VEDANTA: Spirituality for Leadership and Success By Pranay | Book Review

It is a common perception that spirituality is all about religious stuff and is mainly associated with the after-life events.

It has a very broad canvas, however, and is applicable to many aspects of life (if not all), including Leadership.

Listen To The Podcast:

If you love to listen to the book review over reading, or if you want to go through it while doing other activity, here is our Podcast of this review article. Do listen, and share your thoughts with us.

Spotify:

YouTube:

We know that every team, every family, every group – need a leader. Actually, you might be playing role of a leader in some aspects of your professional life, at any level.

Recently we got a chance to explore books by Pranay in which he talks about various Bharatiya (that is Indian) scriptures and its application in modern world. Especially, in the Spirituality for Leadership and Success area.

We found the concept interesting and with the hope that these book enlighten some of the interesting aspects of ancient Indian literature, we have started reading books from this series.

Here are quick links to his books in the same series we’ve reviewed so far.

• Hinduism: Spirituality for Leadership and Success
• GITA: Spirituality for Leadership and Success By Pranay
• BUDDHA: Spirituality for Leadership and Success By Pranay

Today we will share our views and reviews for VEDANTA: Spirituality for Leadership and Success .

Book Cover:

Of course, we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. But, the cover page is responsible for the first impression of the book. It also helps the book to stand out while put in display along with many other items. Without a doubt, an attractive cover page attracts potential readers towards it.

Let us take a look at the cover page of this book.

As you can see, the white background reflects the soothingness and purity and remains faithful to the book topic and genre. The golden color used for the title “VEDANTA” reflects the wealthy treasure of knowledge the “Vedanta” holds. The thin fonts used for the tagline complements the same.

Seeing the most powerful and meaning letter “ॐ” in pure white color, in the center of a pink flower represents spirituality. It is aid that the sound of “ॐ” travels in sync with the universe as it is the sound of creation (the big bang). And, thus it is considered as sacred and is used in all the spiritual/dharmik rituals and acts. As per the belief of Bharatiya civilization, the God of creation – Brahma – sits on a lotus. And, the flower on the cover page reflects the same.

So, overall, the cover page of this book is not only attractive and appealing, it hold deep meaning as well. Kudos to the cover design team.

The Book And My Views For The Same:

Usually, we talk about a book in two separate segment dedicated to the book content and our views and reviews distinctively. The nature of this book is quite different. So let us merge both these segments here.

When you are responsible for the management and well being of your team (it could be family, classroom, boardroom, sports team, society, humanity,…), you have to be very careful. You cannot take decisions in haste, as they are going to affect many lives. So, you have be calm and composed, analyse the situation properly and then decide the course of action. Right?

The book, thus starts with a quote from योग वशिष्ठ.

“O Ram, when the mind is calm it is free!”
-Yoga Vasishtha

A perfect start for a book that explores leadership lessons from – Vedanta.

On the 5^th page of the book, the author summarizes the theme of the book in simple lines.

It contains the most essential principles for life, leadership, and success. This book distils the essence of Vedanta for positive leadership and truly successful living.

The actual content of the book starts with “Adi Shankaracharya”. He was a legend who travelled the Bharatvarsh on feet, to spread the spiritual and wisdom lessons of our ancient literature and re-establish, the Sanatan Dharma. The good thing is the author has referred him properly as “Adi Shankaracharya”. Shankaracharya was no-doubt a fantastic and capable leader. In a very small life, he made an impact that most people may not make by living almost a century.

And, if you think that Vedanta, considering it religious literature, may be conveying rigid stuff, you will be wrong. The ancient Bharatiya (that is Indian) literature is about progressive stuff and evolution. The author quotes:

Evolution in the way we view ourselves is key to how we act within the world.

And like in other books by Pranay in this series, he refers many contemporary and comparatively modern characters from around the world, in this book as well.

In the modern age, great scientists such as Dr. George Sudarshan (who’s been nominated so many times for the Nobel Prize in physics) are also saying that the Upanishads and Vedas have told us about the singularity of life as a product of a mysterious higher consciousness-energy. This singularity of unlimited consciousness-energy is what all things are, but we human beings often mistake…

The author infused some fantastic lines in the book that are worth quoting.Eg:.

Our most limiting factor in life is psychological fear.

A great leader must be an insightful leader.

Successful leaders and successful people in general know the art of co-operation.

The secret of leadership energy is feeling youthful in spirit.

Our ego is constantly shaped by the opinions of others.

A leader has to consider his team as a special entity in his life (at that point in time, of course). Without having a strong relationship with the team, it is tough to lead it. Because, ultimately a team is a set of people working together as an entity achieve a common goal or perform a common task. The author rightly says:

Great leaders make teamwork into a feeling of fellowship, of belonging together for a common cause.

A leader has to be confident, but you cannot fake confidence. Especially, in front of intelligent team members.

Often, people have a very artificial or cultivated confidence. They try to impose self-importance from the outside.

So, what is the way? Well, you need to have sufficient knowledge about the topic, and has tremendous analytical power to analyse the situation and decide the course ahead. Remember, “सा विद्या या विमुक्तये” is something, a leader must not forget.
And that leads to another important quality a leader must have.

The mind of the leader needs to be clear (sahaj) and unclouded (nishkalank).

The author also refers the current lifestyle:

The key problem with man is that we want everything in a hurry, we want great things instantaneously.

I like that there is a chapter dedicated to “Courage during Crisis”. And he refers the tales of Ram and Krishna through an analytical perspective.

The Vedantic parable of Ram and the story of Krishna remind us that even the greatest personalities made several decisions during crises that we can easily question. Yet eventually, victory was with them, and with those who listened to them.

According to me, the most important advice one can learn from the book is:

No Need to Be Faultless!

As often fear of making a mistake prevents people from tying.

I also like the following conversation in the book.

Why do misunderstandings happen between people? They happen mostly because people are constantly looking for perfection in the other person’s situation, not realizing that this very obsession creates misunderstanding.

The author summarizes his thoughts as:

The entire goal of Vedanta and core Hindu spirituality is to make human beings feel unbounded and infinite.

The above mentioned quotes must have given you a fair idea about the content of the book and its quality. To me, it is a book worth reading.

Summary:

A nice and enriching book that talks about spirituality and modern day management. Such books are not meant for time pass reading. You need to run a cycle to re-read and implement the thoughts in actions, to get the most of it. If you plan to do so, go for this book.

ThinkerViews Rating:

Around 7.5 stars out of 10.

Quick Purchase Links:

• Buy - VEDANTA: Spirituality for Leadership and Success by Pranay - Paperback - Amazon IN
• Buy - VEDANTA: Spirituality for Leadership and Success by Pranay - Paperback - Amazon US

Over To You:

If you already have read the book do share your remarks and thoughts via comments below. Does this review help you in making your decision to buy or read the book? Do not forget to share this article with your friends over various social networks via Twitter, Facebook and others. And yes, you may like to subscribe to our RSS feeds and follow us on various Social networks to get latest updates for the site to land right in your mail box.