CARDINAL STRITCH UNIVERSITY MILWAUKEE DOCTORAL LEADERSHIP PROGRAM GANDHI - SERVANT LEADERSHIP PRASAD GOLLANAPALLI 19 JUNE 2013

MAHATMA GANDHI (1869 – 1948) THE MAN

It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honored by the humiliation of their fellow beings

Father of the Nation Apostle of Peace and Non-violence Crusader against injustice and exploitation in any form Inspiration to many social movements around the world MAHATMA GANDHI ( )

“Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.” Albert Einstein

I think the question you treat in it (Hind Swaraj): the passive resistance — is a question of the greatest importance, not only for India but for the whole humanity. Count. Leo Tolstoy

“Gandhi was inevitable. If humanity is to progress, Gandhi is inescapable. He lived, thought and acted, inspired by the vision of humanity evolving toward a world of peace and harmony. We may ignore Gandhi at our own risk.” - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In the evolution of civilization, if it is to survive, all men cannot fail eventually to adopt Gandhi’s belief that the process of mass application of force to resolve contentious issues is fundamentally not only wrong but contains within itself the germs of self-destruction Gen. Douglas McArthur

I am mindful that I might not be standing before you today, as President of the United States, had it not been for Gandhi and the message he shared with America and the world. Barak Obama, US President on 8 th November 2010 addressing the joint session of Indian Parliament

My Life is My Message

BE THE CHANGE YOU WISH TO SEE IN THE WORLD

Gandhi described himself simply as one “who claims only to be a humble searcher after Truth, knows his limitations, makes mistakes, never hesitates to admit them when he makes them and frankly confesses that he, like a scientist, is making experiments about some of ‘the eternal verities; of life, but cannot even claim to be a scientist.

He fears no one and frightens no one…. He recognizes no conventions except such as are absolutely necessary not to remove him from the society of men and women. He recognizes no masters and no gurus. He claims no chelas though he has many…. He owns no property, keeps no bank account, makes no investments, yet makes no fuss about asking for any thing he needs.

He was concerned to disclaim the position of a prophet because of his conviction that the moral values he sought to translate into his personal and political acts could be applied by one and all so as to transform human relationships and the very nature of social and political activity.

I had in the strongest terms repudiated all claim to divinity. I claim to be a humble servant of India and humanity and would like to die in the discharge of such service.

The only virtue I want to claim is truth and non-violence. I lay no claim to superhuman powers. I want none. I wear the same corruptible flesh that the weakest of my fellow beings wears, and am therefore as liable to err as any. My services have many limitations, but God has upto now blessed them in spite of the imperfections.

I have no desire to found a sect. I am really too ambitious to be satisfied with a sect for a following, for I represent no new truths. I endeavour to follow and represent truth as I know it. I do claim to throw a new light on many an old truth. YI, , 267.

He regarded his “Mahatmaship” as an oppressive burden – “there is not a moment I can recall when it may be said to have tickled me”

Am Tired of Mahatma The scene in Serajganj Conference over attaching ' Mahatma ' to my name has caused deep pain to me. Those who out of their infatuation for the application of the title ‘Mahatma ' to me either howled down the gentleman who would not use the name or who implored him to do so, rendered no service to the cause or to me.

They harmed the cause of non- violence and pained me. What relish could they have in a person using a title from compulsion ? I congratulate the gentleman upon his courage in having withdrawn from the Conference rather than use a title under compulsion. He showed, in my opinion, a truer appreciation of what I stand for than my blind admirers.

I assure all my admirers and friends that they will please me better if they will forget the Mahatma and remember Gandhiji as the gentleman in question quite courteously did, or think of me simply as Gandhi.

The highest honour that my friends can do me is to enforce in their own lives the programme that I stand for or to resist me to their utmost if they do not believe in it.

Blind adoration, in the age of action is perfectly valueless, is often embarrassing and equally often painful.

THE Mahatma I must leave to his fate. Though a non-co-operater I shall gladly subscribe to a bill to make it criminal for anybody to call me Mahatma and to touch my feet. Where I can impose the law myself, i.e., at the Ashram the practice is criminal. Young India : March 17, 1927.

I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and Non-violence are as old as the hills. All I have done is to try experiments in both on as vast a scale as I could. In doing so I have sometimes erred and learnt by my errors. Life and its problems have thus become to me so many experiments in the practice of truth and non-violence.

I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any. I refuse to live in other people's houses as an interloper, a beggar or a slave.

I SAY that it is not within me to be anybody's Guru. I have always and will always disclaim this title. I, who am in search of a spiritual Guru, how can I arrogate to myself the title of a Guru ? I cannot even think of being anybody's political guru in the sense that I applied the term to the late Mr. Gokhale, for I am but an infant in politics.

To be a guru I must be myself flawlessly perfect which I can never claim to be.

I must therefore warn all against accepting imperfect ones as Gurus. It is better to grope in the dark and wade through a million errors to Truth than to entrust oneself to one who "knows not that he knows not." Has a man ever learnt swimming by tying a stone to his neck ? Young India : Dec. 3, 1925.

Let no one say that he is a follower of Gandhi. It is enough that I should be my own follower. I know what an inadequate follower I am of myself, for I cannot live up to the convictions I stand for. You are no followers but fellow students, fellow pilgrims, fellow seekers, fellow workers.

As a matter of fact my writings should be cremated with my body. What I have done will endure, not what I have said and written.

Let Gandhism be destroyed if it stands for error. Truth and ahimsa will never be destroyed, but if Gandhism is another name for sectarianism, it deserves to be destroyed. If I were to know, after my death, that what I stood for had degenerated into sectarianism, I should be deeply pained. We have to work away silently.

WHENEVER I see an erring man, I say to myself I have also erred; when I see a lustful man I say to myself, so was I once; and in this way I feel kinship with every one in the world and feel that I cannot be happy without the humblest of us being happy. Young India : June 7, 1920

All humanity is one undivided and indivisible family, and each one of us is responsible for the misdeeds of all the others. I cannot detach myself from the wickedest soul

Mankind is notoriously too dense to read the signs that God sends from time to time. We require drums to be beaten into our ears, before we should wake from our trance and hear the warning and see that to lose oneself in all, is the only way to find oneself.

"It is because we have at the present moment everybody claiming the right of conscience without going through any discipline whatsoever that there is so much untruth being delivered to a bewildered world."

The ideals that regulate my life are presented for acceptance by mankind in general. I have arrived at them by gradual evolution …. I claim to be an average man with less than average ability.

Abstract truth has no value unless it incarnates in human beings who represent it, by proving their readiness to die for it. There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supersedes all other courts.

As long as I have not realized Absolute Truth, so long must I hold by the relative truth as I have conceived it. That relative truth must, meanwhile, be my beacon, my shield and buckler.

The seeker after truth should be humbler than the dust. The world crushes the dust under its feet, but the seeker after truth should so humble himself that even the dust could crush him.

To follow the way of truth is to have no preconditions, no prejudice. It is a way to face things as they are. The pursuit of truth is unconditional and open- minded inquiry and exploration, up to the last moment of our lives.

The quest for truth is a liberating journey; it liberates from dogmas, both religious and political

The golden rule of conduct is mutual toleration, seeing that we will never all think alike and we shall see Truth in fragment and from different angles of vision. Conscience is not the same thing for all. Whilst, therefore, it is a good guide for individual conduct, imposition of that conduct upon all will be an insufferable interference with everybody's freedom of conscience

THE ESSENTIALS OF GANDHI: SARVODAYA SWARAJ SWADESHI SATYAGRAHA

SARVODAYA (WELFARE OF ALL) INSPIRATION FROM JOHN RUSKIN’S BOOK: ‘UNTO THIS LAST’

The good of the individual is contained in the good of all A lawyer’s work has the save value as the barber’s, inasmuch as all have the same right of earning their livelihood from their work The life of labour, i.e., the life of the tiller of the soil and the handicraftsman, is the life worth living

SARVODAYA – WELFARE OF ALL PEOPLE – RESPECT, DIGNITY, EQUALITY, OPPORTUNITY WELFARE OF SUBHUMAN WORLD – ANIMALS, BIRDS, TREES, LAKES,RIVERS, OCEANS, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ETC.

SWARAJ Swaraj is self-rule. It is disciplined rule from within.

Real Swaraj will come not by the acquisition of the authority by a few but by the acquisition of the capacity by all to resist authority when it is abused. In other words, Swaraj is to be obtained by educating the masses to a sense of their capacity to regulate and control authority.

The word, Swaraj is a sacred word, a Vedic word, meaning self-rule and self-restraint, and not freedom from all restraint which “independence” often means.

Swaraj as self-rule means inner freedom or positive freedom. Gandhi’s argument that without swaraj as self-rule swaraj as self government could degenerate into state oppression even in the so- called liberal societies. Inner change within the individual ought to be the starting point of outer changes in society.

Gandhi was against exploitation and tyranny of any kind. He was not willing to have the exploitation of a class of Indians when British leave.

He believed that such non- exploitative society is only possible when people have realized their limits, put limit to their ambitions, think of welfare and preserving nature and people around them.

FOR BUILDING AN INDIVIDUAL, HE PROVIDED EKADASHA VRATHA – THE ELEVEN VOWS

Ahimsa, satya, asteya, Brachmacharya, asangraha, Sharirashram, aswada, Sarvatra bhaya varjana, Sarva dharma samanatva, Swadeshi, sparsha bhavana, Vinamra vrata nishtha se, Ye ekadash sevya hain.

Nonviolence, Truth, Nonstealing, Celibacy, Nonconsumerism, Physical work, Avoidance of bad taste, Fearlessness, Respect for all religions, Local economy, and respect for all beings These eleven principles Should be followed with humility, care, and commitment.

FOR BUILDING A GOOD SOCIETY HE PROPOSED CONSTRUCTIVE PROGRAMME

COMMUNAL UNITY REMOVAL OF UNTOUCHABILITY PROHIBITION KHADI VILLAGE INDUSTRIES BASIC EDUCATION ADULT EDUCATION WOMEN EMPOWERMENT

HEALTH AND HYGIENE PROVINCIAL LANGUAGE – MOTHER TONGUE NATIONAL LANGUAGE ECONOMIC EQUALITY KISANS LABOUR ADIVASIES LEPERS AND STUDENTS

SEVEN SOCIAL SINS POLITICS WITHOUT PRINCIPLES WEALTH WITHOUT WORK PLEASURE WITHOUT CONSCIENCE KNOWLEDGE WITHOUT CHARACTER COMMERCE WITHOUT MORALITY SCIENCE WITHOUT HUMANITY WORSHIP WITHOUT SACRIFICE

SWADESHI

Swadeshi, or local economy, means developing a sense of your own place and loving it.

Self-governing, self-reliant communities, neighborhoods, districts, townships, and bio- regions, where people fulfill their lives from the products of their own localities

Where a local economy prevails, people derive maximum benefit from the bounty of their own locality and refrain from desiring, obtaining, and controlling the resources of other localities

In modern times minds have grown narrow while markets have expanded

There used to be freedom for people to move and freedom for ideas to spread while goods and services were local

Now all governments put severe restrictions on immigration of people, but they allow the dumping of goods in countries where the same goods are plentifully available

Today defense of citizenship is a defense of national commerce, i.e. exploitation. That exploitation presupposes the use of force for imposing commerce upon an unwilling people. Nations have, in a sense, therefore, almost become gangs of robbers, whereas they should be peaceful combination of men and women united for the common good of mankind.

Even Swadeshi (Local Economy) like any other good thing can be ridden to death if it is made a fetish. That is a danger that must be guarded against. To reject foreign manufactures, merely because they are foreign and to go on wasting national time and money in the promotion in one’s country of manufactures for which it is not suited, would be criminal folly and a negation of the Swadeshi spirit.

I think of Swadeshi (Local Economy) not as a boycott movement undertaken by way of revenge. I conceive it as a religious principle to be followed by all. India can live for herself only if she produces and is helped to produce everything for her requirements within her own borders.

SATYAGRAHA NONVIOLENT RESISTENCE TO INJUSTICE

Passive resistance (SATYAGRAHA)is a method of securing rights by personal suffering; it is the reverse of resistance by arms. When I refuse to do a thing that is repugnant to my conscience, I use soul-force.

SATYAGRAHA IS USE OF: TRUTH FORCE MORAL FORCE LOVE FORCE SOUL FORCE AGAINST BRUTE FORCE

Non-cooperation is directed not against men but against measures. It is not directed against the Governors, but against the system they administer. The roots of non- cooperation lie not in hatred but in justice, if not in love.

How can one be compelled to accept slavery? I simply refuse to do the master's bidding. He may torture me, break my bones to atoms and even kill me. He will then have my dead body, not my obedience. Ultimately, therefore, it is I who am the victor and not he, for he has failed in getting me to do what he wanted done.

Golden fetters are no less galling to a self-respecting man than iron ones; the sting lies in the fetters, not in the metal.

So long as my faith burns bright, as I hope it will even if I stand alone, I shall be alive in the grave and what is more speaking from it.

Just as a man would not cherish living in a body other than his own, so do nations not like to live under other nations, however noble and great the latter may be.

There is an orderliness in the universe, there is an unalterable law governing everything and every being that exists or lives. It is no blind law; for no blind law can govern the conduct of living beings. The first condition of humaneness is a little humility and a little diffidence about the correctness of one's conduct and a little receptiveness.

I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.

To profit from the neighbours’ misfortune may not always inflict physical hurt, but it leads to more severe consequences than physical hurt. It creates a social order in which inequality, oppression and deprivation prevail to mutilate and destroy human dignity.

It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honored by the humiliation of their fellow beings.

Gandhi would ask us to reflect with Rousseau "what must be the state of things when all men are forced to caress and destroy one another at the same time; and when they are born enemies by duty, and knaves by interest." At the collective level, this is reflected in imperialism and the frequent wars it provokes.

Economics that hurt the moral well- being of an individual or a nation are immoral and, therefore, sinful. Thus, the economics that permit one country to prey upon another are immoral. It is sinful to buy and use articles made by sweated labour.

All exploitation is based on cooperation, willing or forced, of the exploited. However much we may desist admitting it, the fact remains that there would be no exploitation if people refuse to obey the exploiter. But self comes in and we hug the chains that bind us. This must cease.

Real Swaraj (Self Rule) will come not by the acquisition of the authority by a few but by the acquisition of the capacity by all to resist authority when it is abused. In other words, Swaraj is to be obtained by educating the masses to a sense of their capacity to regulate and control authority.

A violent and bloody revolution is a certainty one day unless there is a voluntary abdication of riches and the power which riches give and sharing them for the common good.

Civilization in the real sense of the term consists not in the multiplication but in the deliberate and voluntary reduction of wants, which promotes real happiness and contentment and increases the capacity for service. One can reduce one’s wants by perseverance, and the reduction of wants makes for happiness – a healthy body and a peaceful mind.

As soon as man looks upon himself as a servant of society, earns for its sake, spends for its benefit, then purity enters into his earnings and there is Ahimsa (nonviolence) in his venture. Moreover, if men’s minds turn towards this way of life, there will come about a peaceful revolution in society, and that without any bitterness.

The first step towards it is for him who has made this ideal part of his being to bring about the necessary changes in his personal life. He would reduce his wants to a minimum, bearing in mind the poverty of India. His earnings would be free of dishonesty. The desire for speculation would be renounced. His habitation would be in keeping with the new mode of life. There would be self- restraint exercised in every sphere of life. When he has done all that is possible in his own life, then only will he be in a position to preach this ideal among his associates and neighbours.

Where there is Ahimsa, there is infinite patience, inner calm, discrimination, self-sacrifice and true knowledge.

But when the realization comes to man that he is his own bodyguard, and his body has been dedicated to service, he desires to learn the laws of keeping his body in a fit condition and tries hard to follow them.

Taste is acquired, not born with us. All the delicacies of the world cannot equal the relish that hunger gives to food. Food should be taken as a matter of duty – even as a medicine – to sustain the body, never for the satisfaction of the palate.

Rightly or wrongly it is part of my religious conviction that man may not eat meat, eggs, and the like. There should be a limit even to the means of keeping ourselves alive.

Man eats not for enjoyment but to live. Man’s physical structure showed that he was not meant to be a cooking but a frugivorous animal, that he could take only his mother’s milk and, as soon as he had teeth, should begin to take solid foods.

I stopped taking the sweets and condiments. The mind having taken a different turn, the fondness for condiments wore away, and I now relished the boiled pinach which in Richmond tasted insipid, cooked without condiments.

I was convinced that one should eat only articles that sustained the body, I gave up tea and coffee as a rule.

Trading in soil fertility for the sake of quick returns would prove to be disastrous, shortsighted policy. It would result in virtual depletion of the soil. Good earth called for the sweat of one’s brow to yield the bread of life.

People might criticize that approach as being slow and unprogressive. I did not hold out promise of dramatic results. Nevertheless, it held the key to the prosperity of both the soil and the inhabitants living on it.

All exploitation is based on cooperation, willing or forced, of the exploited. However much we may desist admitting it, the fact remains that there would be no exploitation if people refuse to obey the exploiter. But self comes in and we hug the chains that bind us. This must cease.

Advice has been given to me that I must look for salvation in the direction of using the powers of nature that the inventive brain of man has brought under subjection. The critics say that water, air, oil, and electricity should be fully utilized as they are being utilized in the go-ahead West. They say that control over these hidden powers of nature enables every American to have thirty-three slaves.

Repeat the process in India and I dare say that it will thirty-three times enslave every inhabitant of this land, instead of giving everyone thirty-three slaves.

We must identify ourselves with the villagers who toil under the hot sun beating on their bent backs and see how we would like to drink water from the pool in which villagers bathe, wash their clothes and pots, in which their cattle drink and roll. Then and not till then shall we truly represent the masses and they will, surely respond to every call.

We were greedy and so was England. The connection between England and India was based clearly on error. It is her declared policy that India is to be held in trust for her people.

Persistent questioning and healthy inquisitiveness are the first requisite for acquiring learning of any kind. Inquisitiveness should be tempered by humility and respectful regard for the teacher. There can be no knowledge without humility and the will to learn

Education through handicrafts. It lay in the application of truth and love in every variety of human activity, whether in individual life or a corporate one. The notion of education through handicraft rose from the contemplation of truth and love permeating life’s activities.

I hold that true education of the intellect can only come through a proper exercise and training of the bodily organs, e.g. hands, feet, eyes, ears, nose, etc. In other words an intelligent use of the bodily organs in a child provides the best and quickest way of developing his intellect. But unless the development of the mind and body goes hand in hand with a corresponding awakening of the soul, the former alone would prove to be a poor lop-sided affair.

By spiritual training I mean education of the heart. A proper and all-round development of the mind, therefore, can take place only when it proceeds pari passu with the education of the physical and spiritual faculties of the child. They constitute an indivisible whole.

The baneful effects of absence of proper coordination and harmony among the various faculties of body, mind and soul respectively are obvious. They are all around us; only we have lost perception of them owing to our perverse associations.

On the other hand what goes by the name of education in our schools and colleges in the cities today is in reality only intellectual dissipation. Intellectual training is there looked upon as something altogether unrelated to manual or physical work. But since the body must have some sort of physical exercise to keep it in health, they vainly try to attain that end by means of artificial and otherwise barren system of physical culture which would be ridiculous beyond words if the result was not so tragic.

The young man who emerges from this system can in no way compete in physical endurance with an ordinary labourer. The slightest physical exertion gives him a headache; a mild exposure to the sun is enough to cause him giddiness. And what is more, all this is looked upon as quite ‘natural’. As for the faculties of the heart, they are simply allowed to run to seed or to grow anyhow in a wild undisciplined manner. The result is moral and spiritual anarchy. And it is regarded as something laudable!!

Man is neither mere intellect, nor the gross animal body, nor the heart or soul alone. A proper and harmonious combination of all the three is required for the making of the whole man and constitutes the true economics of education.

In my scheme of things the hand will handle tools before it draws or traces the writing. The eyes will read the pictures of letters and words as they will know other things in life, the ears will catch the names and meanings of things and sentences. The whole training will be natural, responsive, and therefore the quickest and the cheapest in the land.

Gandhi's approach had always been Holistic as human life is a synthetic whole, which can not be divided into watertight compartments of social, religious, political life etc. Following diagram exhibits the salient features of Gandhian pacifism. Gandhi\'s Philosophy of Peace:

SEVEN SOCIAL SINS POLITICS WITHOUT PRINCIPLES WEALTH WITHOUT WORK PLEASURE WITHOUT CONSCIENCE KNOWLEDGE WITHOUT CHARACTER COMMERCE WITHOUT MORALITY SCIENCE WITHOUT HUMANITY WORSHIP WITHOUT SACRIFICE

Even as wisdom often comes from the mouths of babes, so does it often come from the mouths of old people. The golden rule is to test everything in the light of reason and experience, no matter from where it comes.

The spirit of non-violence necessarily leads to humility. Non-violence means reliance on God, the rock of ages. If we would seek his aid, we must approach Him with a humble and contrite heart.

If we want to cultivate a true spirit of democracy we cannot afford to be intolerant. Intolerance betrays want of faith in one's cause.

Religion is more than life. Remember that his own religion is the truest to every man even if it stands low in the scales of philosophical comparison.

I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.

It is any day better to stand erect with a broken and bandaged head than to crawl on one's belly, in order to be able to save one's head.

Self-respect knows no considerations. Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent than the one derived from fear of punishment.

Sacrifice is worth the name unless it is a joy. Sacrifice and a long face go ill together. Sacrifice is 'making sacred'. He must be a poor specimen of humanity who is in need of sympathy for his sacrifice.

Service which is rendered without joy helps neither the servant nor the served. But all other pleasures and possessions pale into nothingness before service which is rendered in a spirit of joy.

In all the animal creation of God, man is the only animal who has been created in order that he may know his Maker. Man's aim in life is not therefore to add from day to day to his material prospects and to his material possessions, but his predominant calling is, from day to day to come nearer to his own Maker.

Spiritual relationship is far more precious than physical. Physical relationship divorced from spiritual is body without soul.

It is man's social nature which distinguishes him from the brute creation. If it is his privilege to be independent, it is equally his duty to be inter-dependent. Only an arrogant man will claim to be independent of everybody else and be self-contained.

Golden fetters are no less galling to a self-respecting man than iron ones; the sting lies in the fetters, not in the metal.

Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion.

My life is one indivisible whole, and all my activities run into one another, and they all have their rise in my insatiable love of mankind.

Humility cannot be an observance by itself. For, it does not lend itself to being deliberately practised. It is, however, an indispensable test of 'Ahimsa.' For one who has 'Ahimsa' in him it becomes part of his very nature.

The main purpose of life is to live rightly, think rightly, act rightly. The soul must languish when we give all our thought to the body.

It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.

An opponent is entitled to the same regard for his principles as we would expect others to have for ours. Non-violence demands that we should seek every opportunity to win over opponents.

Truth quenches untruth, love quenches anger, self-suffering quenches violence. This eternal rule is a rule not for saints only but for all.

Confession of errors is like a broom which sweeps away the dirt and leaves the surface brighter and clearer. I feel stronger for confession.

A life of service must be one of humility. He, who could sacrifice his life for others, has hardly time to reserve for himself a place in the sun. Inertia must not be mistaken for humility, as it has been in Hinduism. True humility means most strenuous and constant endeavour entirely directed towards the service of humanity.

A man of few words will rarely be thoughtless in his speech; he will measure every word. My shyness has been in reality my shield and buckler. It has allowed me to grow. It has helped me in my discernment of truth.

Man’s supremacy over the lower animals meant not that the former should prey upon the latter, but that the higher should protect the lower, and that there should be mutual aid between the two as between man and man.

My aptitude for nursing gradually developed into a passion, so much so that it often led me to neglect my work, and on occasions I engaged not only my wife but the whole household in such service. Such service can have no meaning unless one takes pleasure in it. When it is done for show or for fear of public opinion, it stunts the man and crushes his spirit.

‘The sense-objects turn away from an abstemious soul, leaving the relish behind. The relish also disappears with the realization of the Highest (Bhagavadgita).

… without infinite patience it was impossible to get the people to do any work. It is the reformer who is anxious for the reform, and not society, from which he should expect nothing better than opposition, abhorrence and even mortal persecution. Why may not society regard as retrogression what the reformer holds dear as life itself?

Man’s supremacy over the lower animals meant not that the former should prey upon the latter, but that the higher should protect the lower, and that there should be mutual aid between the two as between man and man.

We notice that the mind is a restless bird; the more it gets the more it wants, and still remains unsatisfied. The more we indulge in out passions the more unbridled they become. Our ancestors, therefore, set a limit to our indulgences. They saw that happiness was largely a mental condition.

A man is not necessarily happy because he is rich, or unhappy because he is poor. The rich are often seen to be unhappy, the poor to be happy.

This civilization first seizes of the people, their attitudes and approach to life. They become selfish and lose the essential moral fibre. They no longer enjoy swaraj – self rule or self control. Instead of finding happiness within they search for it in external, materialistic objects. This selfishness and greed leads to ignore values which are fundamental to social well being.

My aptitude for nursing gradually developed into a passion, so much so that it often led me to neglect my work, and on occasions I engaged not only my wife but the whole household in such service. Such service can have no meaning unless one takes pleasure in it. When it is done for show or for fear of public opinion, it stunts the man and crushes his spirit.

“The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead.

That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature.”

Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will theybenefit or at least not be further deprived?“benefit

caring for persons, the more able and the less able serving each other, is the rock upon which a good society is built. Whereas, until recently, caring was largely person to person, now most of it is mediated through institutions – often large, complex, powerful, impersonal; not always competent; sometimes corrupt

If a better society is to be built, one that is more just and more loving, one that provides greater creative opportunity for its people, then the most open course is to raise both the capacity to serve and the very performance as servant of existing major institutions by new regenerative forces operating within them.

Listening: Traditionally, and also in servant leadership, managers are required to have communication skills as well as the competence to make decisions. A servant leader has the motivation to listen actively to subordinates and support them in decision identification. The servant leader particularly needs to pay attention to what remains unspoken in the management setting. This means relying on his inner voice in order to find out what the body, mind and spirit are communicating.

Empathy: A servant leader attempts to understand and empathize with others. Workers may be considered not only as employees, but also as people who need respect and appreciation for their personal development.

Healing: A great strength of a Servant Leader is the ability for healing one’s self and others ] This leads to the formation of a business culture, in which the working environment is dynamic, fun and free of the fear of failure.

Awareness: A servant leader needs to gain general awareness and especially self-awareness. He has the ability to view situations from a more integrated, holistic position. As a result, he gets a better understanding about ethics and values.

Persuasion: A Servant Leader does not take advantage of their power and status by coercing compliance; they rather try to convince those they manage.

Conceptualization: A servant leader thinks beyond day-to-day realities. That means he has the ability to see beyond the limits of the operating business and also focuses on long term operating goals.

Foresight: Foresight is the ability to foresee the likely outcome of a situation. It enables the servant leader to learn about the past and to achieve a better understanding about the current reality

Stewardship: CEOs, staffs and trustees have the task to hold their institution in trust for the greater good of society. Servant leadership is seen as an obligation to help and serve others. Openness and persuasion are more important than control.

Commitment to the growth of people: A servant leader is convinced that people have an intrinsic value beyond their contributions as workers. Therefore, they should nurture the personal, professional and spiritual growth of employees.

Building community: A servant leader identifies means to build a strong community within his organization and wants to develop a true community among businesses and institutions.

"The Servant as Leader", "The Institution as Servant", and "Trustees as Servants."

Ten characteristic of servant leaders in the writings of Greenleaf. The ten characteristics are listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of others, and building community.

Servant leadership Is a lifelong journey that includes discovery of one’s self, a desire to serve others, and a commitment to lead. Servant- leaders continually strive to be trustworthy, self-aware, humble, caring, visionary, empowering, relational, competent, good stewards, and community builders.

THANK YOU