From Rationality to Morality to Spirituality

[Guest guest]

Light and Love

 

 

Below is a wonderful article (in a short form) by William and Debra Miller

about Swami's leading role of spiritual development in the life of Western

professor and some my insights to it.

 

The story of Peter Pruzan , Professor Emeritus from the Copenhagen Business

School – and one of our colleagues in researching and writing about

spiritual-based work – exemplifies that kind of deepening.

 

His career was influenced each step of the way by his personal evolution

“from rationality to morality to spirituality”, as he describes it.

For his retirement celebration from the business school, Peter wrote an essay

about his journey; we found it fascinating to see how his career correlated

with his inner awakening...

 

“I grew up in a middle class, intellectual family in New York, where

logic, facts, rationality were the only acceptable perspectives on reality

– and where “success”, in the forms of economic wealth or

intellectual achievement, was paramount. There was little place for intuition

and metaphysical conjecture – or for joy. And there was certainly no room

for faith based on a religion or in a benevolent Godhead.

 

“ During my graduate studies and my early professional work , I

looked at the world through an optic of hyper-rationality. My expertise in

applying mathematical optimisation techniques to complex decision problems in

business was in great demand. I worked for IBM and the Technical University of

Denmark before starting a highly successful international consulting firm that

worked at the leading edge of theory and application.

 

“When I turned 40 in 1976, I sold my business and returned to

academia. It was in connection with my renewed academic work that I slowly

moved from my “rationality phase” to my “morality

phase”.

 

“ Personal experience and intellectual reflection had led me to

challenge my previous world-views and to evolve a concept of ethics that was a

natural expansion of my work with economic rationality. From the mid-1980s, I

worked at the forefront of emerging fields such as business ethics, social and

ethical accounting, values-based leadership and corporate social

responsibility.

 

“ I achieved international recognition in both of these phases of my

career path. But underway, there was also suffering in my personal life that no

amount of success could compensate for. Perhaps the pain I experienced led to a

softening of my heart, so that I was able to open myself to my spiritual

teacher, Sathya Sai Baba, whom I met in India in 1989.

 

“ I was fascinated by this teacher’s extremely inclusive,

non-sectarian approach to the notion of spirituality and his emphasis on the

notion of loving and serving others as the key devotional practice. I was also

challenged by the focus on our ego as the major barrier to our personal

development.

 

“ This radically altered my aspirations in life , my understanding of

reality and my relationship with myself. And this of course had a significant

feedback to my professional development. All my work as an economist and a

businessman focused on the world around me.

 

“ Almost overnight, this focus was supplemented by a powerful urge to

know myself, and to live in accord with my truth. This “spirituality

phase” has led to my lecturing internationally on spirituality and

business, and to my meeting and marrying my soul-mate, Kirsten.

 

“ Looking back at the path I have travelled so far , my

“quality of life” has undergone a metamorphosis. In my youth,

coping was in focus. Then came structuring and achieving via a powerful, often

cynical focus on my (and others’) rational behaviour. Later on my

rational reflection led to a broader, moral perspective. And since my spiritual

awakening, I have gradually become more aware of who I truly am and of the joy

and peace and love that is our birthright.

 

“ I know from experience that practices such as meditation, prayer,

enjoying the company of like-minded people and actively seeking a meaning in

existence, which transcends my senses and my intellect, will support me on my

path... a path from myself to my-Self, a path from becoming to being, a path

that ends where it begins, at the wellspring of rationality, morality and

spirituality.”

 

Source: http://spirituality.indiatimes.com/articleshow/854135.cms

 

An insight

 

The history tens of millions human beings towards spirituality surely is

connected with Swami and His Teaching. Such role as Swami plays among humanity

of present generation is possible an Avatar, not an ordinary individual. It is

the direct proof of Swami's God's role. However, the God need no proof and

nothing from humanity. He as observes of humans play with divine and demonic

potencies within individuals. Demons in jungle of humans delusive mind are

born as Mirages in desert what disappeared before the face of Divine…

What remains is Atma and enlightenment of human beings by Avatars from past to

today.

 

Namaste - Reet