Can Spirituality & World class Leadership with Best Management Practices Go Hand-in-Hand?

How we handle small tasks reveal our leadership & management style. Whether it is organising house-warming gathering, birthday party, raising children, working with others, running a charity or profit making business, or any other tasks reveal our style.

To organise any successful event or project, it requires to communicate well, listen to feedback, be flexible, motivate others, plan effectively and more crucially, need good management, leadership practices, and finance.

BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha is a socio-spiritual, volunteer-driven faith dedicated to improving society through individual growth by fostering the Hindu ideals of faith, unity, and selfless service. Founded on the pillars of practical spirituality, BAPS reaches out far and wide to address the spiritual, moral and social challenges and issues we face in our world. Its strength lies in the purity of its nature and purpose.

Pramukh Swami Maharaj, guru of the BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha between 1971 and 2016, was a leader like no other. He inspired hundreds of thousands of people to lead moral, spiritual and pious lives. He inspired the building of more than 1,200 mandirs (temples) across the globe and initiated over 1,000 sadhus. His teachings and practices continue to transform people and societies everywhere. He dedicated his life to selflessly serving others for the greater good of humanity, travelling across the world as an ambassador of love, peace, harmony, righteousness and faith.

Pramukh Swami Maharaj was loved and respected as one of the great spiritual leaders of our time, who taught and embodied the timeless, universal wisdom: “In the joy of others lies our own.”

The whole year (2022) was being celebrated as his centenary birth celebration across all the centres (more than 3,850) worldwide.

Some more dedications occurred to pay the tributes for the centenary celebration across the world;

• Special programme exploring Pramukh Swami Maharaj’s work of ‘The World as One Family’ held at UN headquarters in New York.
• Canada celebrated by illuminating the Niagara Falls in Saffron
• London by lighting up the arch of Wembley Stadium in Saffron
• A tree and plaque were unveiled by Westminster City Council in the heart of London
• A lake, Narayanan Sarovar, was built in Chansad, Pramukh Swami’s birthplace
• The day was commemorated at the iconic Great Barrier Reef – Love, Peace and Harmony Dive, at Cairns, Australia

From 14th Dec 2022 to 15th Jan 2023, a final month-long centenary festival is being celebrated at Ahmedabad in India.

I was quite fortunate to experience and witness the huge and grand festival Nagar (600 acres temporary campus for festival). This festival campus is a place where centenary birth celebration of Pramukh Swami Maharaj is being celebrated for full 32 days. A month-long birthday festival is the biggest and longest ever birthday celebration people have ever experienced in the whole world. ?It is located in western Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.

The ordinary farmland has been transformed into a cultural wonderland, with something for people for all ages and backgrounds to enjoy and learn.

This is a festival of inspiration, where Pramukh Swami Maharaj inspired millions around the world to live a life infused with love, peace, harmony, faith in God and service to humanity.

True servant leadership was experienced by all, throughout his life and is now reflected in the festival campus.

Some highlights of 600 acres Pramukh Swami Nagar (festival campus):

• The land was donated by 300 farmers and builders who have generously offered their land for use as the festival site and to build Nagar (township)

• This Nagar (festival campus) is a confluence of art, science and spirituality made possible by the service and dedication of over 80,000 volunteers and hundreds of saints involved in the building this hub, completed in less than 6 months.
• Many of these volunteers are leaders and have professional careers and businesses, while other have left such positions to serve full-time by admirably balancing their personal, family, social, professional and volunteer duties.

• Cultural Gates – a total of seven large, artistic gateways welcoming and guiding visitors across the various zones of the festival campus. The biggest one is 380 feet long x 52 feet high. It holds 28 statues of great luminaries – Buddha, Swami Vivekanand, Adi Shankaracharya, Sant Tulsidas, Mahavira Swami and others.

• Impressive Grand Status of Pramukh Swami Maharaj – 30 feet tall statue sits on 15 feet pedestal and is encircled by an arcade of archways, depicting his inspirational life

• Replica of Biggest Temple (Swaminarayan Akshardham, New Delhi) – 67 feet tall, massive replica showing tribute to Pramukh Swami Maharaj who created more than 1200 temple monuments across the world.
• Five Large Exhibition Pavilions - ?Five immersive shows with interactive exhibits will inspire personal integrity, family harmony, community service and cultural awareness

• Bal Nagari – Children Cultural Adventureland – it is spread across 17 acres with 3 pavilions and is being run by 4500 children. It hosts fun exhibitions, educational shows and interactive games which inspire values such as respect, hardwork, teamwork, kindness and moral living
• Bal Mandal Express – a decorative train display, showcasing BAPS Children Forum activities, which has grown today into a vast global community of more than 150,000 children and 20000 adult mentors.

• International Talent Stage – it features over 150 children and youths from around the world showcasing their talents on two stages in various programmes featuring group singing, classical music, musical yoga, a dangi dance, an Indian symphony, gymnastics etc. This encourages children to excel in all facets of their life.
• Light & Sound Show – Every evening a cast of more than 575 children and youths will provide a message of divine bliss with live performances combined with 3D projections in a massive 25,000-capacity open-air arena.

• Vast and Enchanting Glow Garden – it spread over 30 acres serve as a haven of natural beauty blossoming with the inspirational teachings of Pramukh Swami Maharaj, as he illuminated countless lives with radiance of faith, the garden inspires spirituality. It provides life messages through life-sized birds and animals, trees, and replicas displaying vibrant colours during the day and illuminate the night with colourful light.

• Landscape – Pramukh Swami Maharaj actively advocated for the nurture of nature and inspired and encouraged numerous environmental conservation projects worldwide. To reinforce this more than 1.1 million plants and trees are planted through out this Hub. 3 acres nursery is created which includes more than 200 species are watered by drip irrigation method.

• Narayan Sabhagruh – Hugh Stage for Daily Assembly – It's a huge open-air arena and hosts daily cultural performances of live music, dance and dramas as well as inspirational talks by renowned speakers

• Professional and Academic Conferences Pavilion - Professionals from various fields as well as scholars from various disciplines convene to host a total of 22 conferences on topics that benefit society.

• Evening Cultural Programmes - Every evening of the 32-day festival will be filled with devotional songs, music and dances as well as inspirational speeches from renowned leaders and dignitaries. Many dignitaries will be participating in the festival programmes, including Prime Minister Shri Narendrabhai Modi, Vice-President Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar, Shri Amitbhai Shah, Speaker of the Lok Sabha Om Birla, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, as well as many dignitaries from outside India.

• Traffic Control and World Class Parking – more than 4000 volunteers are trained and working in two shifts between 6am and 11pm to regulate traffic, guide visitors on all road around the festival town hub. Vehicles parking area is spread in 325 acres and is divided into 62 different places accommodating at least 50,000 vehicles. Management has also set up a garage to repair vehicles. At each parking place drinking, toilet and emergency medical facilities are also available. Parking location can be saved using QR code. Incoming and outgoing vehicles information is readily communicated across. Two parking places at every gate. 180 shuttle buses have been arranged for volunteers coming from various parts of the city.

80,000 volunteers and hundreds of saints have been overseeing physical service, planning, management and implementation in almost 45 departments in the Nagar (festival campus)

After completion of this celebration, the hub (festival campus) will be wound up within next two months, and most material used will be returned or distributed among devotees and donators.

Pramukh Swami Maharaj not only managed resources but people as well. He was adept at understanding people, and had the unique ability to keep everyone unified and build effective teams.

The reflection of his management and leadership can be experienced through the volunteers’ volunteerism and their dedication in making the festival campus highly interactive and inspirational using technological advancement, and that is why visitors like to say - "The spirituality and leadership with world class management can go hand-in-hand and can be experienced here!"

This is an unparallel and unmatchable and so much here for even the best global corporation to learn from this festival campus.

Pramukh Swami Maharaj has gifted the three mottos, to the BAPS organisation.

“In the joy of others lies our own.”

“True spirituality speaks the language of love.”

“Better the world around you by bettering yourself.”

I am sure there is a lot to learn for all of us and for the entire world as well!