Former Additional Chief Secretary Chiranjiv Singh and theatre person Prakash Belawadi engage in a conversation about the book with Prof. Ramnath Narayansswamy, co-editor and faculty at IIMB 
(L-R) Former Additional Chief Secretary Chiranjiv Singh, IIMB Director G. Raghuram and Prof. Ramnath Narayansswamy, co-editor of the book and faculty at IIMB, theatre person Prakash Belawadi, Sharat Hegde, Director, Heartfulness Institute and Vinayaka, Director, Sampada Publications, at the book launch at IIM Bangalore on March 16 (Friday).
16 March, 2018: The book ‘Unbundling the Sixth Sense: Explorations in Spirituality and Management’, co-edited by Professor Ramnath Narayanswamy from the Economics & Social Sciences area of IIMB, was launched by Shri Chiranjiv Singh, former Ambassador of India to UNESCO in Paris and Indian Administrative Service officer of the 1969 batch, at IIM Bangalore, today.
The book, published by Sampada Publications, is co-edited by Professor Yochanan Altman and Professor Sunita Singh Sengupta.
Introducing the chief guest, Professor Charan Singh, faculty at IIMB, said: “Shri Chiranjiv Singh is a spiritual person passing through a human experience, and is the right person for the launch of a book such as this one.”
Addressing the gathering after releasing the book, Chiranjiv Singh said, “This is a subject after my heart. When I was Director-General of the Administrative Training Institute, I tried to include ethics and values in the curriculum and I used to invite Mr. JC Lynn, my mentor in service and the gold standard for ethical behaviour and administration, to address the officers. But strangely, after Mr Lynn spoke on the subject, all the questions addressed to him were only about promotions and postings!”
Quoting from the Mahabharata, Chiranjiv Singh pointed out that the sum total of the teachings in the epic is not to forsake ‘dharma’ in any circumstance. “The epic ends with the question, ‘If one can get ‘artha’, ‘kama’ and ‘moksha’ through ‘dharma’, then why do we forsake it?’ ‘Dharma’ is not religion, it is about principles and values.”
According to him, B-schools must ponder how to introduce ethics and spirituality in management studies. “Given the system, where students start preparing for competition from a young age, can ethics and values and spirituality be used as a means towards corporate governance? The answer is yes, but like the Buddha said, ‘We have to light our own lamp and find our own way’. We must be true to ourselves and we must be simple.”
Describing the book as “timely”, he read a few passages and emphasized that there is only one language – the language of the heart. “The qualities of the heart are certainly more important than the qualities of the head, and I am glad that certain chapters in the book highlight this truth,” he added.
IIMB Director Professor G. Raghuram said, “I believe that spirituality liberates one, and must be brought into management education.” Quoting from the book, he said: “Management is all about managing boundaries, resources and responses, and spirituality must get us to do the best in our field by expanding the hearts and minds of the young people we teach.”
In the discussion that followed, actor-director-author and columnist Prakash Belawadi observed that the problem of management is the way people are trained to do the course and how they are then measured – in terms of success. “In spirituality, you cannot say how successfully spiritual you are, you can only say how meaningfully spiritual you are. But the idea of management, in some ways, is the idea of leadership. When things break down, leadership comes to the fore and that involves ethical questions. A book like this provides the space for such questions in a management school,” he added.
Vinayaka, Director, Sampada Publications, and Sharat Hegde, Director, Heartfulness Institute, were also present at the launch.
Former Additional Chief Secretary Chiranjiv Singh and theatre person Prakash Belawadi engage in a conversation about the book with Prof. Ramnath Narayansswamy, co-editor and faculty at IIMB
(L-R) Former Additional Chief Secretary Chiranjiv Singh, IIMB Director G. Raghuram and Prof. Ramnath Narayansswamy, co-editor of the book and faculty at IIMB, theatre person Prakash Belawadi, Sharat Hegde, Director, Heartfulness Institute and Vinayaka, Director, Sampada Publications, at the book launch at IIM Bangalore on March 16 (Friday).
16 March, 2018: The book ‘Unbundling the Sixth Sense: Explorations in Spirituality and Management’, co-edited by Professor Ramnath Narayanswamy from the Economics & Social Sciences area of IIMB, was launched by Shri Chiranjiv Singh, former Ambassador of India to UNESCO in Paris and Indian Administrative Service officer of the 1969 batch, at IIM Bangalore, today.
The book, published by Sampada Publications, is co-edited by Professor Yochanan Altman and Professor Sunita Singh Sengupta.
Introducing the chief guest, Professor Charan Singh, faculty at IIMB, said: “Shri Chiranjiv Singh is a spiritual person passing through a human experience, and is the right person for the launch of a book such as this one.”
Addressing the gathering after releasing the book, Chiranjiv Singh said, “This is a subject after my heart. When I was Director-General of the Administrative Training Institute, I tried to include ethics and values in the curriculum and I used to invite Mr. JC Lynn, my mentor in service and the gold standard for ethical behaviour and administration, to address the officers. But strangely, after Mr Lynn spoke on the subject, all the questions addressed to him were only about promotions and postings!”
Quoting from the Mahabharata, Chiranjiv Singh pointed out that the sum total of the teachings in the epic is not to forsake ‘dharma’ in any circumstance. “The epic ends with the question, ‘If one can get ‘artha’, ‘kama’ and ‘moksha’ through ‘dharma’, then why do we forsake it?’ ‘Dharma’ is not religion, it is about principles and values.”
According to him, B-schools must ponder how to introduce ethics and spirituality in management studies. “Given the system, where students start preparing for competition from a young age, can ethics and values and spirituality be used as a means towards corporate governance? The answer is yes, but like the Buddha said, ‘We have to light our own lamp and find our own way’. We must be true to ourselves and we must be simple.”
Describing the book as “timely”, he read a few passages and emphasized that there is only one language – the language of the heart. “The qualities of the heart are certainly more important than the qualities of the head, and I am glad that certain chapters in the book highlight this truth,” he added.
IIMB Director Professor G. Raghuram said, “I believe that spirituality liberates one, and must be brought into management education.” Quoting from the book, he said: “Management is all about managing boundaries, resources and responses, and spirituality must get us to do the best in our field by expanding the hearts and minds of the young people we teach.”
In the discussion that followed, actor-director-author and columnist Prakash Belawadi observed that the problem of management is the way people are trained to do the course and how they are then measured – in terms of success. “In spirituality, you cannot say how successfully spiritual you are, you can only say how meaningfully spiritual you are. But the idea of management, in some ways, is the idea of leadership. When things break down, leadership comes to the fore and that involves ethical questions. A book like this provides the space for such questions in a management school,” he added.
Vinayaka, Director, Sampada Publications, and Sharat Hegde, Director, Heartfulness Institute, were also present at the launch.