My Path to the Wellspring of Rationality, Morality And Spirituality – By Prof. Peter Pruzan

Prof. Peter Pruzan with Sri Sathya Sai at Prasanthi Nilayam - March 2009

The path of personal and professional development I have trodden can be characterised as a path from rationality via morality to spirituality – and to their Source. Each of these terms, rationality, morality, and spirituality, has successively played a major role in my personal as well as my professional life. But I now know that underlying this development is a Source, a Wellspring, so powerful, loving, and all-embracing that it can best be described as omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient. That Source is Bhagavan Sathya Sai Baba, the Master Teacher, who has lovingly permitted me to serve at His University so that I can teach His wonderful students what I have to learn.

“Path” is an often used metaphor when describing human behaviour – we hear people speak of “the road less travelled,” of coming to a fork in the road where an existential choice is to be made, of paths to success, and of spiritual paths. Progressing along a path permits reflection and contemplation. Once underway we learn that there are “rules of the road”. And we experience limitations to our degrees of freedom in choosing our path – that our circumstances, previous decisions, and behaviour determine where we are and where we choose to move on to. 

On rare occasions, for example, in connection with a personal crisis, we may also have experiences and insights that are so dramatic, sudden, and unexpected that a striking alteration in our world views, self-reference, and character takes place. Surprisingly, and fortunately, in spite of such abrupt and dramatic changes, there remains a sense of continuity; the path is still one’s own, personal path. Looking back, so to speak, these new insights simply seem to manifest themselves, as though they were there all the time and just waited for the proper circumstances to make their appearance. We discover that we are pathfinders on our own path to ourselves. That we are its co-creators, that we discover our path while beating it out – and that it has been there all the time, waiting for us to tread it, discover it, be it.

Such at least is the way that I have experienced my own development, characterized at rare intervals by amazing surprises and existential wonder, followed by longer periods of digestion. I have come to recognize and respect these experiences as manifestations of a latent blossoming, of a path from myself to my Self – and that I am That. It is truly with amazement and awe, as well as with immense gratitude, that I realise that Swami has held my hand all the time and led me along my path, a path from ignorance clothed in the garments of arrogant intellectualism, to one of increasingly deep concern as to individual and collective ethics, values, and responsibility, and to one of deep spiritual transformation via love for and service to others.

It all started before the II World War when I grew up in New York, in a family that was beset with many problems, doubts, and fears, all of which were exacerbated by my elder brother’s serious and long lasting illness. This led to both stress and great financial demands which reinforced my parents emphasising the importance of “getting ahead” and of creating circumstances that could lead to a life free from the kind of problems they faced. The focus was not on human values, humanistic ideals or even on simple personal satisfaction, but on coping.

I quickly learned to be self-reliant, to study hard and get a fine education; that was the apparent path to security, a state or feeling that was absent in my home. I obtained scholarships to some of the world’s most respected universities (Princeton, Harvard, and Case-Western) and excelled in my studies. My education eventually led me to develop a mindset based on the concept of “optimisation”, an extreme form of rationality. It also led me, via a Fulbright research grant, to move from the US to the lovely small country, Denmark, where I have now lived for roughly 45 years and where my family, including children and grandchildren, thrives.

I applied what I had learned and this rapidly led to a large number of scientific publications, academic recognition, and material well-being. But after a number of years of applying my theories in practice and helping major corporations to be more economically productive, I discovered that this extreme focus on economic gain had blinded me, as well as those I was helping, to the potentially unethical aspects of our actions as well as to so many of the more beautiful and wondrous aspects of life that we could not see because we were only focusing on the “bottom line”. This insight led me to a major shift in focus – from economic rationality to business ethics; and in my university work to develop courses and organisations focused on value-based management and corporate social responsibility. I also started developing what has become the largest department at the Copenhagen Business School (CBS), the department of Management, Politics & Philosophy.

Prof. Peter Pruzan with President Abdul Kalam

It was during my work at CBS on developing what I called “Ethical Accounting” in the late 1980s that I was visited by a man, Thorbjörn Meyer, about seven years my senior. He asked me if I could be his advisor on a Ph.D. project dealing with human values in corporate leadership. It was a strange request – people who are 60 years of age seldom start to do doctoral research. And when he spoke of values it was as though they were spelled with capital letters; he spoke of Truth, Righteousness, Love… while for me, values were instruments that leaders could use to justify their aims and results; they were instruments and not important in their own right. 

A half year later, on my birthday in the spring of 1989, this gentleman gave me a birthday gift – the book Spirit and the Mind by Dr. Samuel Sandweiss. I read the book with mixed feelings; as an atheist with a Jewish cultural background I found it impossible to accept its presentation of Swami as God incarnate, yet when I read Swami’s own words, I was immediately and powerfully attracted to Him. All this resulted sometime later that year in my visiting Prasanthi Nilayam. I arrived by taxi from Bangalore at about 5 AM, alone, confused, bewildered. I saw Swami and for the first time in my life I prayed. Later on during my short stay Swami invited me in for an interview – it was perhaps more than a coincidence that Dr. Sandweiss, his wife, and his twin daughters were invited in to the same interview. I returned to my home a “new” person. It was as though a longing deep inside of me had been awakened. That contact with Swami radically changed the course of my life.

Peter and Kirsten Pruzan with Sri Sathya Sai at the Prasanthi Nilayam interview room in March 2002

This was the opening to the third phase in my development, what I referred to above as the path to spirituality. I had returned to Denmark a “new” person, although it was clearly the same me that was simply getting closer to his true essence, his core. My teaching gradually changed; students were no longer “things” to fill with information, to test and to support so that they could get their degrees. They underwent a metamorphosis (of course it was me who was transformed) and became the objects of my love; I was there to serve them, to guide them and to inspire them. My research gradually changed; ethics, values, responsibility, and serving others were no longer instruments to help corporations protect their licence to operate and to improve productivity and profitability, they were now the fundamental bases for organised activity, the raison d’être for corporate existence. After a number of visits to Prasanthi Nilayam, I was invited to give some lectures at Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, something I have done continually for over 10 years now. Having retired in 2003 I am now able to teach full courses – and do so with joy. Never in my life have I learned so much by teaching others!

Prof. Peter Pruzan offering his book on the theme of Spirituality Based Leadership to Sri Sathya Sai

Not only have I been invited to teach at the Institute – I have also had the pleasure of lecturing and evaluating theses at a number of other institutions of higher learning in India, including the three major Indian Institutes of Management, and have established working relationships between these institutions and the Copenhagen Business School. My wife Kirsten and I have simply fallen deeply in love with India, where we have travelled extensively. India has become our second home. We now understand what Swami has told us on a number of occasions: “This is your home.”

Together with Kirsten and two Americans who live permanently in Swami’s Ashram, Debra and William Miller, I began researching and writing on such subjects as Spiritual-Based Leadership and Human Values at Work, books that at the time of writing this article are in the final stages preceding publication. My wife and I have also recently completed a many-year project: translating (from English into Danish) a special version of the Bhagavad Gita with Swami’s commentaries on the individual verses.

Mrs. Kirsten Pruzan with Sri Sathya Sai on Christmas Day 2010 at Prasanthi Nilayam

In 2003 Kirsten published a book about Swami in Danish; Swami told her to translate it into English and it is now available as 'Journeys to Love'. Each of these books, including those not yet published, have been blessed and guided by Swami. Not only did this amazing meeting with the Avatar influence my work; it also opened the doors to my heart and soul and changed my whole being – or rather helped me to better realise that I and we all are sparks of the Divine, that we are all blessed with and filled with His Divine Love, and that it is our major mission in life to realise this and to be in contact with and lead our lives accordingly. This wonderful realisation is manifest in my relationships with my family, friends, colleagues, and all those I meet or somehow come into contact with. My prayers, which originally dealt with myself, then with my family and friends, now reach out to all living creatures, to all of creation. In an epiphany a number of years ago, I realised that I am Love – these were the first words that came from my mouth after having experienced what can best be described as beautiful, joy-filled peace and emptiness: Samadhi.

It is perhaps a good idea to conclude this “travel log” of my path to the wellspring of rationality, morality, and spirituality with two brief stories that illustrate Swami’s magnificence. One day a number of years ago, I saw Swami talking with a few of the Ph.D. students that I was helping with their research. I noticed that they were all looking in my direction, so after Darshan I asked the students what Swami had said. They told me that Swami had asked “Who is the white beard?” and that they had replied “He’s a visiting professor.” “No” Swami said, “He’s a fisherman.” The students replied that I was in fact a visiting professor, and Swami repeated that I was a fisherman. Only later did the beauty and joy of this story dawn on me. Swami in this cryptical manner told me that he knew me better than I know myself; my name is Peter, and in the Bible, Peter is referred to as a “fisher of men.”

Jesus Christ with Peter

A second story deals with Swami’s Omnipresence and Omniscience. On a fall day a few years ago, I had left my office at the Copenhagen Business School early, purchased a lovely bouquet of flowers, and tidied up our house. Kirsten, who was then an editor at our major morning newspaper, arrived home a bit later, and on entering the house and seeing the flowers and a beaming me, asked what this was all about. I reminded her that it was a most important anniversary in our life with Swami. We embraced each other and she spontaneously said (in Danish), “Thank you Swami!” At the very moment that she uttered these words and we embraced, bells started ringing. Not church bells, not bells from an ice cream vendor, not the door bell – but softly chiming, crystalline bells. We looked at each other in amazement and removed our arms from around each other; the bells stopped. We embraced again; the bells started again. We did this four times, each time we embraced, the bells sounded, each time we removed our arms, the bells stopped. Finally we stopped. Filled with awe, joy and love we thanked Swami for His Benediction.

Other personal experiences may have been more dramatic, but these two episodes tell of Swami’s wonderful humour and His all-embracing Love. I will close here in the same way that I regularly conclude my day: “Thank you Swami!”

About The Author

Prof. Peter Pruzan has been the leader of a successful and creative international consulting company; professor at the Technical University of Denmark, the University of Copenhagen, and the Copenhagen Business School. He has received several international awards for his academic contributions and has published research papers and books in diverse fields. He has served as visiting professor at SSSIHL, Prasanthi Nilayam, for nearly two decades. Of these the last 15 years have been focused on teaching Research Methodology to PhD students from the social sciences and the physical sciences. 

Source: Sai Sparshan 2005 (80th Birthday Offering)