Meditation: Transforming Leadership

Meditation is one of the most misunderstood concepts. Most of the people understand it in their own way, others fall prey to the wrong advice. Some practice it incorrectly, others feel it is not their cup of tea. Some people mess it up with prayers. Some get into rituals of how to sit, how to take posture, when to do it, etc. etc. This is my epiphany about meditation.

Meditation is not a prayer.

How is meditation different than prayers? Meditation is not a prayer of any specific God or religion. It is free from religion. Almost all religions value meditation. We can see biblical references for meditation. Prophet Mohammed used to meditate on the hills of Mecca by sitting in the cave. Hindu sages went to Himalaya for meditation. In fact, the all-powerful Hindu God, Shiva, is known for his love for meditation. Prayers are poems to praise the Lord, worship him, express gratitude, faith in him, & seek his blessings. Prayers are humble appeal to almighty expressing our dependence on him. Prayers represent faith & hope. Prayers are also a reminder to ourselves for maintaining the purity of thoughts & behavior. It is also a promise given to God about our kind & generous behavior particularly towards old, poor, physically& mentally challenged people who are unfortunate.

Meditation is synchronising both the minds, & switching off 'emotion tab'.

Taming the war within Sometimes we are confused, not sure about something and shaky because we are in double mind. Confusion is always because of the debate. For any debate, two views are required. We have two minds. Each one takes up a specific view & there is an internal debate. We get confused because in the long debate nobody is completely wrong. Therefore, aligning both the minds is an important task to stop the internal storm. Meditation is of great help in this task. Emotions are the best & also the worst asset of humans. They are enablers & also disablers. How we manage them, control them, channelize them & use them is our skill. Meditation helps in mastering this skill.

Meditation converts a human body into a living corpse. It provides rest better than sleeping because there are no dreams

Attend the Sthithpradnya phase which is better rest than even sleep. Meditation is the journey towards the 'No-thinking' phase of life hence those issues get resolved. This phase is called the 'Sthithpradnya phase'. The meaning of this Sanskrit word is, 'a phase wherein a person is alive, awake but stopped all inputs & outputs from all sensory organs, their processing in the brain & also converting it to some useful, actionable, communicable information. One would argue that sleep is better than meditation. When we sleep we stop communication. But our brain is active. It is not released from thinking. That is the reason we see dreams. When we can't express thoughts through words brain runs an audio-visual show on the curtain of closed eyes. We call it the dream.

Meditation is understanding the laws of nature and adapting to them.

Becoming one with the mother nature Many of our reversals, defeats are outcomes of our efforts to go against mother nature. Meditation is a process of understanding that nature is everything, we are nothing. It helps us to integrate with nature. Integrating with nature helps us generate energy & empowers us with the feeling that we are part of the mother nature. Many civilizations like Greek & Sindu (Hindu) depicted different aspects of nature as God. Hence they were polytheists. They worshiped Sun, Moon, Wind, Fire, Rain as Gods. They even worshiped cows, snakes, bullocks as Gods because they helped in farming. But in the later stage, they got into rituals & started fighting over the idols giving rise to a few religions which are monotheists.

Meditation is letting the nature & God's wish prevail over your aspiration.

Be at peace with yourself Meditation help us in gaining our peace of mind. It helps us realize that we are not the owners of the world. The real power lies with 'Him' & 'He' executes it through nature. This power which is beyond the human limits is referred to as fate. But at the same time value of 'Karma', self-deeds, was highlighted. Meditation helps us by introducing us to fate & Karma.

Meditation is a process of getting introduced to yourself.

It helps us realize what we can do & what we can't. We feel empowered by understanding & realizing what we can do. At the same time, it helps us to prepare ourselves for the situations where we know that we can't do much. Then we develop trust in collaborations. Pairing up with others helps us to complete the jigsaw of life. Meditation helps you to realize the power of collaboration by showing you how you can be an important piece of the puzzle.

The ultimate objective of our enemies is to derail our efforts & dilute our focus by engaging us in fight.

Leave sinners to their fate Don't try to be God & punish sinners. Change your course. If you chase pigs you will always be in mud & litter. Chase butterflies & enjoy beautiful flowers & their fragrance by remaining in the garden or woods.

Meditation is learning to go beyond humanity.

Broden the canvass Meditation unites us with nature hence we think beyond our family, community, religion, nation, or for that matter even beyond humans. One feels that the earth is one's home & everything belongs to him. Thus a person develops a bond with the world & learns to live & co-exist with other animals, birds & trees.

Meditation is developing an organ to sense the life.

Develop a third-eye There are many things in the world which a person realizes or 'sees' after meditation. It provides a radically different perception & perspective as if a new sensory organ gets sprouted in his body. The new revelations are eye-openers. They transform an animal called human. They make human.... humane. Lord Shiva, a master meditator has a third eye which is the most powerful organ in his body though he uses it sparingly. This story from Hindu mythology must be symbolic indicating the special powers that Lord Shiva enjoys due to his committed meditation.

Meditation begins a journey from vices to virtues.

Once a person starts serious meditation his aspirations relate to society. He fears about creating any harm to any life form. Meditation develops a responsible human, civilized human. One automatically becomes vegetarian. He feels ashamed of his vices and grows virtues which steers his/her thinking process.

Meditation is understanding futility of goals & ecstacy of hollowness.

Laugh at yourself Meditation helps us realize how small our world is. It provides us wisdom to laugh at ourselves & our false beliefs of greatness. It provides us with telescopic & microscopic views to our aspirations & beliefs. Meditation shows the hollowness of the self-centered goals. A person becomes wiser & re-engineers his life objectives in the light of the new revelations of the meditation.

Meditation is understanding nothing is everything

Meditation is empowering yourself with the power of zero

Life is hollow because it is part of universe & the universe is hollow.

Meditation leads to spirituality. Spirituatily is an organ to feel the world.

Spirituality evokes humanity. It helps to understand God's wish & our responsibility.

Meditation is not a phase, it is the way of life

Meditation & Leadership Meditation is an art of mastering emotions. It is a systematic training given to ownself to manage emotions not letting them over-shadow your outlook towards the world. Meditation helps us to take decisions by brain & look at the world around us objectively. It helps to deal with people without prejudices, prejudgements, or bias. Bill Gates has been doing meditation at least thrice a week with his wife. He doesn't bother about rituals. They just sit on the chair & meditate. See the beautiful message he has written. The wisdom is coming from his meditation.

I hope I made my point clear why leaders must meditate often & how they can be better leaders when then make meditation a way of life. The new way of life requires coming out from your body & looking at it from the 'outside looking in' perspective. Look at things more objectively. Taming the storm within our minds. Keeping a sharp focus on what you do. Leaving your offenders to their fate. Uniting with the nature. Broadening the canvas. Be at peace with yourself. Laugh at yourself. Understand the futility of the materialistic world & the thought that finally everything tends to zero. Understanding the power of zero. This realization will take you to the new life & you will be the leader who leaves footprints......

About the Author: Prof Dr. Ajit Patil was awarded 'Top Voice on LinkedIn - 2017'. He is a Management Writer; Marketing, Business Development & Retailing Consultant. He conducts Management Development Programmes; trains & coaches Sales & Marketing teams. He has been teaching MBA students in India & overseas for over 18 years. He can be reached at [email protected]

Prof Dr. Ajit Patil (from your right) with his wife Arti, Daughter Supriya, Mother, Nephew Nishant, Younger brother Jayant & his wife Anu, at their Atlanta home during Diwali festival, October 2019.