By Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha

[Poojya Swamiji was invited on 22 Jan 2000 by the Trichur Management Association to address its members. The association felt the need of expert advice on achieving professional excellence and sought Poojya Swamiji’s guidance. Here is the summary of the talk.]

I am very happy to be in the midst of all of you, members of the Thrissur Management Association along with many of your friends and relatives.

First of all, I would like to greet you in the name of spirituality on the one hand and professional excellence on the other. While I make this greeting, I have a feeling that in spite of being very intelligent, rational, scientific and astute in the matter of thinking, many of the professionals are not able to understand and evaluate spirituality and its role in professional or other areas of human excellence. This is primarily because of sheer ignorance.

Now, when I say that you are very intelligent, rational, scientific and technologically outstanding and immediately juxtapose my compliment with a statement that you are also ignorant, you may perhaps be wounded. Rather than getting wounded, I would like you to search your heart and try to know what this ignorance is about.

Even the most knowledgeable person will not say that he is knowledgeable about everything. Compared to what we have known and mastered, what we are yet to know and master are far in excess. So, it is not inexcusable if somebody has a large measure of ignorance. Many do not know what is spirituality and what it can contribute. There is also some misunderstanding about its import and purpose.

For more than forty years, I have been travelling around the world, like a walking university, meeting people, talking to them individually and also in public assemblies like management associations, university campuses, medical boards and other organizations. And, after all this, I can tell you that people do not understand spirituality and are not able to evaluate its merits and potential rightly.

Today, I will introduce to you the subject of spirituality and explain to some extent the relevance and application it has to professional life, especially in the matter of achieving the excellence that every professional strives for.

Whenever we use the words ‘spirit, spiritual or spirituality’ people generally relate them to life after death or life before birth. Some will even relate it to ghosts. But alas, it is entirely different! We have words like matter and energy. All forms of existence in the universe are traceable to either matter or energy. But, does it explain everything? Look at your own body and personality. Is it merely matter and energy? You may not be a scientist to investigate the universe and its constituents. But so far as you are concerned, you should certainly be able to examine yourself and find out - ‘Am I all matter and energy?’

You are not these two alone. You are thinking, sensing, knowing, remembering, forgetting and so on. Sensation, cognition, thinking, understanding, intellection – none of these emerge from either matter or energy. If you were simply an aggregate of energy-matter combination, you would not have a mind at all. You would have been absent as far as intellect is concerned. You wouldn’t have any kind of feeling. You would have been at best a robot.

Do we know of any energy and matter that is capable of thinking, feeling and knowing? Wherefrom do thoughts come? Wherefrom do feelings proceed? How is it that emotions are constantly generated in our personality? Can matter or energy be the source of it? Certainly not. Then what is the source?

That source, my dear souls, my dear managers, is the Spirit. Spirituality is a subject that directly addresses this issue. So, when we say spirituality, we are referring to something very dear and near to ourselves. No, we are referring to something that is you, yourself. I ask every one of you – Are you primarily a material person or a spiritual being?

If you are only a material individual, you would have been a dead body. You are a spiritual person. We know that the cornea of a dead body can be grafted into a person and that biological body begins to see. The cornea was in tact, but the seer was missing. That is why when grafted to a spiritually vibrant body of a ‘living’ person, that person begins to see. Does the seeing really belong to the body or does it belong to something else?

By ‘spirituality’, I mean this kind of wonderful source which encompasses all the powers and potentials that you find manifest in the whole visible creation surrounding you.

Today my purpose is to present before you the relevance of spirituality so far as professional excellence is concerned. Any person in a profession wanting to gain professional excellence, must have fairly good mastery of the branch of knowledge he deals with. And I am sure that you professionals are performing well in this level. I compliment all of you for the object knowledge, professional knowledge that you have. Mark my words – object knowledge.

But mind you, a professional is primarily a spiritual person. In as much as you are a spiritual person, you must have spiritual knowledge also, i.e., the knowledge of the ‘Subject’ the ‘Knower’ in you. Do you know the difference between the object and the subject? Whenever I look at the wall, the wall is the object of perception for me. The perceiver is the subject. In all the interactions that you have, sensorily, mentally, intellectually, personally or professionally, are you the interacting subject or are you the interacted object? Have you ever undertaken an examination of this nature? If you want to achieve professional excellence you must know the Subject in you.

In all your talks, you are the talker; in all the thoughts, you are the thinker; you are the subject personality and whenever we refer to any quality like excellence, honesty, integrity, etc, they refer to the subject part of man, and not the object.

A technically skilled engineer can become a failure in practical terms. What is the reason for his failure? Why is it that he is not able to bring forth efficiency from within him? Wherefrom will it come? Certainly not from the merely inert biological body! It has to come from the deeper levels – the Subject – of his personality.

Until you are able to understand yourself as a subject personality, as a spiritual personality and then the spiritual part is reflected upon, your excellence will not bloom forth. Always you will be obsessed by failure. Ambition will overrule your mind, fear will suppress you. Either ambition, or fear or doubt or an undue fascination for something or the other will be acting as a constriction in your mind.

The mind must be able to work without constrictions. If ambition is the constriction, it has to be dispensed with. If fear is subduing we must be able to say good-bye to it. The mind, the spiritual factor, has to be made free, flexible, light and ever enthusiastic. How to accomplish this feat?

My dear Souls, all growth is from inside to outside. Even in a plant or seed, there is no growth that ever takes place from outside to inside. Any kind of interaction, even professional interaction, proceeds from the subject, the interacting spirit and the consequence and outcome of the interaction also falls on the mind, on the interacting subject. Everything whatsoever, has its origin in the subject spirit, it has its terminus and destination also in the subject spirit. The moment you understand it, your view would be widened, deepened and elevated.

We generally speak of stress, strain and tension. With any kind of activity – even if you perform it successfully – you will find that, before performance, while performing and after performance, the activity is associated with stress and strain. What is this tension and stress? Is it something objective or material, or is it something psychological and inward?

The tension being psychological, the way to deal with it and dissolve it should also be psychological and inner. Therein comes spirituality. The more and more you know that you are a spiritual being, the dimensions, the potentials, and the prospects that open up are infinite. You have to draw on this wonderful spiritual treasure, spiritual store house. Then you will find that the tensions produced by the interactions are correspondingly dissolved in your mind.

Who is a spiritual man? One who is able to live and interact with this world harmoniously, with sufficient integration, without finding any interaction to be troublesome, tormenting or producing imbalance or tension. That is the successful man. We describe him as a stable-minded person.

In this limited time, I will briefly explain the way spirituality works. In all your interactions you will find a number of inputs coming to you – and the inputs come from persons, places or events. Am I clear? In interpersonal relationships you will find a number of inputs – some pleasant and some unpleasant. You may have a very arrogant boss or a very difficult subordinate; you may have some intolerant or jealous colleagues. All these are possible. At home, sometimes, the wife goes on murmuring, creating troubles or the husband goes on picking quarrels or the children do not behave the way you want. Everywhere you will find interpersonal interactions causing tensions.

Whenever these inputs come, you must have the power to assimilate them. No input whatsoever should make your mind feel helpless and subdued. You should be able to declare: “My dear world, throw any kind of an input to me, I will dissolve it, I will harmonize it, I will integrate it and get enriched by it.” This kind of an approach you must have. I call this confidence, spiritual confidence, spiritual assurance. Your mind is not inert – it is nature’s product and its capacity is infinite. I say: “The sky is the limit of the mind.” 

The body completes its growth at the age of about 21 and you become an adult. And as an adult you have to live for many decades. In all the decades of life after the body has completed the growth, tell me, my dear managers, what part of your personality is going to grow, if it is not the mind and the intelligence? They are the spiritual components.

Suppose an image is formed in your mind. Is this image mental or is it something else? When an elephant is perceived by you and the perception forms an image in your mind, in the mind is it an elephant or is it a mental image of the elephant? Am I clear?

Your mind is imprinted with a number of images. Whatever be the nature of the images, it is your mind, the image is mental. If it is mental, like a wave in the sea, why should you be ruffled? Can you not assimilate it? Can you not understand it? Why are you fretting and fuming?

Somebody told you something three years back – it was a very harsh word, an unfriendly remark. Agreed that he should not have made such a remark – but he did make it. Now, the person has forgotten the episode and is living happily. But you, on the other hand, even now suffer for no reason. What is the cause for that? It is your ignorance – not knowing the capacity of the mind. You are not prepared to assimilate the inputs from the world.

After assimilating, you must also start expressing it. Whenever necessary, outputs should be generated. Wherever commitment is called for, you should be able to generate and radiate commitment. Where integrity is called for, you must be able to generate it and manifest it to any extent. If there is a duty or demand, never hesitate to meet it. Bodily you may be short or weak, but mentally you are larger than the mountain. Will you admit it when I say this?

The ocean is merely a material collection – it is a sheath of water. The air also is a sheath of matter. What about the mind? It is a supra-material substance. The mind being spiritual, is far above matter and energy and with such a mind there is nothing in the world that you cannot assimilate.

Various food substances you take and in a matter of three or four hours the alimentary canal digests them, converts them into blood. This takes place without your knowledge. But if the mind has to assimilate something – it can only be done consciously. For this assimilation to take place you must support the process willfully. Am I clear? To welcome and assimilate all kinds of inputs into the mind, arising from persons, places or events and then, to generate the necessary outputs whenever required, is spirituality.

How will you have this assimilative power? You will have it by proper exposure. That is what I am providing you now. Right from the age of 3 or 4 the child is being exposed to the worldly knowledge. Similarly, you elderly people also need to be exposed to the sphere of spirituality. How to become confident, how to become un-assailable, how to become invincible, how to become ever resolute, ever ready!

So, exposure is the first factor; reception is the next; and thereafter, you should reflect upon what is exposed and what you have received. We call it rumination, introspection, reflection or contemplation.

Whenever we refer to the qualities like truthfulness, character, goodness, behavioural elegance – all these are qualifications referring to what? Are they referring to the material body? They are referring to the behaviour of man, the mind of man, the intelligence of man and these are certainly not of the material body. They are primarily spiritual. So, for any professional excellence, along with the objective knowledge and efficiency that you have as a professional, you must also develop the Subject-knowledge and the spiritual efficiency, which can only come to you by proper exposure.

I believe I have explained as to what is spirituality and how spirituality becomes an essential component in the matter of professional life and its excellence. I have mentioned also that the sky is the limit of the spiritual factors and components in you.

Many of you, perhaps, have a subdued personality. Consequently, you may not be able to shine forth in your professional field. Adequate maturity is not there. The spiritual understanding may also be missing. Don’t compare yourself in terms of riches, qualifications, etc. with others. I always ask: “What are you worth?” Are you conscious of your worth or are you subdued by the world? The mind, instead of being over-powered by the world, or the interactional inputs, should always overwhelm the inputs. It should be floating with enough of flexibility and enrichment, impersonality and impartiality. And it is possible.

I think I have told you what I wanted to by way of exposing you to spirituality and the spiritual strength in you. May you all grow spiritually and be wholesome personalities, capable of excelling in every professional and social situation you find yourself.

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru!

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