The CEO As Karmayogi; The Roots of Purpose-Driven Leadership In Ancient India

This is no spiritual retreat at an ashram, but a session at India’s top business school, the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, which offers a course on the Bhagavad Gita and leadership.  

Why is IIM-Ahmedabad teaching it? Why does Harvard offer an online course on the book?

To understand this, we must go back to what the Bhagavad Gita is. It is an ancient text, written around 3000 years ago, about finding purpose and has provided succour to generations of Indians, with one publisher alone, the Gita Press, selling 161 million copies. At its core are universal teachings on finding purpose in life, given by Lord Krishna to his troubled devotee Arjuna on the eve of the battle at Kurukshetra.

We often think of the modern age as one of progress and breakneck change unparalleled in human history. Why would millennia-old teachings be relevant now? Why are some leaders and business schools going back to the Bhagavad Gita as a source of wisdom? As a teenager born and growing up in an age of change and tumult, I have read the Bhagavad Gita and have found a lot of solace in its words. As a student of History and Economics, I have also spotted many connections between this ancient wisdom and the modern economy.

To begin with, the Bhagavad Gita could guide businesses to look beyond profit and be guided by values and righteousness. We may think that employees are motivated largely by their paychecks, but research reveals a more ethical side to their thinking. In a 2019 McKinsey study, 82 percent of employees said their company’s purpose was important to them. Similarly, a Gartner study found that two out of five Gen Z and Millennials have rejected job offers because the company’s values and purpose didn’t match theirs. In an age of environmental crisis, a company’s attitude towards sustainability is crucial. An IBM study found that an authentic environmental and sustainability-led purpose made employers more attractive for 70 percent of employees. A value central to the Bhagavad Gita is that of Dharma. As it says, “For a warrior, there is no better engagement than fighting for upholding righteousness.”

A business leader may not seem much like a warrior, yet the Bhagavad Gita teaches that everyone can be a warrior, fighting for the benefit of others and relentlessly performing their duty without attachment to their actions, or seeking only benefit for themselves. Such a warrior is called a karmayogi, and the Gita declares that the path of a karmayogi is a path to salvation (moksha).

Today’s world is sometimes called a VUCA world (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous), with the winds of change often tearing the fabric of society and leaving people behind. The chaos of COVID and the pressure of political tensions have weighed heavily on many minds in the last two years. Moreover, developments in technology such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) are impacting job markets, plunging many young Indian students, who believed education would be a panacea, into the depths of joblessness and oblivion. While the percentage of students going unplaced at the elite IITs grabs headlines, the unemployment crisis among graduates is much broader. The unemployment rate among college graduates is nine times higher than among the illiterate, according to the International Labour Organisation. In such an era, the insistence in the Bhagavad Gita on the importance of being a karmayogi feels more relevant than ever. It teaches how success and failure come in cycles, and that one must focus on doing one’s karma, one’s duty, rather than being stressed about the outcome. In this vein, Lord Krishna declares, “Treat success and failure, profit and loss, happy occurrences and unhappy ones just the same.” 

Finally, the Bhagavad Gita may be about strength and purpose, but it is also about humility and the willingness to ask for help. Arjuna was a legendary warrior, and yet he was happy to share his self-doubt and seek help from a mentor. In the hustle of today’s world, with people often working under high pressure, such an attitude is essential. I am a teenager, and I know the pressures we face, with 51 percent of Indian teens affected by anxiety, social withdrawal, or dysphoria. A key cause of this is widespread reluctance to share issues with others, with 70 percent of teens being uncomfortable sharing issues with their parents. However, this crisis is far from unique to teens. Studies show that 49 percent of CEOs suffer from mental health symptoms like stress, depression, and fatigue. Seeking help could be crucial in providing direction and calm, much like it did for Arjuna.

In the modern economy, many people, from young graduates to CEOs, may seem to face “modern” and unique challenges that often take a heavy toll. However, a text from the incomprehensibly distant past may hold the most important lessons on leading through change and leading with purpose, lessons that have guided hundreds of millions over the centuries and transcend time and space.

Aaditya Sengupta Dhar

Guest Author