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Valedictory Address at World Leadership Dialogue By Chinmaya Vibhooti Ashram, Pune 13 December, 2015

As I was passing by Delhi and Noida where I had the privilege also of meeting Swami Chidrupananda, Swami Nikhilananda ji, and Swami Mitrananda ji, and receiving their blessings, receiving their wise counsel, meeting other devotees of Chinmaya Mission Ashram and my own interaction that day left a very deep impact on my mind. Hence when Mr. Sachdev requested me to come here while initially I was very hesitant because of the problem of fog in Delhi, the requirement to be back in Delhi today itself I have question day tomorrow, of course one does not know whether the parliament will work or not, but you still have to be prepared and I was in Ahmedabad last night attending a wedding so between the two I think it was very fortunate that I was able to get a flight late last night and truly feel honored and privileged that you have thought me fit to be a part of this global World Leadership Dialogue particularly when you juxtapose it to the wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita. Thank you very much sir for giving me this opportunity.

As I drove in here this morning, it was indeed a wonderful drive, the serene atmosphere in which this ashram is situated makes me recall a visit when I was very young child to the ashram at Powai, which I would believe would be one of the first ashrams that Swamiji would have set up right on the top of the hill next to the Powai Lake and I do recall my own parents being very much influenced by Swamiji’s leadership, Swamiji’s spiritual discourse, my parents were very actively associated with Rashtriya Swamsevak Sangh and Swami Chinmayananda ji had provided leadership to the entire Hindu community when it was suffering from a number of social evils, evils of dowry, evils of divide in society, it was Swami Chinmayananda ji as the founding president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad who brought together all the different schools of thought of Hinduism on one stage and way back in 1962 when he helped create the nucleus of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, his objective was very noble and that he wished to see a unified society working for the benefit of mankind, working for the benefit of society, removing the problems that society that the religion faced and trying to converge various schools of thought of Hinduism into one aligned with goodness, into one aligned with his spirit of being a karmyogi, which he always 2 was and in that sense, I believe Swami Chinmayananda ji’s mission and its work will always be very important for India, for the entire country, and will always provide leadership, not only spiritual leadership, but I believe leadership in creating leaders of tomorrow and I do wish in the years to come to continue to be associated with the Chinmaya Mission and benefit from your wise counsel.

As you were just mentioning Swamiji used to speak very often at the Kashi Hindu Vishwa Vidhyalaya, the Banaras Hindu University as it is now called, where my father was a student all through the late 40s and I believe Mahamana Malviya and Swami Chinmayananda ji used to interact at that point of time so I am suspecting possibly that is where my father would have probably first come in touch with Swamiji because I remember hearing a lot about the Chinmaya Mission in my growing up years. We will be celebrating 100 years of Swami Chinmayananda ji’s ascent to this world and I am sure the birth anniversary will be 100 years essentially will be celebrated all over the country by all the missionaries, by all the followers of your mission and I wish the anniversary year brings success through 2015-2016.

Frankly, I find myself too small to be able to talk about leadership and particularly in the context of the Bhagavad Gita and the lessons that one can take from the Bhagavad Gita. Lessons, which one can show to the world, lessons which one can take inspiration from and lessons which can then go across the world and show how powerful this document is, how powerful this holy granth is in showing the path to goodness, in showing the path for future leaders, but as I was trying to work upon some of the verses, I myself realized the power of the Bhagavad Gita. We have always heard through the years that the Gita propagated that one should keep doing his duty without worrying about the fruits of his effort. A karmyogi is expected to work selflessly without ego, with full devotion, and not worry about achieving some meritorious results, which benefits himself or herself not particularly focused in what it has in store for himself, but working towards a mission, working towards the goal selflessly, and in that sense, I think the Bhagavad Gita provides for all of humanity, the realization that divine work can only be selfless work and any work which is with a particular motive and a motive, which is beyond serving societies, serving mankind will always fall short. It is only when one can completely absorb himself in his work 3 with dignity, without any ego, and without any expectation for the self that one can give back to society that one can truly be inspired to be a leader, and in some sense the world has witnessed in Paris and in the successful culmination of the COP-21 in Paris late last night. True leadership, it has witnessed how 196 countries from all over the world can converge with different viewpoints, different ideas, different thoughts with over 1600 points of descent amongst these 196 countries and within a short span of 10 days can come to terms with the biggest problem that the world is facing, that humanity is facing today, probably next only to terrorism and converge with agreement, with a document, with an understanding, which reflects the shared concerns of all humanity, which shows a roadmap a path forward for all of us to show our concern to demonstrate a sincere effort to protect the planet and which can bring down 1600 points of descent to 0 to a completely aligned to thinking.

In fact not the right place to speak specifically about the role of Prime Minister, Mr. Modi and the leader of the Indian delication along with the Indian team Mr. Prakash Javadekar, but I was myself witness on the November 30, 2015 when we were launching the international solar alliance, which was a brainchild of Prime Minister Modi and jointly launched along with the French President, Hollande,. I was witness to the statements-like leadership that India provided to the rest of the world, and I could see the interactions that we had with President Obama, with President Hollande, with Prime Minister Abe, with Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel, also with the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, but one could very clearly see the world looking at India, the world watching India, and India living up to the expectations providing a leadership not only to protect the interest of the developing world and the less developed countries particularly in Asia, Africa, and South America, but also balancing the deep concerns of the future of the next generation with what we call climate justice, equity and fairness for all and in that sense, I have absolutely no doubt in my mind in giving credit to the Bhagavad Gita, which has always inspired Prime Minister Modi who has studied the Gita, who is proponant and follower of the Gita, who draws lessons of the Gita in his world and I then looked on three or four chapters and verses in those chapters and tried to relate that to today’s India, today’s leadership to our world today to show you how a good government, a government, which believes in providing 4 good governance, good future for its people. If it follows the path set out by the Gita can deliver huge results, can deliver huge prosperity for its people. Of course, over the years Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, several illustrious leaders who have led India, India’s freedom struggle, India’s growth path have received strength, have received moral courage, inspiration, clarity of thought from the Bhagavad Gita and I am sure the India of today is a mixed bag of the good that the Bhagavad Gita was able to provide to many of our leaders and also some of the evils, which came into society, which have seeped into society, which all of us together take it as a challenge, take it as a mission we can all together work to rid India of those evils. In fact, if we all look at the ancient Indian texts it is not as if evil did not prevail even in the mythological past. The world is bound to have evil because it is only then that the fight against the evil can be held and the right can prevail. The understanding of what is right can never be complete unless we face what is wrong. It is only when we fight the evil in society, what the wrongs in society that we will be able to understand what is right for humanity and in today’s context, I think Bhagavad Gita provides several concepts of leadership and one can understand how to manage stress better, how to conduct ones world better, how to focus on goals better, what a true inspirational leader is all about, what should one look for in a leader, how does one define a leader, how does one accept the person as a leader as a mentor. All of this can be found in the Bhagavad Gita and particularly some of the very powerful messages that Lord Krishna gave while reciting the various verses of the Gita have very-very interesting references to quality of leadership. If we look at chapter 3 verse 21 and I will just read out the few lines in English “who should secure the welfare of the world and how.” The Gita says whatever a great man does that other men also do imitate. Whatever you said some as the standard that for world, the people at large follow. After all that is exactly what defines leadership. The standard step, the principles, the role model that a leader is, is what the other people will imitate is what they will follow and no matter what position a person holds as long as the person holds the position he certainly has a deep impact on the rest of the society. They do follow what the leader does. There is a natural tendency to emulate a good leader, good or bad actually and his values, his character, his vision is ultimately what will define his full on mission. It is because Swami Chinmayananda ji left behind some truly remarkable thoughts, a vision of a very strong and powerful and 5 spiritual India that his mission continues to carry forward that work under the leadership of new saints and new leaders that he had created while he was there that the Chinmaya mission continues to grow from strength to strength whereas there have been many other saints and godly persons, many of whose thoughts did not have the same conviction, the same leadership values, and may not have received the approval may not have received the kind of following that Swami Chinmayananda ji’s mission has. So it is the character that defines a leader. It is his vision that they can clearly see long into the future whether it can leave behind in the footprints of time or path, a path, which others can follow, which is worth emulating, which inspires people to follow that path and that is why if you could possibly visualize, look back at Lord Krishna delivering this verse to Arjun whatever a great man does that other men also do. Whatever he sets up as the standard that the world follows and I think it is very-very powerful comment on leadership, something which ever leader of society in whatever walk of life he may be, maybe running a business, he may be in politics, he may be a spiritual leader, he may be a leader of the small housing society, he could be a student leader in school or college, he could be a trade union leader in whatever capacity one works as a leader and the leader need not necessary have millions of followers, in a small group of five persons sitting across the table one person naturally leads the dialog with his course and becomes a leader of that small conversation, but in every walk of life, in every sphere, in every position the person who daunts the mantle of a leader sets the standard and in some sense the rest of the world an, the rest of the team tends to emulate that leader and what the Bhagavad Gita tried to propagate was that basically a human being is an imitating animal. Well we are told and I possibly believe may be rightly so that it come from the animal race and we have evolved from the animal race and if we look at a monkey anyway, they are all familiar how they tend to imitate whatever you do, you run they run, you bite a finger they will also bite their finger and in some sense a human being a man is considered to be a person who imitates who follows and in that sense this particular verse is most ideally appropriate that one has to dawn the leadership role and one has to set the standard for his team to follow. In fact, it becomes odorless responsibility on the leader to lead by example, to lead by good behavior, to practice what one preaches. In fact, many times society looses faith in leaders of today because they do not practice what they 6 preach, there is a difference set for standards for the other person and there is a different standard for himself or herself. Very often that has a very deep disillusionment in society and can have such a negative impact that the same leader who could otherwise have helped evolve a better future, a better society then becomes a person who is the cause of the depravation or the cause of the evils that we see in the Indian society today. This in a way also relates to karma because our actions become the most important thing how we act, how we behave, somebody could jolly well ask why do we touch the feet of the elders. It is a very small action. Many times done mechanically. Children when they are taught to touch the feet of the elders or when as a small two year or three year old probably I might have been taught may be initially it was just a mechanical exercise, but then action over the years in fueled in a person a sense of respect, a sense of taking the person whose blessings you are seeking by touching his feet seriously and then you emulate the person whose feet you are touching, so be it the parents, be it your guru, the teacher, could be a spiritual guru, it could be a teacher in school or college, it could be a leader in any walk of life when we touch the feet it is only a very humbling experience, it is an experience that brings you back to mother earth, makes to understand what respect, what learning you can receive from a leader and in some sense, I personally believe this is truly a very powerful statement that Lord Krishna made in terms of a lesson for leadership. If we go to Chapter 12 Verse 13, it is with reference to those who are meditating upon the imperishable, the infinite. The Lord was trying to certain mental and intellectual conduct, which bonds the direct means to perfection and Lord Krishna says he who hates no creature who is friendly and compassionate to all who is free from attachment and egoism, balanced in pleasure and pain and forgiving. In some sense all the gurus here reflect this philosophy. They have given up selflessly all the material pleasures of life to some society, which is why they inspired us, which is why you and I ordinary mortals feel like following them, pick up every thread of word that we hear from them, see their behavior, see how selflessly without any ego, without any ego of clothing, of footwear, of expense, of money, material wealth how selflessly they have given up all the material pleasures of life. They have no ego whether one is senior or the other, they have no ego of their own succession, their future, their own following, it does not matter when Swami Chinmayananda ji may have started talking he may have had 7 barely 4 or 10 or 20 followers, probably he never visualized that millions of followers in 300 centers around the world he came out selflessly, no ego, no expectation. He hated nobody, but loved all of humanity. He would embrace whoever came to him with whatever good or bad feelings after all may be 70, 80, or 60 years ago when he started 70 years ago when he started preaching those were difficult times. India was not even independent and he reached a section of society, which is seemed in material pleasures in fact the kind of following that I have seen Swami Chinmayananda ji have over the years, the kind of people who used to visit the Powai complex the ashram at Powai where we have international delegates who have come in from other parts of the world were all very highly intelligent coming from very good families well educated generally the privilege sections of society and to appeal to that section of society and to give the message of becoming selfless, of becoming immersed in spiritualism, of leaving your ego aside, not worrying whether you come into the ashram in a Mercedes Benz, a fiat car, or a second class railway train, not concerned with the fabric of the guru’s clothing or the quality of his footwear, the food or living abode, but inspired by high moral values, the standards that they have set for themselves and for their followers. I think this detachment from material pleasures is what an inspirational leader in every walk of life can give to society. In fact, the political leadership also if it can detach itself from material pleasures, from material belongings, from material wealth can truly serve society. In fact, I will just talk on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which has inspired me in my life and many of the leaders of the government of the day today since the Bhartiya Janta Party’s large part of the leadership comes from the its moorings, its anchor, in the teachings, in the moral values that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh gave us. The leadership of the RSS is completely made of pracharaks, selfless workers who have not married, who have given up their families, given up all material wealth. In fact, Swami Chinmayananda ji’s closest colleague, the late Ashok Singhal ji who passed away on the last month, came from a family of billionaires and I am talking of dollar billionaires, his family is a family of billionaires extremely rich very well to do. Mr. Ashok Singhal was an engineering student I think one year senior to my father and they were extremely close and he gave up the entire wealth of his family, the entire share of his wealth of his family to serve the cause of society and millions of pracharaks of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in the last 8 nearly 90 years just like the saints and Swamis with Chinmaya mission have given up family, have given up very lucrative careers only to serve society. In my young days, I used to argue with them that why do you do this? What is the meaning of that? How do you think you can serve society better? Does this not lead to a kind of an ego that you are superior to us, you are with families who are coming from within a family that material desires and pleasures and I remember in the young days when my own thoughts were being formed how inspirational it was to interact with these leaders that they would teach you your own value system, when they would imbibe in you the power that each individual has to become a leader of society and that to give back to society selflessly and they never impose a true karmayogi never imposes anything on another person. It is a very beautiful relation of the shishya and a guru where a selfless guru without material pleasures or ego or any desire to impose himself gets the follower into a different trance, into a new understanding of value systems and his life through example and that is what I believe is a true leader’s role in the making of our lives. I have personally benefited immensely from such selfless workers. Of course, Lord Krishna called them people who hate no creature. I do believe that is an extreme form of spiritualism of giving up anything in life, which only the very-very highly blessed have and I believe if each one of us can get a small portion of that level of spirituality where we hate no creature, we are friendly to all, we are understanding and compassionate to our colleagues to the rest of society, who can become free from attachments and be satisfied with what we have, I think we can truly have a happy life. Very often, I tell friend’s from Mumbai where I come from and Delhi where I now live that the people in the villages may be much-much poorer, they are digging a land in a small village, barely get good healthcare or education, but possibly have far more happiness, far more joy of life, than we ordinary mortals who are struggling in this rat race that we have all got into and in that sense it will be great that if each one of us benefits on the very wise counsel of the sages who have given up their own material happiness to serve society for which I think all of us shall ever be grateful to you Swami ji and to all of you.

There is a big message of unity in the Bhagavad Gita in Chapter 18 Verse 20, there is a three fold type of knowledge that by which one sees the one indestructible reality in all beings undivided in the divided know 9 that knowledge as sathvik. We all think we are all very knowledgeable. When I completed studying law and complete my charted accountancy I thought I become extremely knowledgeable. Many of us here after a lot of study and after a lot of effort, PhD and huge degrees nationally and internationally feel they have become repositories of knowledge, but I think knowledge can never be complete. All of us are living in a perpetual state of ignorance. There is so much more to learn, preparing myself to come here today has been a great loving for me. I possibly always took the Bhagavad Gita for granted. I never related it to a leadership rule that I now required to do in my job. I possibly never realized that every letter every word of the Bhagavad Gita and one to just flip on any page here read it and then relate to it in the context, which it is most appropriate for one self. I mean I am just flipping through I have come chapter 11 verse 38, I will just read it out, I have not read it before. “You are the primal God, the ancient Purush, you are the supreme refugee of this universe, you are the knower, the knowable, and the abort supreme, by these the universe pervaded of being of infinite forms." Now let us try and see what we could relate to that in our today’s context. In the most contemporary context one could so easily relates Verse 38 to climate change. After all, all of us in this world while we are finite in our lifetime we also have a duty towards the infinite. What we are going to leave behind as a polluted world as a planet full of greenhouse gases and leave behind a planet, which is not going to be safe for the future generations and if one was to read this verse in the context of COP-21 of climate change, it gives a completely new meaning to the effort that has gone on in Paris in the last few days and the months and years of preparation before that and I had a small role to play in that preparation therefore realized the serious impact and implication of that preparation. Of course I have a very awkward duty to perform, I am minister for coal and the minister for renewable energy, so I am the polluter and I have to resolve the pollution problems and in some sense the Bhagavad Gita is all about such challenges. It asks Arjun to accept these challenges, do what is right, work with a focus and a goal in front of him and very often also do something, which on the face of it looks wrong. If you have to fire an arrow on the Bhishma Pitamah in something intrinsically is not acceptable to you, but you have to do it, it is your duty. Duty prevails over right and wrong at some points of time so I will have to pollute, I will have to use coal, I will have to provide energy access at affordable prices to the dreaming 10 millions, who 68 years after independence do not even have a basic amenity like electricity. I do not think any of us in this room have faced the pain of living years and years and generations without electricity. I do not think that we can even imagine life without electricity, but there are still 300 million people in India who do not have electricity and who cannot afford clean energy and at the price that is available. So I will have to pollute it, it is my duty to give them affordable energy, but I will also have to be a conscious world citizen and by me I mean India. I am sorry I am using “I”, it is only in the context of India. India will have to provide energy to its people, while simultaneously working to overcome this problem and gradually move towards a green planet towards a planet, which ensures the carbon neutral world and simultaneously both will work towards the ultimate goal of not only giving affordable energy access to every citizen in this country and enough energy to provide jobs for our people, a better life for our people, meet the aspirations of our people, but also at the end of it achieve the right, which is a clean planet, a green planet, a planet which we leave behind for the next generation which is worth living in and that is in some sense how the Bhagavad Gita evolves as Lord Krishna keeps guiding Arjun through the pain of inconvenient truths towards the duty of convenient action. Inconvenient truth is the book vice president Al Gore had written, when he highlighted the problems of climate change. In fact, only last evening in Ahmedabad, I was on the phone call with him and he has made some assurances and some very-very nice gestures towards India, particularly recognizing our massive rollup in solar energy that we are planning to do from 2.5 gigawatts that India was, when Prime Minister Modi took charge to 100 gigawatts, growth of 40 times in 7 years and vice president Al Gore was complemented for that and also affirming his own support for that, but vice president Al Gore had raised the inconvenient truth whereas simultaneously the karmyogi Prime Minister Modi then Chief Minister of Gujarat articulated his thoughts as convenient action that while we recognize the inconvenient truth our duty is to work and act and act fast towards solving the problem, towards resolving the big crises that the world faces and therefore any part whether this one or I go back to Verse 20 Chapter 18, which largely talks about unity in diversity. The world has got diverse interest, diverse compulsions, diverse objectives, but it still stands united with certain common goals. The goal to completely eliminate poverty, the goal to create a happy society, the goal to have literacy for 11 every person on earth. In the year 2000, there were the millennium development goals that the United Nations had put forth. Only in September earlier this year, the entire world community got together and finalized the sustainable development goals the SDGs for the next 15 years up to 2030 and in that the whole world gets united despite so much diversity. They are developed countries, they are developing countries, they are the least developed countries everybody is united in the sustainable development goals and the objective to achieve those goals and that is truly what Indian culture, tradition, and heritage is all about. We respect all. As we believe that everybody has a right to the resources of the world, has an equal right, everybody did not get the same opportunity, but everybody has the same right and that is reflected in what the Bhagavad Gita says when it is talking of unity and diversity. We have to work for the wellbeing of all of humanity and not sections of humanity. Lastly, I would like to draw your attention to the key of excellence. It is on Chapter 2 Verse 47 when Lord Krishna is speaking to Arjun and he says “the right is to work only, but never to its fruits. Let the fruit of action be not thy motive nor let thy attachment be to inaction.” Do not get attached to inaction because you are hoping to act only for fruit, some result, which benefits you and if that eludes you do not get attached to inaction. Continue to work relentlessly, work passionately, do your duty, do not fail in doing your duty irrespective of the results of your action, giving you the fruits for which you have set up. Your right is to only work, work, work, and work only. You do not have a right to the fruits of your action. I think it is a very deep message for all of us obviously in other verses he is talking about your duty being towards good, your duty being towards what is right, but your duty is not only to achieve an end, your duty is selflessly working towards the end without hoping to receive the fruits of your actions. Rewards may come and go, results may be good or bad, sometimes you may even suffer in conducting our duty, but if our focus is on our goal, is on our mission you can never go wrong. Very often fear of failure, fear of criticism holds you back, does not allow you to perform with the best of ability. It blocks creativity, it does not allow you to excel and I will just drop on a small example, which relates directly to me, when I am setting targets, when I first talked about producing a billion tons of coal in India so that India is never short of coal and we do not have to import thermal coal or when I talked about doing a 100,000 megawatt of solar energy or 1,75,000 megawatt of renewable energy within 7 years which ladies 12 and gentleman is the world’s largest renewable energy program in such a short duration of time ever embarked upon by any country. There were very daunting tasks, everybody kept telling me you will fail. It is near impossible to achieve these types of targets. You are saying you will give 24 x 7 power to all. Prime Minister said by 2022 you are saying you will do it by 2019, Prime Minister gave you 1000 days on 15 th August 2015 to reach electricity to those 18,452 villages who even today 68 years after independence do not even have electricity in their villages. Prime Minister gave you 1000 days you are so foolish you are saying I will do it in 730 days. Why are you doing that? But unless you challenge yourselves, unless you are willing to go that extra mile, how will the creativity of us ordinary people, how will we excel? An ordinary people give extraordinary results. After all when I gave my report card of the first year in May earlier this year and my first 18 months in November last month, in both those months while I can draw satisfaction that we have created historic records in all the three sectors power, renewable energy, and coal. We have done things that have never happened in the history of India, but I am continuously unhappy, I am continuously not satisfied. I am always in a state of flux, in a state of anger at myself that this is inadequate and I still need to do more. There is so much more to do that 24 hours are going to be insufficient and that continuous challenging of yourself, your own creativity, your own ability to perform will truly give you results, will truly empower your entire team, are truly the hallmarks of our duty as a leader, which I do hope will help all of us mortals individually and collectively give extraordinary results in the service of society in our own mission, in our own work, whatever each one of us is set out to do. I am sure if we focus our full attention with the right intention, with a commitment, with a passion, we will achieve excellence.

I think, I have over exceeded my time, Swamiji please pardon me for that, but this interaction in my own little bit of learning to prepare myself for this very important World Leadership Dialogue has truly been an education for me Swamiji. I do not know with what words to thank you and the Chinmaya Mission particularly Anand Sachdeva who when I was vaccinating and trying to give excuses not to come here was relentlessly pursuing getting me here and then used the Brahmastra also, he managed to talk to one of your own followers Mr. Kewal Nohria, who is not only related to me, but to my mind is truly a karmayogi and 13 one of the finest management gurus India has ever produced and that one phone call from Mr. Nohria was enough to keep me over here, but I can only say I will have to go back and thank him for this wonderful opportunity and I shall always be eternally grateful to you for allowing me to come here to meet all of you, to receive your blessings and I do hope to continue to learn from you sir. I am going to self-gift myself this Bhagavad Gita if you do not mind. I am normally not very spiritual and I do not accept any mementoes as Swamiji will confirm when I visited your sacred ashram in Noida, but I really found this truly very simple, very-very easy to understand and relate to so I am accepting this gift on behalf of all of you.

Thank you very much.