Chapter 5 - Innovation
Day 9
I will now tell you about The Art of Living. The Art of Living is a volunteer-based organisation. And when it is volunteer-based, there is no interference.
Everybody does the kind of work that they want to do, what they think is correct. And to manage a group of volunteers is the most difficult thing.
Our apex bodies and organisers have great experience doing just that. They cannot hire anybody because everybody is their own boss.
The skill lies in coordinating this whole group in which everyone thinks that they know best about what is needed. It is a challenge to work in this environment.
It can cause a lot of frustration. And especially in a spiritual organisation, where you cannot be frustrated. If you are frustrated, you are told, "You have to go and meditate, do not work now."
You will be given many knowledge lectures. So you cannot be angry, you cannot be frustrated, you cannot get upset. Because after all you are teaching the world how not to get stressed.
How not to get upset, how to accommodate and how to be human, how to exhibit all the human values. Don't you agree that this is a big challenge?
Once in a while, we do call a meeting of organisers. There, you should watch the fun. Everyone comes up with their own great ideas.
Now you know what they say about a spiritual organisation, that charity cannot happen out of an empty bowl. So when we do a lot of charitable projects, we have to raise funds too.
So, one gentleman came up with the great idea of making bidis (cheap, locally made cigarettes). Just imagine a spiritual organisation producing bidis because it offers employment to so many womenfolk in a village.
They roll the tobacco bidis and then sell them in the manufacturer's own name. If there is Ganesha bidi, why should there not be Swamii bidi.
You can imagine that this "innovative, very promising business which can help up to 10 schools in one go" had to be stopped right there. Because it does not go with the ethics of any spiritual organisation to encourage.
But volunteers of course come up with these great ideas in the name of innovation. So, this is how the organiser of an NGO, of a volunteer-based organisation, becomes really skillful.
I think after you complete your MBA course, at least for 3-4 months, even 6 months, you must work in one of any number of NGOs in the world.
You can learn many practical skills and also learn to manage people in a diverse age group (right from youth to elderly people), learn to manage varied mental tendencies, educational backgrounds, professional backgrounds, basically people coming together from all walks of life.
Running an NGO is a tall task. And it is truly very interesting. It brings out the best in you. When you face challenges, you become more innovative.
Creativity will not come to you out of the blue, while you may be sitting in Harvard or some similar place, if you are not interacting with people.
Your interaction with the public, with groups of people, is absolutely essential. Recently, the United Nations Millennium Campaign asked the Art of Living to be their partner, so we said "Okay, we will do it."
Just two months ago the Stand Up and Speak Out event took place in all the countries where there is not much UN presence. Our volunteers could really bring up the issue to its fullest there.
In countries like Surinam, Trinidad, Madagascar, and many other places of 37 million people who stood up, 7 million were volunteers from The Art of Living alone, who spoke without much effort.
What can bring people to participate in social business is an inspiration, a genuineness. When a genuine spirit of caring and sharing surges in you, you will find a field created especially for you, a social field.
There is a joy in getting but there is the greatest joy in giving, in contributing. The mother at home enjoys serving people. She cooks many dishes and serves them happily, when her children come home.
If she is all by herself, she does not prepare 10 types of dishes and eat them all by herself. Though she is an expert cook, her joy comes from feeding others.
This is a mature kind of joy. We were all born with an instinct of grabbing, of experiencing joy, but we should not die with the same basic instinct alone.
We must mature, for there is nothing like sharing joy that brings satisfaction, nothing else can give you that much fulfilment.
The need to be happy oneself, but equally to make everyone around us happy too, is a concept that we must constantly factor into our lives.
