Events Centers: INSTITUTE OF INDIC WISDOM (IIW)

Namaste!

Greetings from the Institute of Indic Wisdom & thanks for your interest in Discontinuous Learning!

As promised, we are conducting a “Live conversation with Prasad Kaipa” on the ideas discussed in his book “Discontinuous Learning: Igniting the Genius Within by Aligning Self, Work and Family” as per the following schedule:

• 14^th April 2024: Sunday: 7:00 AM to 8:30 AM India Standard Time
• 14^th April 2024: Sunday: 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM India Standard Time
• 21^st April 2024: Sunday: 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM India Standard Time

You may register for any of the above sessions.

The discussions in the session will be highly interactive & will revolve around:

• Ideas from the book that connected with you.
• Ideas from the book that you disagree with.
• Ideas from the book that you think are NOT relevant anymore.
• Examples from your life that agree/disagree with the ideas in the book.

Obviously, if you have read the book, even partly, you will be able to participate in the discussion & contribute to it. However, even if you haven’t been able to read the book, you are welcome to join the sessions & learn from the discussions.

The “Live conversation with Prasad Kaipa” event will be held Live on LinkedIn on those scheduled days/times. We will inform you of the links & the login formalities in due course.

Note: There is no registration fee for the event.

The Samvad traces the evolution of the field of Human Development and Family Studies (previously, Child Development) in India discussing overlaps with developmental psychology, and its “received” Euro-American understanding. Anecdotes and personal experiences illustrate how the mind space of academic research and teaching is navigated against a backdrop of rising consciousness about decolonizing psychological knowledge. Using the metaphor of being in an eternal parikramā, the concept of human development in India is then unpackaged using the Indic lens. The talk ends with important questions about cultivating a yātri or a parikramāvāsi mindset, to contemplate on difficult questions facing the world. How can Indic knowledge help create a more sustainable, compassionate global psychology?

All of us are obsessed with performance – we are constantly measured by it before we are born and till we die. the Indian understanding of how to improve performance is different from the WEstern Management Science version. The many 1000 lines of Chola epigraphs clearly show – along with the many customs we still observe today – how the Indian approach is very different in how to reconcile between getting the job done and building a relationship. After working in the space of leadership development and in writing a book on Indian history and Leadership development – “Leadership Shastra” Dr.Pradeep Chakravarthy has a clear approach he does as a 2 day session on how to improve performance using an Indian approach. The samvad will focus on this insight and on learnings from his book Leadership Shastra. 

Today, at various levels of human endeavour, we find a huge leadership deficit which has resulted in 4 E crisis of Ethical,  Environmental,  Emotional and Economic.  We are living in an increasingly VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambigous) world as well as the onset  of Pandemics. 

While the UN-SDGs had been formalised so as to provide solutions to address sustainability,  however, we find that they have not been implemented to their fullest. The urgent need of these times is providing sustainable and holistic solutions that not just factor anthroprocentric well-being but planetary and cosmic rhythms in an integrated fashion. Empowering leaders in Dharmic Frameworks is the missing link to the current scenario.

Dharmic Frameworks nurture leaders and help them build strong foundations  in  Dharmic paradigms.

Dr Mala will delve into what some of these Dharmic Frameworks are and why it is relevant to present times. She will also trace back the frameworks to their Vedic Sources with emphasis on Ayurveda (Upaveda of Atharva Veda). She will throw light on the relevance of Ayurveda to today’s VUCA and Pandemic world. Dr Mala will introduce two important frameworks she has developed from Charak Samhita (one fo the most ancient Ayurvedic texts) – Hitayu and Sukhayu framework and the Janapadodhwansa framework.

That The Upanishads and The Gita contain timeless wisdom that can be (and is being) leveraged for leadership and management is well known.

As “Conscious Leadership” principles are gaining critical importance in the turbulent world we live in, Indic Wisdom would contribute significantly to leadership evolution in the decades ahead!

To this end, this discussion will center around two frameworks introduced by Raj in his first book “Open our Minds: Science of The Gita, Part-1”, (a) SEES and (b) MEDYK.

SEES is Spiritualistic Evolutionary Empirical Science. This framework aims to blend our materialistic and empirical scientific thinking and spiritualistic thinking, rather than focus on the divergence of these constructs. When we make conscious choices professionally and personally, it is our consciousness working in combination with empirical observation. How can we make better choices and decisions at the confluence of the Seer-Seen, making sure that the observer and observed are BOTH considered in decision making? We will discuss some proposals to be able to do this, and how we can bring this into our daily life.

MEDYK is like a “subset” operating under SEES, forming the “how” of SEES, everyday. MEDYK = the daily recommended cycle of “Meditation-Exercise-Diet-Yoga-Karma Yoga.” While this may not sound unique, we need to have the MEDYK take care of us automatically on a daily basis – which, essentially, will help us with Conscious Leadership. It is this trait of MEDYK which will operate uniquely for each of us. As part of this framework we will look at specific recommendations from Sree Krishna in The Gita.

For both frameworks and how they can be foundational for us to live and lead consciously, real-life examples will be shared and discussed.

The session will cover the application of conscious leadership in building cross functional cultures and enabling creative work. Will also explore the links between culture and policy and the need for a new kind of ‘civilisationally assured’ leadership to navigate through this.

The talk will be delivered in three parts:

1. An Overview of Advaita Vedanta; 
2. Characteristics  of a Good Leader;  
3. Q & A

The Pinnacle of Advaita teaching is the Doctrine that “There is no creation; none is ever born (ajAti vAda)”  — 4 Upanishads + 3 Special Treatises declare so in one voice !!!

What then is this “World” perceived by us?

• Perception is self-deception; 
• There is a Perception – Reality Disconnect; 
• Seeing is NOT Believing; 

Just like a dream world with all its paraphernalia disappears when one  wakes up from dream, the awake world too goes when one awakens from the awake world!

The really real ‘Reality’ is one homogeneous, indivisible, boundless, eternal, all-pervading nameless “That” which is Complete within Itself, a mass of Sentience, absolutely lacking nothing, has no hunger and thirst, never born, no decrepitude and that One is what you yourself truly are!

The World is nothing but a Common Consensual Controlled Hallucination. We project it ourselves. It’s not one world and 8 billion of us; it’s One Reality and 8 billion worlds!

We shall do a brief Experiment to ‘feel’ and ‘know’ (smavedana) “That” (also indicated by the pointer word, brahman).

For those who believe that they are born into a pre-existing world, the tradition adopts a compassionate concessionary “Model” in imparting the Non-dual message. The “Model” uses the technique of “Superimposition and Sublation.” That means, the teacher tentatively accepts your idea — this is the first step called deliberate ‘Superimposition’ of a non-existing world. Next, over a series of steps, the superimposed world is rescinded, as the student is able to grok the teaching at each level. This step is called ‘Sublation.’ (13.13, BGB).

As a part of this ‘superimposition’ of a created world, also come a team of great Managers and Leaders who are vested with the “running” of this huge huge enterprise called ‘Creation.’ They are the “Ex-Officio In-charges of Creation” (AdhikArika puruSha-s – see 3.3.32, BSB). One finds the description of the nature and characteristics of such Divine  AdhikArika puruSha-s sprinkled all over our scriptures. The general public loves them and would like to follow in their footsteps as they are incontestably the most ideal and lovable Leaders. They also go by the name of jIvanmukta-s, sthitaprajna-s; kritakritya-s; &C.

They are the ones who abide as that Infinite “brahman.” We shall look into their characteristics and the “desirable” qualities of a Modern Leader as envisaged by some of the leading Institutes like Harvard Business School etc. Some of the notable features are: Equanimity; Impartiality; Free and Fair 2-way Communication; Upliftment of all; Visionary nature;  Purity in Thought, word  and Deed and so on.

We are endowed with two Visions – the Eternal and the mundane. We have to re-engineer ourselves to using the Eternal Vision to be a jIvanmukta. (1.4.10, 3.4.2, 4.3.23, BUB; 116, aparokShAnubhUti).

We will then have a Q & A Session.

14 April 2023, Friday 

Time : 10:30 AM to 12:00 PM EST | 08:00PM to 09:30PM IST

Conscious Leadership is the capacity of being self-aware and acting from an inner presence that enlivens us, others and the context simultaneously. We at CCSIT have co-evolved an experiential journey and a model based on Indic Wisdom for awakening, nurturing and manifesting conscious leadership (Leading with Inner Presence). In this interactive discussion, the panelists will share their experiences as leaders, mentors, coaches and facilitators in unleashing (unfolding) the innate human potential in people