W. Edwards Deming

usiness is yagna, the ritual described in the oldest and most revered of Hindu scriptures, the Rig Veda.

The yajaman initiates this ritual, makes offerings into agni, fire burning in the altar, exclaiming, "svaha"—this of me I offer, hop-ing to please his chosen deity or devata who

will then give him whatever he desires, ex-claiming, "tathastu"—so it shall be.

Svaha is what the yajaman invests:

goods, services and ideas. Tathastu is the re-turn on investment: revenue in the market-place or salary paid by the employer, or even the services offered by the employee. It all

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depends on who plays the role of the yaja-man, who initiates the yagna. The yagna can operate both downstream, as well as up-stream, so the devata can either be the buyer or the seller, the investor or the entrepren-eur, the employer or employee, director or doorman.

Paresh believes that because he pays a good salary, his cook prepares his meals just the way he likes them. He is the yajaman and the cook is the devata. The cook, however, believe that it is his skill at preparing good meals which gets him a good salary from Paresh. In the cook's imagination, he is the yajaman and Paresh the devata. Both do svaha, which gives them a satisfactory tathastu.

A yagna is declared a success only if it ushers in wealth and prosperity. Everyone

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agrees then that Lakshmi has arrived. Lak-shmi is the goddess of wealth. She is also goddess of auspiciousness; her image adorns not only Hindu homes but also Jain temples and Buddhist stupas, indicating her popular-ity even amongst those who shunned ritual.

Her name has two roots: laksh, meaning target and lakshan, meaning indicator. Was the purpose of a yagna the generation of wealth? Or was wealth generation simply an indicator of some other goal? The answer to this question is the typically Indian,

"Depends!"

• He of tamas-guna will agree with what the majority says.

• He of rajas-guna will see Lakshmi as the target.

• He of sattva-guna will see Lakshmi as an indicator of personal growth.

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In most societies, he of tamas-guna makes up the majority while he of sattva-guna makes up the minority. A successful so-ciety is one that is directed by this minority.

Guna means personality. It indicates how we think and feel. It depends on how we

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imagine the world and ourselves in it. It is an outcome of fear.

• He of tamas-guna is too frightened to have an opinion of his own; he is de-pendent on the opinions of others.

• He of rajas-guna, is too frightened to trust the opinions of others; so he clings to only his opinion and those of others that favours him..

• He of sattva-guna, trusts other people's opinions as well as his own and wonders why different people have different opinions of the same thing. Sensitivity, introspection and analysis help him discover and out-grow his fears.

In management science, business is about generating Lakshmi, ethically and effi-ciently. Behavioural science, which informs

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human resource practice, states that person-ality cannot change; it is hardcoded in the brain before puberty; only behaviour can be modified and habits changed, made more ef-ficient and ethical. This is why business growth is seen as economic growth, regard-less of people growth. Business starts by ar-ticulating the tathastu first (target), then the plan and resources for executing the svaha (tasks). Skills come later. What matters are the offering, the gestures and the exclama-tions; in other words, the process. The per-sonality of the yajaman does not matter. His fears do not matter. His feelings do not mat-ter. In fact, he is expected to be a profession-al, act without emotion. Besides, he is always replaceable, making the yagna more import-ant than the yajaman.

Suhasini serves fast food at an interna-tional fast food centre. She is expected

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to speak in English and is trained on how to greet the guests. She knows that the customer can speak Marathi or Hindi, both languages that she is fluent in but her supervisor is watching her, as is the CCTV, and she can lose points for not following the rules. Rules have en-sured the chain is highly efficient and profitable. So she puts on her artificial smile, continues to speak in English and does nothing to comfort the customer, even though she feels miserable about the whole situation. Neither her views nor the annoyance of a single customer really matter.

But according to Vedic scriptures the yagna had no independent existence outside the yajaman. Business is always about people: of people, by people, for people.

Everything hinges on the bhaav of the

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yajaman towards the devata, the feeling with which he offers the svaha and receives the tathastu. Bhaav also means value. The feel-ing of the yajaman determines the value he grants to the devata.

• He of tamas-guna, will look upon the devata with the bhaav of an uncondi-tional follower (shudra-varna), who is totally dependent on the devata.

• He of rajas-guna, will look upon the devata with the bhaav of a condition-al follower (vaishya-varna) or a con-ditional leader (kshatriyavarna). He will always value the devata for his possessions and not for who he is. He will blame the devata for all his prob-lems and resent his own dependence on the devata.

• He of sattva-guna, will look upon the devata with the bhaav of a

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dependable, independent, uncondi-tional leader (brahmana-varna). He values the devata, includes the dev-ata, protects and provides for him, provokes him to grow, knowing that the devata may be too frightened to reciprocate.

Feelings change when mindset changes;

the mindset changes when fear is outgrown.

For that we have to pay attention to fear and what it does to us. Every human being may have different physical and mental capabilit-ies and capacitcapabilit-ies, different fortunes and

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social stations, but everyone has the same ability to gaze upon fear.

Gaze is under voluntary control; it is not something we inherit. Gaze can be long-term or short-term. Gaze can be narrow or wide.

Gaze can be superficial or deep. But everyone can gaze. Gaze allows us to expand or control our mind by being mindful of fear—our fear and the fears of others, how it shapes our mind, hence our feelings, which impacts how we engage with the world and what kind of relationships we end up having. Meditation, contemplation and introspection are all about becoming more aware of our gaze.

• Everyone sees objective reality, all that is tangible and measurable, or saguna. This is drishti, or sight.

• Everyone can 'see' subjective reality, thoughts and feelings, the fears un-derlying actions that are neither

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tangible nor measurable, or nirguna.

This is divya-drishti, or insight.

• Everyone can also let the subjective truth reveal the subject: the varna of the one who is observed as well as the varna of one who is observing. This is darshan.

Those who did darshan first were known as the rishis, or the sages of India, often identified as 'seers', those who saw what oth-ers would not see.

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Darshan is also a Sanskrit word which means philosophy or worldview. It is also a common religious practice among Hindus:

devotees are encouraged to look at the image of the deity, which looks back at the devotee with large, unblinking eyes. Placed atop the temple doorway is a head with protruding eyes watching the act of observation.

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The rishis realized that humans are not only capable of seeing varna, but can also rise up the varna ladder by outgrowing fear.

However, this can only happen when we help others outgrow their fear. That is why they designed the yagna, as a tool that compels us to pay attention to others.

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Using the yagna, the yajaman can be-come less dependent and more dependable, and hence be a refuge for the frightened, those who seek Lakshmi as a child seeks a comforter.

The more dependable a yajaman is, the more able he is to attract the devatas, as bees to nectar. The devatas in turn will churn out Lakshmi for him from the ocean of milk that is the marketplace. Thus will Lakshmi walk his way.

Economic growth does not lead to intel-lectual and emotional growth; if anything it can amplify fear. The rishis saw economic growth without personal growth as a recipe for disaster for then Lakshmi would come along with her sister, Alakshmi, goddess of conflict, and create enough quarrels to en-sure Lakshmi could slip away from the grasp of the yajaman who was unworthy of her.

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They were convinced that economic growth has to be an outcome of intellectual and emotional growth. For the workplace to be a happy playground (ranga-bhoomi) rather than a fierce battleground (rana-boomi), Lakshmi had to be an indicator and darshan, the lever.

As is darshan, so is guna; as is guna so is varna; as is varna, so is bhaav; as is bhaav, so is svaha; as is svaha, so is tathastu. In other

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words, as is belief, so is behaviour, so is busi-ness. This is Business Sutra, a very Indian approach to management.

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• We shall begin by exploring how ima-gination transforms every human in-to Brahma, the creain-tor of the yagna.

• In the following three chapters, we shall explore drishti, divya-drishti and darshan, which determine the quality of the yagna.

• In the final chapter, we shall explore the impact of the yagna on the yajaman.

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Kama's Vision Statement

Drishti, observing objective reality

Divya-drishti, observing subjective reality

Darshan, observing the subject

Yama's Balance Sheet

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Human hunger is unique

t all starts with hunger. Hunger distin-guishes the living from the non-living. Jain scriptures identify beings that do not feed as nirjiva and those that feed as sajiva. It is hunger that makes plants grow, and animals seek pastures and prey. But human hunger is unique:

• Humans can visualize future hun-ger—tomorrow's hunger, next year's drought, and even next decade's re-cession, which fuels great anxiety.

• Humans can visualize food coming towards them despite the fact that every plant and every animal around them seeks out food.

• Humans can visualize consuming without getting consumed, even though every living organism in nature consumes as well as gets consumed.

This is because, according to mytholo-gies of Indian origin, Kama, the god of de-sire, has raised his sugarcane bow and struck our five senses with his five flowery arrows.

In neurobiological terms, it is because hu-mans possess imagination. Animals get frightened when they see, smell or hear a

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predator; humans get frightened because they can always imagine a predator. Animals get excited when they see, smell or hear a prey; humans get excited because they can always imagine a prey.

Imagination allows humans to break free from the fetters of time and place; sitting in one place we can travel to the past and the future, we can travel to other lands, we can concoct memories, propel ourselves with fabricated hunger, make ourselves miserable by imposing expectations on ourselves.

The satisfaction of hunger constitutes happiness for most people while the failure to satisfy this hunger leads to frustration, rage and conflict.

Every investor, entrepreneur, employer, employee, regulator, auditor, vendor, cus-tomer and competitor is a victim of Kama. It is their insatiable hunger that makes them work, innovate, invest, employ, compete, marry, start a family and a business. If this

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hunger did not exist, if this imagination did not exist, yagna would not exist. It is the unique nature of human hunger that gives rise to culture.

Abhirup was born into a rich family and inherited huge wealth from both his father and his mother. He does not have to work a day in his life. He can live a life of absolute luxury. Yet, he is determ-ined to start a business of his own. It is not about the money or power; it is something else. He cannot explain this drive. He expects support from his wife and his family and gets annoyed when they find his ambitions unnecessary, even silly. This is human hunger, very different from other hungers.

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Imagination expands human hunger

Humans have full power over their imagina-tion. We can expand, contract and crumple it at will. This makes each individual a Brahma, creator of his/ her own subjective reality, the brahmanda, which literally means the 'egg of Brahma'.

We can choose what we want to see. We can choose what we want to value. Animals and plants do not have this luxury. They are fettered by their biology. They cannot be punished for hurting humans (though we of-ten do); but humans can be punished for hurting other humans. Imagination liberates us from submitting to our instincts. We are, whether we like it or not, whether we are aware of it or not, responsible for our actions.