Many a friend has asked me about my regular visits to the US and about the teaching I do here. One oft repeated question has been, ‘What are the major similarities & differences that you see between the two countries? ‘ And knowing my background, another question usually asked is about my continued commitment to the causes I espouse back home in India and how it relates to my visiting the US?
India, as Swami Vivekananda put it is the Punyabhumi (holy land) and the Karmabhumi (land of one’s work) for me. The last 35 years has seen me live and work amidst the most challenging circumstances in the area abutting the Bandipur Tiger Reserve; spend the last few years in Mysuru engaging in Leadership training and Policy Research; and teach & train on Leadership around the world including the USA. It has seen me found two non-profits and one of them has grown to be one of India’s largest and well-known development organizations and the other is creating its own name in the area of participatory research & citizen centric policy advocacy. India has not just been home to me and has laid the foundation for my way of thinking but has given me the very purpose for my existence. To me India, or if I were to relate emotionally, ‘Bharat’ – is a land rich in civilizational history. It has taught me to be a Hindu in its truest interpretation – someone who lives embracing the whole world as one and constantly tries to see God in everything and everyone. It is this spirit of Hinduism that has given me the understanding of not just tolerance but that of universal acceptance – of religions, ideas, ideologies and countries – with all their differences and similarities. It is the Indian thought and ethos that has given me the ability to see ‘separateness in togetherness’ & ‘togetherness in separateness’. It is these thoughts that help me not just embrace Global citizenship but continually give me the energy to live and spread the message of ‘Vasudaiva Kutumbakam’ (the world is one family). Growing up in a typical Indian middle-class family gave me the values that helps me be flexible but yet grounded. It has taught me to be resilient in moments of distress & crisis while not rejoicing or getting overwhelmed with emotion when things go one’s way. The spirit of collectivism which is embedded in the National identity has helped shape my character and served as the foundation of my organizational work. And my source of strength comes from one of India’s greatest sons – Swami Vivekananda, but for whose life and message, mine would have not been worth living. It is from his message that I draw inspiration for all that I have done and continue to do. Whether it was the journey of finding myself in the service of others, in the idea of my building organizations or my economic thought, my social change theories or my views on human development – they all are expressions of this message of Swami Vivekananda. It is his message of reciprocity & interdependence that led me to explore what India has to offer to the world and what India could also receive from the World. This is what has led me to some of the things I am doing today – whether it is crafting leadership training and curriculum driven by the message of the Gita or our Upanishads; teaching in Ivy leagues or training Corporate leaders from around the world. For it is my belief that the world can be made into a better place only by extraordinary people who take it on themselves to exercise the kind of leadership that goes beyond the SELF and is willing not just to focus on ‘external nature’ but also look inwards into our own ‘internal nature’.
It is this conviction that is now driving me to visit several countries and the most visited is the United States. I find that the USA is still a country where we can find several similarities in terms of what India stands for and is challenged by in today’s current reality. Whether it is the spirit of democratic governance or that of ‘voice’ and its expression; the constant search for meaning amidst the rush for material comforts; or the struggle for balancing human development and the state of the environment…we have a lot to give and learn from each other. Swami Vivekananda always maintained that we need to learn practical everyday management from the West while giving them our Vedantic knowledge. While much of this continues to be true even today, I feel that we have a lot to offer in terms of leadership knowledge while at the same time looking for what we can learn from here. Though I have been coming here for more than 3 decades, I have never stopped being fascinated by the ‘eye for detail’ that people have when they are executing projects. Whether it is elaborate planning, meticulous execution or timely evaluation – I have been impressed by how and why they do all this. Though people here are trained to be self-led individuals, one cannot but be impressed by the spirit of community action that pervades. Whether it is the number of non-profits or the philanthropy that ordinary people indulge in or participating in several civic events voluntarily, or the love & warmth that generally pervades – we do have a lot to learn from all this. Whether it is dignity of labour, or the spirit of enterprise or the quest for perfection and the levels of trust in society, the way natural beauty & resources are preserved and conserved – it is up to us to pick what we want to learn from.
While every country and civilization have its own share of ‘historical & ideological garbage’ and problems, it is up to us to focus on the positive and explore what mutual learnings each one has to bring to the table. It is always easy to criticize and blame, explain away why the ‘other’ is different and should not exist; why everyone needs to be & think like ‘us’ to make things better – but finally we need to remember that we need to find ways to bring people together, not discover means to separate them every day and in everything that we do. Global citizenship can no longer by the cliché that it has now come to become; it has to be a way of life. And my conviction is that there are two countries that can make this happen – India and the USA – working together and crafting the narrative for this globally. It is when people & leaders from these two countries learn to see beyond their differences and come together with the common purpose of making lives better – not just for their citizens but for everyone on this planet – can we hope to find peace & harmony, make development sustainable, reduce inequality & make poverty obsolete and create all that is good & wonderful for all of us.
-Balu
