Role of Purity in Business: Sri Sathya Sai Perspective

This entire world is governed by money. Be it a minor requirement or a major one, money is the limiting factor. How to earn this money? Today, your financial requirements may be met by your parents. But you cannot and should not continue to depend on your parents forever to satisfy your needs. Man has four important principles to comply with during his earthly sojourn. These four principles are: Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha. You must earn wealth (Artha) by righteous means (Dharma). Kama means desire. You must have a desire for liberation (Moksha). Hence, you must work in a way that will satisfy your conscience. Only then will you get sufficient wealth to lead life in a happy and successful manner.

You must place certain limits in business also. Buying and selling, profit and loss must all be governed by certain limits. Your impulsiveness is the deciding factor here. Key people concerned with business planning should discuss the issues as a group and take decisions after all-inclusive deliberations. With such concerted unity and purity, any amount of wealth can be earned. For this, people engaged in business must develop purity.

What exactly is the meaning of purity? Divine love devoid of any expectations is real purity. There are two prerequisites that lead to purity: ‘Love for God’ and ‘Fear of Sin’. When you develop love for God, fear of sin automatically germinates in you. This will confer unity. When both purity and unity are present, there will be Divinity as a natural consequence.

Sufficient success can be achieved in business if one keeps one’s vision firmly fixed upon the three qualities: unity, purity and Divinity. It may not be proper to crave for profits and success at the initial stages of a business. To satisfy such requirements, you may develop proclivity to corrupt practices such as telling lies, breach of laws and committing frauds. You may even develop relations with corrupt people. As a consequence, one day, you may have to wind up the business. Take care to ensure that under no circumstances does bad company approach you. By adhering to the path of truth, you can achieve anything.

Source: Guidelines for a Values-Based Leader Manager: Spiritual, Personal and Business, Chapter 11, Man Management: A Values-Based Management Perspective – Based on the Discourses of Sri Sathya Sai Baba