Specifications of Practising Spiritual Intelligence for Innovation, Leadership and Happiness (Paperback)

Author: Dr Awdhesh Singh, Commissioner of Central Excise & Service Tax, LTU, Chennai

Publisher: Wisdom Tree

Number of Pages: 216

Price: Rs 245

By TIOL Team

WE all wish to attain success and happiness in our life. However, only a few people are able to live life the way they want and get what they aspire in their lives. Our ability to get what we want is commonly known as intelligence. The term intelligence formally refers to an individual's ability to understand complex ideas, adapt effectively to the environment, learn from experience, engage in various forms of reasoning and overcome obstacles by careful thought.

We know that intelligence is needed for succeeding in life and, hence, we all wish to develop our intelligence through various means. There are many studies which have established that intelligent people are more successful, lead healthier and happier lives and even live longer. However, it is also not uncommon to see many people, who are extremely intelligent as they score very well in IQ tests or top their colleges and yet their life is even more miserable than a person who has a low IQ score.

Why this paradox? Can we really understand intelligence?

Let us now change the paradigm and discover the cause from the effect. Let us accept that, what makes us happy, successful, healthy, loving, peaceful, is the real intelligence. Such intelligence must have many dimensions as it must include:

1.  Knowledge of your own self

2.  Knowledge of others- your allies and your opponents

3.  Knowledge of the ground situation

4.  Knowledge of the various techniques that need to be employed

5.  Intuitive ability to select the best technique

This is the intelligence which we all seek and aspire to. While we can learn different techniques from our school and colleges, no one can teach us the knowledge of the self and others. The ground situation also is changing every moment. Such holistic and comprehensive intelligence is called Spiritual Intelligence, which is intimately connected with our own body, senses, mind, intellect and soul. Unlike the concept of intelligence understood by us, which is an individual ability independent of our understanding of others, Spiritual Intelligence is holistic and universal; it is beyond mind and intellect, coming directly from our soul, which is the spark of God in us.

Spiritual Intelligence is, therefore, defined as “the ability to know the self, know other people, know the ground situation, understand the ‘desired objective' and inculcate the ability to choose the ‘right technique' that should work in the given situation.”

Such knowledge cannot be taught as it is intrinsic and mysterious, but can only emerge from within by self-realisation. This knowledge is esoteric and hidden within. The deep knowledge of the self and others is based on intuition, which calls for synergy between heart and head, science and religion, and reason and faith.

The book Practising Spiritual Intelligence for Innovation, Leadership and Happiness investigates the evolution of intelligence from the perspective of scientists, philosophers and believers. It proceeds to explain the relationship between body, senses, mind, intellect ( buddhi ) and soul (atman) based on ancient scriptures like the Gita and Upanishads and the philosophies of Socrates and Aristotle. It establishes that the body and soul are reflections of each other, as our body is the material representation of the soul in the material world while our soul is the spiritual representation of the body in the spiritual world.

While each one of us are different at the physical level, we are all connected at the spiritual level as our soul is part of the same Soul whom we call Paramatman or God. It is possible to be connected to anyone and everyone through this Universal Soul in the same way as we can access any computer in the world by connecting to the Internet. This phenomenon is called the spiritual Internet. The book is filled with a number of anecdotes, humourous stories, words of wisdom from the Gita, Upanishads and Vedas, Koran, Bible, truisms uttered by the Buddha, Kabir and Rumi, along with the expositions of great philosophers and scientists like Aristotle, Socrates, and Albert Einstein to make the concept of Spiritual Intelligence more scientific, logical and realistic. The book also provides simple steps to strengthen the body, discipline the mind and train the intellect to develop intuition and to make our soul more powerful. By following these steps, we develop Spiritual Intelligence thereby increasing out capacity for love, compassion and understanding and eliminating hatred, frustration and suffering from our life.

The book also discusses the application of Spiritual Intelligence in making our life better. The greatest benefit of Spiritual Intelligence is that it fills our life with happiness and helps us to achieve success in the most efficient and effective manner.

Our ancient sages have described life as Anubhav Dhara or the spring of experiences. Our life is like a river which is in constant motion, experiencing a new world every moment. If this experience is pleasant, we are happy and when it is unpleasant, we are unhappy. Hence, happiness is not something which is merely internal or a state of mind, as many would like to believe, but something that is created every moment from our constant interaction with the world. When we are spiritually intelligent, we know the world as accurately as we know our own selves and that brings happiness to our life.

Once we know the self and others, we also know how to motivate others and align their minds to achieve a common goal. Spiritual Intelligence, thus, builds leadership which is important not only to politicians but also precious to every officer, manager, entrepreneur or even to a simple family man or woman who has to lead others to achieve a common goal for mutual benefits.

Finally, Spiritual Intelligence leads to the development of innovation and creativity as we get connected directly to the Spirit of the World where all knowledge of the past, present and future are present, to be discovered by us. It is to be understood that no “acquired knowledge” can help us in solving real life problems since, even if the river is the same, the water in it is never same for even two consecutive moments. Every time you put your hand in the river, you touch different water. What worked earlier cannot work now, since the people with whom it worked are not the same now; situations and values have changed and even you are not the person who had achieved success by using those techniques. So, only when we are constantly able to recreate new solutions from the existing ones, based on the present reality, can we be successful in achieving what we seek in life.