Enlightenment Model for Overcoming Stress and Enhancing Managerial Efficiency

Sandeep Singh, Reader, School of Management Siences, Varanasi

Rishi Raman Singh, Lecturer, School of Management Sciences, Varanasi

ABSTRACT

Stress has become a prevalent phenomenon in the corporate world. The long working hours, target pressures, competition, and many other factors are bringing stress into the lives of the people who are associated with business. Different individuals have different capacities and capabilities to cope up with stress. India has a very rich literature and methodologies from the ancient times for stress management for all the individuals and is completely based on self management. This research paper presents an ancient Indian enlightenment model for overcoming stress and thereby enhancing the managerial efficiency.

Introduction

Stress is a common phenomenon in today’s competitive corporate world. It is affecting corporate people at physical, emotional, and mental level. In some cases stress is even causing deaths. Earlier work-related casualties were limited to only few professionals like truck drivers who used to suffer lot of stress both mental and physical because of long and irregular working hours including nights. But today we find this phenomenon in corporate world with both blue-collar as well as white-collar category being the sufferer irrespective of whether the business belongs to manufacturing sector or service sector.

There is an old story about a man anda horse. The horse isgalloping quickly, and it appears that the manon the horse is going somewhere important.Another man standing alongside the road shouts,“Where are you going?” The first man replies:“I don’t know! Ask the horse!” This story depictsthe situation of many present-day people inbusiness. The horse is the force of the corporate culture pulling us along through a busy day.Individuals in business are caught up in thepressures of daily schedules, business meetings, ordeadlines to meet, with hardly a moment ofrespite. They are often in turmoil and at warwithin themselves, and they can easily start a warwith others. This put them in a condition of stress which severely affects their managerial efficiency also.

In various cases people of the business community are facing an increasing loss of meaning.

The loss of meaning is characterized by four qualities: lack of meaning, workaholic, hubris, depression and the loss of one’s very humanity. Since the four qualities are interrelated, they can also be understood as four phases of the loss of meaning.

In Phase 1 theworld of work, just like private and public life, becomes more and more invaded by a suffering from meaninglessness that leads to an incapacity to integrate work into a meaningful life project. In Phase 2 the void in meaning is filled with activity, or the pursuit of consumer goods, possessions, or success. For many people companies have become surrogate suppliers of meaning by totalizing their lives, absorbing their desires, and dominating their imagination. They can be called as “workaholics”. Their companies have become pseudo gods. Like idols they become an object of religious devotion, consuming all their energies. Phase 3 is characterized by a lack of capacity to interpret business life as a meaningful context for a process of humanization; business life ends up in a cul-de-sac that is near to existential death – a form of self-destruction through non-sense. Postmodern men and women are comparable with Icarus. After a period of hubris they fall back to earth and are no longer capable of reappropriating their human condition. They have lost the keys to understanding and reinterpreting life. They can give no more meaning to their lives. They live and work in a world without significance. The last phase is closely related to Phase 3. Depression becomes especially manifest in the experience of massive lay-offs. The victims fall into a deep emptiness and depression because they have nothing else to rely on, survivors lose their faith and trust in the company and become cynical or motivated only by the desire to survive.

Sontoku was the famous Japanese sage. He believed that Karmabhoomi (the place of work) should be the place to find moksha (salvation or enlightenment). But in modern times in the corporate world opposite is happening. Instead of getting salvation or enlightenment people are not only getting robbed of their meaning of life but in extreme cases the work is becoming responsible for their untimely death leaving behind perils for the family members and other dear ones. If an antelope is chased by a predator, it runs at full speed in complete panic until exhausted, and in some cases its heart may actually burst from the combination of physical effort and fear. In business world many employees are behaving like antelopes suffering stress because of extra efforts or fear which only they can understand.

Modern professionals, especially workaholics,face four kinds of stress: personal, organizational,environmental, and moral stress. Personal stress is the pressurecaused by the ambition to achieve and accomplish,the need to be successful, the need tojuggle multiple roles, to balance time devoted tofamily and work, to stretch the day so more canbe accomplished, to find time for meditation andrecreation. Organizational stress comes fromliving with tight budgets, understaffed projects,and pressing deadlines. There is the awareness ofglobal environmental stress, knowing about allthe different ways that the earth is in distress.Finally there is the moral stress of having to liveup to the goals and ideals of an ethical way oflife.

Business professionals are required to come out of the false notions developed through the experience of corporate culture, set-up a renewed relationship to the world of nature, and finally through inner consciousness understand their true purpose of their existence.

In this research paper for overcoming the stress and its related problems an enlightenment model of yoga is presented as a solution. Yoga which is a systematic process of holistic human development from physical to mental level can transform the lives of business professionals. Yoga advocates control over the body, the senses and the mind. It enables human perfection. It aims at the unity of self (body) with the Self (soul) thereby bringing transformation at physical, emotional, and mental level and putting the person at eternal peace free from any sort of stress.

Yoga for Overcoming Stress

Patanjali is the traditional founder of the Yoga system. The word ‘Yoga’ literally means ‘union’, i.e., spiritual union of the individual soul with the Universal soul and is used in this sense, in the Vedanta. Bhagwad Gita defines Yoga as that state than which there is nothing higher or worth realizing and firmly rooted in which a person is never shaken even by the greatest pain; that state free from all pain and misery is yoga. According to Patanjali, Yoga does not mean union but spiritual effort to attain perfection through the control of the body, senses and mind, and through right discrimination between Purusa (the self or the spirit-the principle of consciousness) and Prakriti (the matter including body).

Yoga is intimately allied to Sankhya (renunciation). Actually yoga means spiritual action and Sankhya means renunciation or sanyasa. Sankhya is theory and yoga is practice. For all practical purposes, Sankhya and yoga may be treated as the theoretical and the practical sides of the same system. Yoga mostly accepts the metaphysics and the epistemology of Sankhya. It shows the practical path by following which one may attain Viveka-gyan which alone leads to liberation. Yoga accepts the three pramanas-perception, inference and testimony of Sankhya and also the twenty-five meta-physical principles. Yoga believes in God as the highest Self distinct from other selves. Hence it is sometimes called ‘SeshvaraSankhya’ or ‘theistic Sankhya’ as distinct from classical Sankhya which is nirishvara or atheistic.

The Yoga-sutra is divided into four parts. The first is called Samadhi-pada which deals with the nature and aim of concentration. The second, Sadhana-pada, explains the means to realize this end. The third, Vibhuti-pada, deals with the supra-normal powers which can be acquired through yoga. The fourth, Kaivalya-pada, describes the nature of liberation and the reality of the transcendental self.

Chitta and its Vrittis

Patanjali yoga is also known as Raja Yoga. Yoga is defined as the cessation of the modification of Chitta. This cessation is through meditation or concentration which is called yoga (Yogah Samadhi). Chitta means the three internal organs of Sankhya- buddhi or intellect, ahankara or ego and manas or mind. Chitta is same as antahakarana. It is mahat or buddhi which includes ahankara or manas. Chitta is the first evolute of Prakriti (matter) and has the pre-dominance of Sattva (goodness). It is in itself unconscious. But being finest and nearest to Purusa (spirit), it has the power to reflect the Purusa and therefore appears as if it is conscious. When it gets related to any object, it assumes the form of that object. This form is called Vritti or modification. The light of consciousness which comes from the Purusa and illuminates this ‘form’ is called the ‘gyan’ (knowledge). Purusa is essentially pure consciousness and is free from the limitations of Prakriti. But it wrongly identifies itself with its reflection in the Chitta and appears to be undergoing change and modification. Chitta, therefore, is the physical medium for the manifestation of the spirit. Just as in a red-hot iron ball, formless fire appears spherical and cold iron appears hot, similarly on account of its reflection in the Chitta, Purusa appears changing and Chitta appears conscious. Just as the moon appears as moving when seen reflected in the moving waves, and waves appear as luminous, similarly Purusa appears as undergoing modifications and Chitta appears as conscious due to Purusa’s reflection in it. When the Purusa realizes that it is completely isolated and is only a passive spectator, beyond the play of Prakriti, it cease to identify itself with its reflection in the Chitta with the result that the light is withdrawn and the modification of Chitta falls to the ground. This cessation of the modifications of the Chitta through meditation is called ‘Yoga’. It is the return of the Purusa to its original perfection.

The modifications of the Chitta are of five kinds:

  1. Right cognition (pramana)
  2. Wrong cognition (viparyaya)
  3. Verbal cognition or Imagination (vikalpa)
  4. Absence of cognition or Sleep (nidra)
  5. Memory (smriti)

Right cognition is of three kinds : (a) perception (pratyaksha), when the Chitta, through the sense organs, comes into the contact with the external object and assumes its form, or comes into contact with the internal mental state, (b) inference (anumana), when the Chitta cognizes the generic nature of things, and (c) verbal testimony (shabda). Wrong cognition is positively wrong knowledge like that of a rope-snake. Verbal cognition is like that of hare’s horn. Absence of cognition is also a mental modification because after sleep a person says ‘ I slept sound and knew nothing’ and therefore there must be some mental modification to support this absence of knowledge. Memory is the recollection of past experience through the impressions left behind.

In fact the Purusa is the eternally pure and transcendental consciousness. It is the Chitta with the reflection of the Purusa in it or the Purusa as reflected in the Chitta, which is the phenomenal ego or jiva, which is subject to birth and death and transmigration and to all painful or pleasurable experiences, and which, imagines itself as the agent and the enjoyer.

There are five kinds of sufferings (klesha) to which it is subject. These are:

(1) ignorance (avidya)

(2) egoism (asmita)

(3) attachment (raga)

(4) aversion (dvesa)

(5) clinging to life and instinctive fear of death (abhinivesha). The bondage of the self is due to its wrong identification with the mental modifications and liberation, therefore, means the end of this wrong identification through proper discrimination between Purusa and Prakriti and the consequent cessation of the mental modification. It is the aim of the yoga to bring about this result.

There are five levels of mental life (chittabhumi). The differences in the levels are due to the predominance of the different qualities(gunas).

  • The lowest level is called Ksipta or restless, because the mind here is restless due to the excess of rajas (passion and desires) and is tossed about like a shuttle-cock between different sense objects.
  • The second is called Mudha or torpid. The mind here has the predominance of tamas (ignorance and darkness) and tends towards ignorance, sleep and lethargy.
  • The third is called viksipta or distracted. Here sattva (goodness) predominates, but rajas also asserts itself at times.
  • The fourth is called ekagra or concentrated. The mind here is entirely dominated by sattva, and rajas and tamas are subdued. The mind becomes concentrated on the object of meditation.
  • The fifth and the highest level is called nirudha or restricted. Here the mental modifications are arrested, though their latent impressions remain.

The first three levels are not at all conducive to yogic life. Only the last two are.

Astanga Yoga (eightfold path of discipline)

Arguably, one of the most important work in the field of Yoga is the ‘Yoga Sutras’ authored by the sage Patanjali. In English this title might be best translated as ‘‘Verses on Yoga’’ but the Sanskrit word ‘‘sutra’’ literally means thread. In the Yoga Sutras there are 196 verses that ‘‘thread’’ together the entire philosophy of yoga, according to Patanjali. The original writing of the Yoga Sutras cannot be exactly determined but it is believed by most scholars to have happened between 3,000 and 5,000 years ago. Patanjali presents an eightfold path of yoga (Astan Yoga) consisting of eight general categories of yogic practices that an individual can perform to, ultimately, transcend individual consciousness and merge with universal consciousness. These eight categories are presented in the Table given below and illustrate the extensiveness of yogic practices.

AstanYoga advocates control over the body, the senses and the mind. It does not want to kill the body; on the other hand, it recommends its perfection. A sound mind needs a sound body. Sensual attachment and passions distract the body as well as the mind. They must be conquered. To overcome them, Astan Yoga gives the following Eight fold Path of Discipline :

  1. Yama: It means abstention and includes the five vows of Jainism. It is the abstention from injury through thought, word, or deed (ahimsa), from falsehood (satya), from stealing (asteya), from passions and lust (brahmacharya), and from avarice (aparigraha).
  1. Niyama: It is self-culture and includes external and internal purification (shaucha), contentment (santosa), austerity (tapas), study (svadhyaya), and devotion to God (ishvara-pranidhana)
  1. Asana: It means steady and comfortable posture. There are various kinds of postures which are a physical help to meditation. This is the discipline of the body.
  1. Pranayama: It means control of breath and deals with regulation of inhalation, retention and exhalation of breath. It is beneficial to health and is highly conducive to the concentration of the mind. But it must be performed under expert guidance otherwise it may have bad after-effects.
  1. Pratyahara: It is control of the senses and consists in withdrawing the senses from their objects. Our senses have a natural tendency to go to outward objects. They must be checked and directed towards the internal goal. It is the process of introversion. The above mentioned five paths are called as external aids to Yoga (bahiranga sadhana), while the remaining three which follow are called internal aids (antaranga sadhana)
  1. Dharana: It is fixing the mind on the object of meditation like the tip of the nose or the mid-point of the eyebrows or the lotus of the heart or the image of the deity. The mind must be steadfast like the unflickering flame of a lamp.
  1. Dhyana: It means meditation and consists in the undisturbed flow of thought round the object of the meditation (pratyayaikatanata). It is the steadfast contemplation without any break.
  1. Samadhi: It means concentration. This is the final step in Yoga. Here the mind is completely absorbed in the object of meditation. In dhyana the act of meditation and the object of meditation remain separate. But here they become one. It is the highest means to realize the cessation of mental modifications which is the end. It is the ecstatic state in which the connection with the outward world is broken and through which one has to pass before obtaining liberation.

Samadhi is of two kinds: Conscious or samprajnata and supra-conscious or asamprajnata. In the former consciousness of the object of meditation persists, in the latter it is transcended. The former is Ekagra, the latter is Niruddha. In the former the mind remains concentrated on the object of meditation. The mediator and the object of meditation are fused together, yet the consciousness of the object of meditation persists. This state is said to be of four kinds: