Lemon Gupshup is a casual platform, initiated by CEO Mr. Deepak Menaria, to interact with younger generation, on every issue and aspect of life. Today’s session was scheduled for ‘Entrepreneurship and Spirituality’. Yesterday, I got a ping from Ashwin Sir for this. Initially, I was in a dilemma to attend this, as there is flood of webinars from April on many issues due to lockdown. But somehow, I attended this, chasing my internship with Lemon Ideas. After the session, I found that protection of our soul is the key to blissful and fulfilling life. No matters, it’s business, or teaching or preaching or farming, the one thing that human being always chase for, is the protection of soul. After the session, I can say that it was right decision to be part of this. The common people have misconception about entrepreneurs that they are always behind the money and profit. But, it’s not true at all. Every person holds their different threshold towards physical desires. But after completing that desire, one has to come for one’s soul. Even heinous criminals have the idea what is wrong what is right for the spirit in deep somewhere their sub-conscious.
Eminent Indian writer Premchand, in one of his essays writes ‘Human beings is divine by nature. Tackling the tantrums of this physical world, he loses his divinity, but with a small effort, we can again awake our divinity as it’s the very neural schema of human being.’ Anyway, precisely, I want to say that even I came to know that entrepreneurs are not always behind the money and profit. Deepak Sir, being an alumnus of IIMA and founder of such a big enterprise, changed my idea about this, that at the end of the day, we’re all here to awake our soul. This is the only stage, where we can act day and night and never feel tired. Even our forefathers designed the goals of human life after deep diving in the search of real means of life. 1. Dharma (Right Code Of Conduct) 2. Arth (Earning for proper livelihood) 3. Kaam (Pleasure, Love, Psychological values) and 4. Moksha (Liberation). We all go through these processes. Forefathers say Moksha is the only stage where we can act perfect, tireless, and desireless.
There were total 11 participants. As a kind gesture, Deepak sir invited everyone to put their thought on this point. He started with asking the city and weather of participants which denotes how live and harmonious he is with nature. He also talked about the essence of virtual meetings. Talking to us, he switched to Hindi many times, which shows his authenticity towards his personality. We all know the importance of our 1st language, our mother-tongue. Whenever we are in our pure and honest moment, we switch to that language easily and naturally. Deepak Sir’s this mentality towards mother-tongue changed my conceptions about entrepreneur. Nowadays, when corporate sector is obsessed and hang- overed with the colonialism yet, Lemon Idea’s this mentality puts that outside the queue. Corporate sector has to understand this, that its not shameful to trade in their national language when most of their clients and consumers are from their own nation. Nowadays, we encounter whole lot of people saying proudly that O’ I’m not that comfortable with Hindi or Tamil or Marathi. But its not the matter of proud. We literally have so many things to feel proud. One must should be more comfortable to express oneself in mother language than that of any other language of acquisition. Lemon Ideas changed my thought about this that all corporate setups don’t think the same, language-wise.
First, Deepak sir invited Jahnvi to put her thought on the topic. She told the spirituality a vital part of human life. We practice the different dimensions of this to attain mental peace and harmony. After that, Savidhan stated that this is nothing with flowing in current. When we fight to the situation of mind for the sake of harmony, then only, adolescent stage of spirituality, we enter. Priyaranjan takes the example of ISCKON. He says ISCKON was founded in United States but nowadays its working in entire globe for the welfare of humankind and for the betterment of mental peace. This shows that all the human race is enthread with the same wire. Caste, creed, and land have nothing to do with the human beings and their spirituality. After that Vaibhav enters in conversation. He takes the simplest examples of the quote written on the back of trucks, mostly running in India. ‘KARM HI POOJA HAI’ This means ‘Work is Worship.’ In broader meaning, worship is spirituality. Our founding fathers created these tantrums and Karmkaands only for the concentration and the peace of mind. Later, it got business-oriented. Vaibhav took the verse of Geeta to put his thought clearly.
sukhaduḥkhe same kṛtvā lābhālābhau jayājayau, tato yuddhāya yujyasva naivaṁ pāpamavāpsyasi.
(2.38)
Aurobindo says about this verse ‘Make grief and happiness, loss and gain, victory and defeat equal to thy soul and then turn to battle; so thou shalt not incur sin.’
Entrepreneurship can deal greater issues in business taking lessons from this. What if Newton would have given up after 10 experiments? What if Jamshed Ji Tata would have given up after the fire in his workshop in Jamshedpur? We probably still would be living in dark. We probably still would be living without industrialization in India. No one can deny the role of TATAs in the betterment of the livelihood of Indians. If the entrepreneur will see the victory and defeat of his business as the victory and defeat of the humankind then he’ll never lose his mental peace. Nothing will bother him from working for the betterment of the society. He’ll attain the state of mind where nothing is personal. No loss is personal loss. No profit is personal profit. This will keep him motivating throughout his whole life.
A very sincere fellow from north-east, D.B. (I’m forgetting his full name) puts a key point defining the spirituality that its all about burning our ego. When we tend to forget to put egoistic approach in our practice, spirituality takes over all the things and peace and harmony starts flowing. Ashwin Korde Sir, an eminent pillar of Lemon Ideas, keeps it precise and says spirituality as a synonym of inner peace. Sambhavi, forgetting the gravity of her name, says that she is too young to talk about these topics. But her comic gesture makes the session’s mood light. Aishwarya was very relevant in his statement. She told spirituality a tool to protect oneself from uncertainty and anxiety. Deepak Sir comes in last to conclude all this debate. He flashed the light towards the ingredients of the word ‘Spirituality’. He told the participants that it’s all about ‘Spirit’ our inner sphere of the unit. The word also contains ‘ritual’, which prohibits dynamicity. Sometimes, spices say itself that that they were not appropriate for that particular cuisine. Same is with the rituals to Spirituality. Spirituality is like ‘a doctor is fixing himself or herself. It’s an individual thing.
As a concluding word, Deepak Sir talked about some elementary and basic things. At the end, we are all going to die. The debate is, what we can give to this world. Its all about conscience and wisdom. We can get motivation from anywhere. The main thing is clear- intention. Spirituality is nothing to do with sitting in a cave for years, doing nothing. Its about doing for the welfare of society day and night, without any deep engagement towards consequences. Jigoro kano developed Judo in Japan in late 19th century.
It proved to be a perfect physical, mental and moral pedagogy in the world. When people asked to him about his inspiration behind Judo, then he ascribed ‘Ahimsa of Buddhism’ for this. People were shocked to hear, how a martial art technique can be inspired by Ahimsa. At this, Jigoro said that defense of the body providing to you by the mother nature is your first responsibility. Sometimes defense is set to be Ahimsa. Manav Dharma (Human Code of Conduct) is micro. Sometimes, It is very hard and next to impossible, to understand without going in the quest and quench of spirituality.
Vaibhav Singh
MastersHindu College
University of Delhi
New Delhi – 110007
Mobile No. 9455599489
