Effective leadership traits from Bhagavad Gita
01 Jan 2018-International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management (Inderscience Publishers (IEL))-Vol. 16, Iss: 1, pp 1-18
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe attributes and activities of an effective leader as prescribed in Bhagavad Gita, employing the methodology of hermeneutics to do so.
Abstract: Bhagavad Gita, according to the Indian philosopher Adi Sankaracharya is a summary of all the Vedic Literatures1. Divided into 18 chapters, this Indian scripture deciphers five major branches of knowledge: Isvara (the Supreme God), Jiva (the spirit soul/the living entity), Prakriti (the material nature), Kala (the time), and Karma (the activities) in seven hundred verses. Many important traits of an effective leader emerge from various chapters of this text. The objective of this paper is to describe the attributes and activities of an effective leader as prescribed in Bhagavad Gita. The paper employs the methodology of hermeneutics to do so.
Citations
More filters
TL;DR: The results show that although the style and vocabulary in the respective Bhagavad Gita translations vary widely, the sentiment analysis and semantic similarity shows that the message conveyed are mostly similar across the translations.
Abstract: It is well known that translations of songs and poems not only breaks rhythm and rhyming patterns, but also results in loss of semantic information. The Bhagavad Gita is an ancient Hindu philosophical text originally written in Sanskrit that features a conversation between Lord Krishna and Arjuna prior to the Mahabharata war. The Bhagavad Gita is also one of the key sacred texts in Hinduism and known as the forefront of the Vedic corpus of Hinduism. In the last two centuries, there has been a lot of interest in Hindu philosophy by western scholars and hence the Bhagavad Gita has been translated in a number of languages. However, there is not much work that validates the quality of the English translations. Recent progress of language models powered by deep learning has enabled not only translations but better understanding of language and texts with semantic and sentiment analysis. Our work is motivated by the recent progress of language models powered by deep learning methods. In this paper, we compare selected translations (mostly from Sanskrit to English) of the Bhagavad Gita using semantic and sentiment analyses. We use hand-labelled sentiment dataset for tuning state-of-art deep learning-based language model known as bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT). We use novel sentence embedding models to provide semantic analysis for selected chapters and verses across translations. Finally, we use the aforementioned models for sentiment and semantic analyses and provide visualisation of results. Our results show that although the style and vocabulary in the respective Bhagavad Gita translations vary widely, the sentiment analysis and semantic similarity shows that the message conveyed are mostly similar across the translations.
9 citations
01 Jan 2017
TL;DR: In this article, the authors compare and contrast the theory of EI against the concept of emotions as discussed in the Bhagavad-Gita and explore the possibilities of finding specific methods through which a person's emotional competencies can be enhanced by incorporating the ideals of Sri Krishna.
Abstract: “Yam hi na vyathayanthyethe purusham purusharshabha; Samadhukha sukham dheeram somruthathvaya kalpathe” [In Sanskrit] This analytic sloka from the Bhagavad-Gita (Chapter II, Verse 15) sums up the entire concept of Emotional Intelligence (EI) It says: a person who is calm and remains unperturbed by either pain or pleasure is the one who attains immortality The theory of EI which has been popularized by Goleman can be traced down to David Wechsler, who, as early as in 1940 said that intelligence does not denote just the cognitive abilities of a person but the non-cognitive abilities as well This idea was again put forward by Howard Gardner in 1983 when he brought forth the multiple intelligence theory and said that intrapersonal and interpersonal skills are as important as the traditional concept of intelligence which focused on the cognitive skills alone In 1990, Mayer and Salovey introduced the concept of Emotional Intelligence as a distinct form of intelligence which can be measured and evaluated This paper analyses the possibility of developing the theory of EI into a more comprehensive one It compares and contrasts the theory of EI against the concept of emotions as discussed in the Bhagavad-Gita and explores the possibilities of finding specific methods through which a person’s emotional competencies can be enhanced by incorporating the ideals of Sri Krishna as discussed in the Bhagavad-Gita
7 citations
TL;DR: This paper uses advanced language models such as BERT to provide topic modelling of the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita and finds that topics generated by the BERT-based models show very high coherence when compared to the conventional models.
Abstract: The Upanishads are known as one of the oldest philosophical texts in the world that form the foundation of Hindu philosophy. The Bhagavad Gita is the core text of Hindu philosophy and is known as a text that summarises the key philosophies of the Upanishads with a major focus on the philosophy of karma. These texts have been translated into many languages and there exist studies about themes and topics that are prominent; however, there is not much done using language models which are powered by deep learning. In this paper, we use advanced language models such as BERT to provide topic modelling of the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. We then map those topics of the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads since it is well known that Bhagavad Gita summarizes the key messages in the Upanishads. We also analyse the distinct and overlapping topics amongst the texts and visualise the link of selected texts of the Upanishads with the Bhagavad Gita. Our results show very high similarity between the topics of these two texts with the mean cosine similarity of 73%. We find that out of the fourteen topics extracted from the Bhagavad Gita, nine of them have a cosine similarity of more than 70% with the topics of the Upanishads. We also find that topics generated by the BERT-based models show very high coherence when compared to the conventional models. Our best-performing model gives a coherence score of 73% on the Bhagavad Gita and 69% on the Upanishads. The visualization of the low-dimensional embeddings of these texts shows very clear overlapping themes among their topics adding another level of validation to our results.
2 citations
31 Aug 2021
1 citations
TL;DR: In this article , a qualitative approach with thematic analysis is used to identify leadership qualities pertinent in difficult times through interviews with 15 employees at leadership positions and establish the alignment of the qualities with the sapient advice from the Holy Scripture.
Abstract: PurposeLeaders today are continuously seeking models to navigate through the challenges posed by the pandemic times, so as to help the organizations flourish in the volatile business environment. This paper attempts to explore the alignment of insights drawn from the ancient Indian scripture, the Bhagavad Gita, with today’s leadership requirements, towards the betterment of both the leaders and organizations.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative approach with thematic analysis is used to identify leadership qualities pertinent in difficult times through interviews with 15 employees at leadership positions. It establishes the alignment of the qualities with the sapient advice from the Holy Scripture, maneuvered by today’s leaders to become more purposeful and impactful.FindingsThe discernments from the Bhagavad Gita holistically entwine the emotional, intellectual and spiritual aspects of resilient leaders and provide guidance on the leaders’ attitude towards work, behaviour and self management, to help steer through the challenging environment. With turbulent changes during the COVID-19 pandemic, conventional leadership skills would be outmoded, and hence the leaders need to strengthen the critical shifts in their own established sets of attitudes as well as that of their workforce.Originality/valueUnder the changing work environment, while the new leadership narrative of the world beyond takes shape, this study delves both into ancient Indian wisdom and current opinion to identify a template of workable practices that would differentiate extraordinary leaders from the rest.
References
More filters
Book•
01 Jan 1959
TL;DR: For instance, in the case of an individual in the presence of others, it can be seen as a form of involuntary expressive behavior as discussed by the authors, where the individual will have to act so that he intentionally or unintentionally expresses himself, and the others will in turn have to be impressed in some way by him.
Abstract: hen an individual enters the presence of oth ers, they commonly seek to acquire information about him or to bring into play information about him already possessed. They will be interested in his general socio-economic status, his concep tion of self, his attitude toward them, his compe tence, his trustworthiness, etc. Although some of this information seems to be sought almost as an end in itself, there are usually quite practical reasons for acquiring it. Information about the individual helps to define the situation, enabling others to know in advance what he will expect of them and what they may expect of him. Informed in these ways, the others will know how best to act in order to call forth a desired response from him. For those present, many sources of information become accessible and many carriers (or “signvehicles”) become available for conveying this information. If unacquainted with the individual, observers can glean clues from his conduct and appearance which allow them to apply their previ ous experience with individuals roughly similar to the one before them or, more important, to apply untested stereotypes to him. They can also assume from past experience that only individuals of a par ticular kind are likely to be found in a given social setting. They can rely on what the individual says about himself or on documentary evidence he provides as to who and what he is. If they know, or know of, the individual by virtue of experience prior to the interaction, they can rely on assumptions as to the persistence and generality of psychological traits as a means of predicting his present and future behavior. However, during the period in which the indi vidual is in the immediate presence of the others, few events may occur which directly provide the others with the conclusive information they will need if they are to direct wisely their own activity . Many crucial facts lie beyond the time and place of interaction or lie concealed within it. For example, the “true” or “real” attitudes, beliefs, and emotions of the individual can be ascertained only indirectly , through his avowals or through what appears to be involuntary expressive behavior. Similarly , if the individual offers the others a product or service, they will often find that during the interaction there will be no time and place immediately available for eating the pudding that the proof can be found in. They will be forced to accept some events as con ventional or natural signs of something not directly available to the senses. In Ichheiser ’s terms, 1 the individual will have to act so that he intentionally or unintentionally expresses himself, and the others will in turn have to be impressed in some way by him.…
33,615 citations
"Effective leadership traits from Bh..." refers background in this paper
...Character ethics tries to build a person from within and minimises the gap between front stage and back stage (within and without) (Goffman, 1959; Gardner and Avolio, 1998)....
[...]
Book•
01 Jan 1977
TL;DR: A classic work on leadership for business men and women, government leaders and all persons in positions of authority is as discussed by the authors, where the authors present a set of guidelines for men, women, and government leaders.
Abstract: A classic work on leadership for business men and women, government leaders and all persons in positions of authority.
3,476 citations
Additional excerpts
...Greenleaf (1977), for instance, a couple of decades back, introduced the concept of ‘servant leader’, that is, a leader who is a servant first and gives top priority to serve his/her employees, customers and community (Greenleaf, et. al., 2003)....
[...]
TL;DR: The importance of ethical behavior to an organization has never been more apparent, and in recent years researchers have generated a great deal of knowledge about the management of individual ethical behavior in organizations.
1,405 citations
"Effective leadership traits from Bh..." refers background in this paper
...However, emphasis on prescription which Mayer (2011) calls ‘prosocial behaviour’ and Treviño et al. (2006) call ‘positive behaviours’ is necessary to broaden the domain of behavioural ethics....
[...]
TL;DR: There is a sense in which interpretation is essential to explanation in the sciences of man as discussed by the authors and the view that it is, that there is an unavoidably "hermeneutical" component in the science of man, goes back to Dilthey.
Abstract: Is there a sense in which interpretation is essential to explanation in the sciences of man? The view that it is, that there is an unavoidably “hermeneutical” component in the sciences of man, goes back to Dilthey. But recently the question has come again to the fore, for instance, in the work of Gadamer,1 in Ricoeur’s interpretation of Freud,2 and in the writings of Habermas.3
1,236 citations
TL;DR: At its best (in my opinion mainly the first four chapters), it provides a broad overview of humanities computing and literature in that field and at its worst, it threatens to prove that a reader does not necessarily need electronic texts to get lost in his/her quest for relevant information.
Abstract: methodologies, advances and insights in the different research areas that are discussed. However, some critical notes can be made about the organization of the materials. Of course, each of the subjects addressed fills whole bookshelves of monographs (and many of those are mentioned and listed in the bibliography). Yet, the limited space in some places downgrades the abundant amount of research reviews to a shallowly annotated list of references (for example, chapter 5 mentions about thirty studies in only eighteen pages). The lack of graphical materials (actually, chapter 4 is the only one containing figures, in the form of tables) is sometimes annoying, especially in descriptions of electronic products and their interfaces. Also, the combination of a loose structure and interdisciplinary approach is not always successful. Often Hockey hooks her narrative to methodological pegs, other times the reader has to notice a transition to a more thematic organization. This also causes some methodological-theoretical issues, like for example corpus design, to reappear in different places throughout the book, whereas it would perhaps be more suitable to treat them in a less fragmented manner. The boundaries between the different research areas in the chapters are not always very clear either. Some topics in the fifth chapter on literary analysis (echoed phrases, genre, gender analysis) and the sixth chapter on linguistic analysis (analysis of lexical features to characterize textual styles) seem to overlap with the seventh chapter on stylometry and attribution studies (in which only the latter subject is highlighted, however). This may result from an imbalance in assumed background knowledge about the techn(olog)ical aspects of electronic texts on the one hand, and the different research areas that make use of them on the other hand. Sometimes the narrative prevails over clear structuring of and motivation for the items covered. Hockey very rigidly introduces the technological concepts in a very comprehensible manner, yet neglects to introduce the chapters discussing their application in the different research fields with a clear theoretical definition of those fields. This leads me to a (maybe provoking, but hopefully balanced) conclusion about the book. At its best (in my opinion mainly the first four chapters), it provides a broad overview of humanities computing and literature in that field. At its worst (chapters 5 to 9), it threatens to prove that a reader does not necessarily need electronic texts to get lost in his/her quest for relevant information.
1,042 citations