The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly. —Jim Rohn In the recently concluded general elections and assembly elections many new age leaders emerged on the horizon of Indian Politics. Among those most prominent is from Andhra Pradesh, a matinee idol and popularly known as ‘Power Star’ Pavan Kalyan among his fans across the globe. He was struggling for the past ten years and could not make it during 2019 assembly elections and lost in two constituencies from where he contested. This time he won from Pithapuram constituency collaborating with Telugu Desam Party and NDA. Finally, he emerged as political leader of prominence and now Deputy Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh and second to none other than ‘Chanakya of Andhra Pradesh’, the political Wizard Chandrababu Naidu. Above all, Pavan is the only se...
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This situation is explained by the theory of self-transcendence propounded in the Gita. Self-transcendence involves renouncing egoism, putting others before oneself, emphasizing team work, dignity, co-operation, harmony and trust – and, indeed potentially sacrificing lower needs for higher goals, the opposite of Maslow.
"Work must be done with detachment." It is the ego that spoils work and the ego is the centerpiece of most theories of motivation. We need not merely a theory of motivation but a theory of inspiration.
The Great Indian poet, Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941, known as "Gurudev") says working for love is freedom in action. A concept which is described as "disinterested work" in the Gita where Sri Krishna says,
"He who shares the wealth generated only after serving the people, through work done as a sacrifice for them, is freed from all sins. On the contrary those who earn wealth only for themselves, eat sins that lead to frustration and failure."
Disinterested work finds expression in devotion, surrender and equipoise. The former two are psychological while the third is determination to keep the mind free of the dualistic (usually taken to mean "materialistic") pulls of daily experiences. Detached involvement in work is the key to mental equanimity or the state of "nirdwanda." This attitude leads to a stage where the worker begins to feel the presence of the Supreme Intelligence guiding the embodied individual intelligence. Such de-personified intelligence is best suited for those who sincerely believe in the supremacy of organizational goals as compared to narrow personal success and achievement.