Encouraging Corporate Spiritual Seekers

Joined work post a great vacation on August 17th it was an exhilarating annual break that now has become a part of me to get connected with myself. I will be doing one blog a month on Linked however this is slightly delayed due to a switch taken within my company after 9 years. It is awesome being out of your comfort zone after a decade. I recommend one should try this more often.

Being on the spiritual path is a journey , a journey of exploring yourself  a journey of self awareness and it is a slow but steady walk on the path of self realization. Earlier the yogis and sadhus focused only on their spiritual growth and left their worldly life and walk to the mountains to sit and meditate. But today being a spiritual seeker is a multitask. We attend an amazing meditation session and have to return home facing the traffic , reach home and find that the spouse had a bad day or the maid did not turn up.The one hour of meditative experience is simply ruined as soon as we enter the world of our dearest Maya. Madam Maya is a god sent test of the theories you learn in the spiritual school and the best trainer to help grow your spiritual muscles. 

Our work lives are made up of a million tasks, relationships, deadlines, duties, commitment, and goals. Workplace is one of the best playgrounds to learn and grow spiritually. My work is project based and hence it is a great opportunity to work with different people and sometimes this adds to spice in life (chilly).When we work with teams, we can find ourselves trying to be the best to the detriment of the whole or we start gossiping in the break room, even when we don’t want to do it. This is the nature of the world and trust me even the evolved souls fall into traps of anger, resentment, office politics and chaos because we are first and foremost human beings. Yes Human beings so still in the process of becoming Human :) however people on spiritual path are high on awareness which helps them to pay gratitude to Madam Maya and the wonderful teachers who show up. I hope you can relate to a colleague who will be ready any moment to get credit for your work, a Manager who will try to push as much stress as possible to get the work done or a team member who will make you realize we are stuck in the worse project of our lives and there is no way out.

The great epic Ramayana or stories of Buddha and Mara the demon are great examples of the fact that even God had bad days and tough times. Even God went through the pain and suffering , they got angry , made mistakes and did repent. This is part of being incarnated as a Human Being. So if you go through these emotions at workplace it is not a big deal. All this will happen even if you do not want. Being a Corporate Spiritual Seeker will put you on a certain pedestal where people will throw their judgement on your behavior and set guidelines on how one should respond.

There will be times when people in the organization will question your work commitments as you have posted a status on FB as "On a Spiritual Retreat" or you blocked your calendar on weekend for a group meditation or a Spiritual workshop because you were not available to work over a weekend.

There will be questions if you left for A Satsang :) post 5.30 pm when your other colleagues were heading to a pub. Or you published a blog during a tea break when your colleagues went to have tea or smoke. As a Corporate Spiritual Seeker many a times my friends have asked me to not speak about my interests on Spirituality/ Writing or Healing because it may trigger certain judgement about my productivity or commitment towards my job. However the Be Authentic movement that I follow and truly believe  in is required very much now to encourage more and more people to be proud of their creative abilities and their spiritual interests.

People need to be applauded for having a life beyond work just like going gym, dance class and pubs attending Satsangs or Meditations should be considered COOL too. If we have more and more people who can follow their joy at work place , be authentic and true in talking and expressing about their true self the workplace will become a much happier and productive place to be.

Love