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SHAPERS OF DESTINY:
Leaders and followers co-create each other
From:
jagbir singh <www.adishakti.org@gmail.com>
Date: Fri Jul 16, 2004 10:08 am
Subject: SHAPERS OF DESTINY: Leaders and followers
co-create each other
—- In shriadishakti@yahoogroups.com, "jagbir singh" <adishakti_org@y...>
wrote:
>
> Dear All,
>
> "The Bhagavad-gita is the famous philosophical discourse
that took
> place between Lord Krishna and the warrior Arjuna, just
before the
> onset of the great Bharata War (c. 3138 BC). Although
widely
> published and read by itself, the Bhagavad-gita originally
appears as
> an episode in the Sixth Book of the Mahabharata (Bhismaparvan,
23-
> 40). In this treatise of 700 verses, Lord Krishna
systematically
> surveys the major Vedic dharmas and shows how each directs
a
> person toward the ultimate conclusion, the "most
confidential of all
> knowledge." He analyzes the performance of sacrifices and
the
> worship of demigods; He discusses the yogas of work,
meditation,
> and knowledge. In each case, Krishna shows how it leads to
the "most
> secret of all secrets." (http://www.avatara.org/krishna/gita.html)
>
> i came across this post below from another SY and feel
that it must
> be adopted as the foundation for spreading Sahaja Yoga.
Perhaps the
> World Council can take a cue from its assured formula for
success,
> given the fact that comes from Shri Krishna himself and is
not liable
> to be criticized.
>
> Shri Mataji told years ago that North America needs 16,000
SYs
> before Sahaja Yoga can spread. We are still far short of
this target
> and the four-digit barrier is yet to be breached despite
years of
> sustained effort and financial input. Maybe we missed
something
> that truthfully is the "most secret of all secrets."
>
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/adishakti_sahaja_yoga/message/2161
>
i have found another formula for success titled, "Shapers of
Destiny", that our leaders would benefit.
As far as i am concerned Deepak Chopra is a great
intellectual who has done much to promote Yoga in the West.
Unlike false gurus like Sri Chinmoy and others, he has never
claimed to be even remotely divine or abused anyone.
Deepak Chopra has legions of admirers
...................... admirers of his
simplification and clarity of very complex spiritual issues.
i have taken a few quotes worth mentioning:
"Gyana. Knowledge about God
is of two kinds, direct and indirect. Indirectly we can
read scriptures, listen to sermons, consult authorities,
and from these sources build a reasonable case that God
exists. But such a God transmits no love to Earth.
Therefore nothing substitutes for gyana, which is direct
knowledge of the divine. Instead of having thoughts
about God, you share God's own thoughts. Her thoughts
can only be about Herself. This isn't cosmic
self-centeredness, however. It confirms the fact that
spiritual knowledge is essential; truth; trust;
devotion, and love are inside our thoughts. Gyana is the
mind in communion with spirit."
Deepak Chopra, The Path of Love, Random House,
1977, p. 241-42.
"Shakti can totally transform, melting away features
of our inner landscape and creating new ones in their
place. Yogis report tingling energy running up the spine
in meditation (its esoteric name is Kundalini, one
of the thousand names of the divine mother.) The presence
of this energy gives direct knowledge of God, perception
of other worlds, and ecstatic fusion with the divine."
Deepak Chopra, The Path of Love, Random House,
1977, p. 2
"Ananda is considered the
first quality of God to manifest in creation out of
primordial silence. Her bliss, love, and peace are the
subtlest and yet the most powerful of Shakti's creative
powers. Grasping this fact is a tremendous spiritual
insight. Ananda gives the solution to all suffering, for
instead of having to struggle against pain, any person can
go within and find a level of awareness that suffering
cannot reach. Ananda is the untroubled face of God. When
you realize this aspect of spirit in yourself,
unconditional love comes as natural as breathing."
Deepak Chopra, The Path of Love, Random House,
1977, p. 241
i think many SYs will find Deepak Chopra's comprehension
of the Divine to be what we know about Her, and meditate
within daily. Maybe we will also gain from his
simplification of leadership qualities in his "Shapers of
Destiny".
jagbir
SHAPERS OF DESTINY
Deepak Chopra
Illustration: Peter Till
Leaders and followers
co-create each other.
LEADERSHIP IS A mysterious and
elusive concept. What we read as history is really the
creation of myths. From an ordinary person, society creates
a Napoleon, Gandhi, Martin Luther King or Joan of Arc,
someone who acquires mythic status as a shaper of destiny.
We know the first steps of how this transformation occurs.
Every group naturally gives rise to leaders who guide their
followers to a shared goal. Yet some leaders fail while
others succeed. Some are destroyed by a flawed strategy or
by the overwhelming stress of their role. And when crisis
arises, calling for great leaders, there is a constant
threat that such a figure will not appear, leaving the
infamous 'leadership vacuum' that has become a chronic
problem in modern society... .
Let me outline the fundamental
principles involved:
- Leaders and followers co-create
each other. They form an invisible spiritual bond. Leaders
exist to embody the values that followers hunger for,
while followers exist to fuel the leader's vision from
inside themselves.
- A leader is the symbolic soul of
the group. The soul is an archetypal expression of who we
are. Everything dynamic about us comes from this deeper
level of spirit. Because individuals grow from the inside
out, so do groups. Sometimes a group needs a parent or
protector, at other times a ruler, muse, or visionary. The
leader operates from the soul level to cause these shifts,
which then get expressed on the surface as success.
- The outcome of any situation is
defined in advance by the vision that goes into solving
it. Therefore inner qualities determine all results.
- The responses shared by both
leader and follower are fight, flight, ego, inner
direction, intuition, creativity, higher guidance, and
unity. A mixture of these responses is arising in our
brains every day. One or more responses go into every
situation and therefore must be known by the leader.
- Just as there is a rising
hierarchy of responses built into us, there is a rising
hierarchy of needs that the leader must understand. These
are the needs for survival, safety, achievement,
belonging, expression, self-esteem, freedom, love, and
spiritual worth. All are inner needs that have evolved
over time in the life of societies.
- For every need, the right
response can be found. This match is not made randomly -
the soul knows how to fulfil any need with the least
effort and struggle. A leader who can tap directly into
this knowledge gains tremendous power, far more than
someone who concentrates on external goals and rewards.
- The leader who understands the
hierarchies of need and response will succeed; the leader
who aims for external goals (money, victory, power) will
falter in the area that counts most: fulfilling the lives
of his or her followers.
- Great leaders are those who can
respond from the higher levels of spirit. They understand
that their followers yearn for freedom, love, and
spiritual worth. Therefore they respond with creativity,
vision, and a sense of unity. But no-one begins at the
top. A lower need like the need to feel safe must be
understood first. The problem at hand can be as trivial as
winning a baseball game or as profound as leading a
society out of crisis. By climbing the hierarchy of need,
any group can be made to feel inspired and unified. Great
leaders are in touch with every level of human experience.
- Leaders give of themselves by
their willingness not to hide from any response as it is
needed. The leader is also 'Everyman'. It is just as
important to say "I am afraid" as to say "I am strong."
Leaders who protect themselves emotionally, who limit
their responses to only a few, or who cling to ego, wind
up being destroyed. Their success in material terms will
be devoid of inner worth. Present models, which focus on
ego, drive and external reward, miss how selfless an
effective leader must be.
- No matter how complex and
confusing a situation looks, leadership is possible from
one simple attitude: being comfortable with disorder.
Leaders thrive on disorder once they see the hidden
spiritual order that lies beneath. This is the central
idea.
THERE IS ALWAYS a jumble of needs
and responses that must be sorted out. Otherwise, groups
will be crippled in turmoil. Fear and survival, competition
and creativity, vision and love make their own demands. They
each have a voice, whether we hear them or not. Yet
underneath there is only one voice, the silent whisper of
spirit, which understands everything.
Although leadership looks immensely
complex, the essentials can be grasped by looking at the
following easily learned acronym.
L - Look and listen. Do this
with your senses, being an unbiased observer who has not
judged anything in advance, then with your heart, obeying
your truest feelings, and finally with your soul, responding
with vision and creativity.
E - Empowerment. This comes
from self-referral, which is responsive to feedback but
independent of the good or bad opinion of others. It is
process-oriented rather than outcome-oriented. It raises the
status of leader and follower together.
A - Awareness. This means
being aware of the questions that underlie every challenge:
Who am I? What do I want? What is my life purpose? Leaders
must ask these questions of themselves and inspire their
followers to ask the same questions for themselves.
D - Doing. This covers being
action-oriented as a role model, being responsible for the
promises one has made, being persistent, but also having the
ability to celebrate and view any situation with flexibility
and humour.
E - Empathy. The leader goes
beyond melodrama and crisis reaction, getting rid of
emotional toxicity to understand the deeper needs of the
followers; cutting through fear, depression, and the noxious
residues of competitiveness.
R - Responsibility. This
means showing initiative, taking mature risks rather than
reckless ones, walking the talk, having integrity, and
living up to your inner values.
S - Synchronicity. This is a
mysterious ingredient from the unconscious that all great
leaders harness. Synchronicity is the ability to create good
luck and find reserves of power to carry a leader beyond
predicted outcomes to a higher plane. Synchronicity is the
ultimate ability to connect with the needs of the soul.
This is the mental template that a
leader uses. All models of leadership give the same general
advice to look and listen, for example, but now the reader
has learnt that L-E-A-D-E-R-S means something different at
every level. Flexibility is everything. As new needs reveal
themselves, there is a new level of looking and listening.
Immediately the rest of the acronym also shifts, leading to
new action and a higher level of responsibility.
Leaders and followers co-create
each other.
http://resurgence.gn.apc.org/issues/chopra225.htm
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