Ten Key Management Messages from the Bhagavad Gita

Abstract

Going over the background of the creation of Bhagavad Gita and how adroitly it covers the most important aspects of the contemporary organizational work such as knowledge (gyana), duty (kartavya), karma, dhyana (meditation), and yoga, this chapter gives ten major messages of the Gita that the managers of contemporary organizations could use to bring a new, more humane, more effective, and productive style and practice of management. These messages focus on karma, leadership, knowledge, conquering mind, how to succeed, no extrinsic controls, human gunas (personalities), looking for opportunities, not be looking for work to be assigned, and the one aggregate message. For each message, the key verse or verses have been included in the original with their interpretations and emphasis on the practice of the message in real world organizations. Many copies of the Bhagavad Gita and interpretations of many very learned scholars of Sanskrit, Indian philosophy and the Bhagavad Gita have been scanned to bring them to you in this chapter. It is an integration of what is so charming in the Bhagavad Gita.

In quoting, transliterating, translating and understanding the Bhagavad Gita, as any reader will notice when going through this chapter that of all the immensely rich literature on the Bhagavad Gita available openly and widely, the author is mostly citing two sources. The first one of these is The Holy Bhagavad Gita (https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/) from which the author primarily quotes Swami Mukundananda. The second most quoted source is the Srimad Bhagavad Gita (https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/) from the Gita Supersite, developed and maintained by the Indian Institute of Technology—Kanpur, India. From the second source, he is mostly quoting the translations by Swami Sivananda.