as insufficient as competence withoutcharacter. This, he says is the important lesson of leadership. We may recallhow leadership in business world was considered in the past as competencyonly to win and make profit. Character had never played a role inleadership of the past. It is here the personality traits of Adi Sankara getnoticed. Even while being a saint, he was compassionate, he was worldly
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wise with the strength of integrity of character. The Gita upholds leaders asenlightened when they have strength of character, viewing the problems oflife in a larger context with a compassionate outlook.Gita say leaders lead bybeing a model! Stephen Covey also says that leadership calls for High Trustbelieving in human potential”, in his ‘Principle Centered leadership’.According to Warren Bennis in his “Becoming a leader of leaders”, ‘themajor challenge for leaders in the 21st century will be how to release thebrain power of their organization’. He calls for deploying the creativity of theorganization. This is what exactly Adi Sankara did almost two thousandyears ago. Adisankara’s personality traits and his philosophy can be themodel for leadership lessons for a world of tomorrow.
Books of reference
Sankara Digvijaya -‘The traditional life of Sri Sankaracharya” by
Madhava-Vidyaranya-Sri Ramakrishna Math, Published by The
