Lessons from my transformative experience in India

In October 2022, I sat amongst a room full of successful Harvard Business School (HBS) alumni who were participating in an executive MBA program called “The Reflective Leader”. We were all from HBS Classes of 2011 through 1995 and came from various sectors of industry and stages of life. However, as we went through various reflective class discussions and group breakout discussions in our learning group, two things were in common.

1. We all have a fear of death, sickness, and/or failure. Even as accomplished as we are, fear holds us back from time to time.
2. We all crave true, lasting (even if ever-lasting is impossible) happiness

Lucky for us, we had a fireside chat with the acclaimed researcher and author on Happiness, Arthur Brooks himself. Arthur Brooks, deemed in the latest Harvard Alumni magazine article as the “Happiness Revolutionary”, has made it his mission as a professor at Harvard Business School to drive a movement for increasing people's demand to become happy and make life more meaningful. I personally, never thought there was a scarcity in demand for happiness, but achieving it is a different matter. His decades worth of research shows that happiness cannot be achieved through the things HBS alum usually chase through life: wealth, power, fame, and status. Instead, the “four pillars” that support happiness are family, faith, friends, and work. “Faith is the sense of transcendent things that are bigger than you,” he says.

Visiting India, and specifically the Pramukh Swami Maharaj Centenary Celebrations in India this year-end, was such a transcendent experience. It was a place where not just faith, but faith, family, friends, and work, all came together to show the true path to happiness for me. Pramukh Swami was the fifth spiritual successor of Lord Swaminarayan and my spiritual guru until he passed in 2016. He has inspired me and my family throughout his lifetime. But seeing the impact he had on millions and seeing the legacy he left and is continuing to create even after his passing, is something truly unique and one that not many leaders can do.

The Pramukh Swami Nagar, the 600 acres of farm-land converted to an inspirational heaven on earth was a labor of love of volunteers, saints and the vision of our spiritual guru Mahant Swami Maharaj. To celebrate the legacy of a leader who lived for others, travelled 40,000 villages, wrote 750,000 letters, and built 1,200 temples to inspire better living and spirituality-centered life, this entire celebration was planned to be a “Festival of Inspirations.” Every dance show, every piece of art and architecture, every speech, every exhibition, every landscape, every written signage and message, and every volunteer’s action was all geared towards creating a divine environment where one could not leave without an inspiration. No matter which age, language, background, religion, country, financial status one had, every single soul left inspired. The lessons I took as a leader, are something I will reflect on for the rest of my life, and I am sure I will need more than just one article to unpack it all. ?

But here are my top 4 leadership lessons from my visit that I can say really solve for the two things we crave 1) strength against fears, and 2) ever-lasting happiness:

1. If every person lives to make the other person happy, the world will be a happier place. Pramukh Swami Maharaj’s lived his motto, “In the joy of others, lies our own”. So as a leader, this made him accessible, human, lead with love, compassionate and always there for others. Today, even 7 years after his passing and decades of years after he may have met someone, people are still grateful for his impact on their lives. This is true leadership.
2. If we live our life with the motto of Hardwork + Prayer = Success, then no task can be daunting and no fear can be big enough to stop us. When we use the power of our true identity and power of God who is always with us and the force behind us, then anything is possible, and everything happens for our good. This combination of adding prayer to all our human efforts, can truly be a powerful force to overcome fear.
3. If we trust and unleash the inner talent in every single person, the world will be a much more beautiful place. Pramukh Swami always saw what was good in others and promoted them to focus on that good and succeed. 80,000 volunteers brought this unbelievable site to life with their talents in craft, art, music, dance, drama, literature, management, speech, spiritual knowledge, logistics, IT, AV, Security…the list truly is endless. Some volunteers didn’t even know they had this talent until they were trusted with this experience! I couldn’t contain my tears when I saw what was humanly possible in such a short amount of time. As leaders, we all need to trust and unleash that talent in ourselves and others.
4. A true legacy is when people not only sing praises of your values, virtues and impact, but are inspired to be like you, live your values, and drive similar impact. True leaders have an impact that lasts beyond their lifetime. Pramukh Swami Maharaj left that legacy, which is why this PSM Nagar could inspire millions to live his values and leave with resolutions to live such a character-driven and pure life. Some stats I heard today during the finale of the program which I joined virtually from home –

• There were ~12,100,000 visitors in 30 days and yet the site’s cleanliness and management were unbelievable
• 123,000 visitors took a resolution in the de-addiction camp to give up one or more addiction. The societal impact of this is huge.
• 5,628,920 cc of blood was collected in the blood camp that was also going on during the celebration.
• Thousands of children took vows after visiting the children’s nagar, such as my own kids who vowed to bow down to their parents every morning as a sign of respect and love, or minimize time behind social media and unnecessary screen time, or do 15 min on positive reading everyday etc.

I know I will continue to glean lessons and hopefully put them into practice over months and years to come, but I am just so grateful to have been a part of this transformative experience with my family and friends. It was truly a week where I could bring the “four pillars” that Arthur Brooks recommends into focus, and see a glimpse of what true happiness could be and how to work towards that intentionally in my life, at home and work.

Let me know what inspired you from my experience or if you had your own lessons from your visit to PSM Centenary Celebrations, and which ones you would want me to expand on in future posts!