The Ekam headquarters at sunrise (All photos: Ekam)
Wisdom: that is what we gain
when we are in tune with
a higher awareness.
I ponder on this thought as I listen to Sri Preethaji, a spiritual guru from India, answer my question, “How is a conscious entrepreneur different from the average business person?”
Conscious living refers to a state of awareness in which we operate from a place of stillness within ourselves that connects us to a wellspring of creativity. The result, life coaches say, is dynamism, fulfilment and abundant joy. Sri Preethaji is speaking via video link from Ekam, the palatial headquarters of the spiritual movement she co-created with her husband Sri Krishnaji in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh state, India. Its name means “oneness” in Sanskrit and is located about 75km north of Chennai by road.
She explains: “Right now there is an imbalance in the way the world is looking at things, where money has become all important.” Indeed, our thinking has become polarised: on one end of the spectrum, we see the pursuit of material gain, achievement and success, whereas being spiritual and living consciously are seen as actions occupying the opposite end, she observes. “There is a total imbalance in this perspective around life itself. They are not two lopsided, separate spectrums, but they need to be integrated,” says Sri Preethaji with an unhurried cadence.
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This is my second encounter with Sri Preethaji. I had interviewed her briefly about a year earlier in Kuala Lumpur when she gave a talk about “spirituality and sustainability” at a business school. The Ekam website makes for heady reading, speaking of liberating humanity from suffering and leading seekers on the path of enlightenment. I do not bring to my interview with Sri Preethaji a fashionable scepticism about spiritual matters that may be seen in the mainstream media’s coverage of the subject. A decades-long interest in spirituality has given me enough benefit to appreciate the uplifting effects of such practices. I know that a little effort at mindfulness shows up as empathy, insight and equanimity that creep into awareness unannounced.
Sri Preethaji takes the time to unpack multidimensional perspectives on the topic at hand, combining trendspotting, parenting advice, mental health counselling, life hacks, empathy with Nature and ultimately wrapping up her exposition with the panacea of spiritual transcendence. “If you see the world today, the focus is on money, wealth, power and position. That is how we are encouraging our children to learn life, making them believe [these things are] very important. But you are beginning to see the impact of such a lopsided view of life. The impact is that there are millions of people feeling depressed, anxious and lonely. Mental health has become a problem now.”
“As a civilisation, we have focused entirely on material abundance,” she continues. “We are not against it; it is definitely beautiful to become prosperous oneself, create prosperity for everybody around and add value to life, but it cannot come from a consciousness driven by [a sense of] separation, which is “I”-centric. It has to move towards being other-centric, inclusive and Earth-centric. That shift has to happen. That shift happens when you are a spiritual person,” says the guru.
“This is not just an idea,” she asserts.
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Parsing out the differences between a spiritual and materially-oriented person, Sri Preethaji says: “To put it in a framework: [A spiritual person is] not somebody who experiences life within oneself by oneself but who experiences life with greater connection with life around him, with people around him, with greater connection with Nature and the Earth. That is the missing component in today’s society — to believe that you’ve lived your life only based on how much you have achieved or earned. It has to move from that to expressly feeling greater connection, moving away from being I-centric and self-centric to experiencing an inclusive consciousness.”
Sri Preethaji then turns to the crux of my question. “So, a conscious entrepreneur will definitely look at numbers, demand and supply, and whether a project makes financial sense — that would be a natural objective of any entrepreneur. A conscious entrepreneur would also see the impact that he is creating on life and whether what he’s going to do will add value to people. He will have a larger vision than just the numbers. If he is a builder, he will see himself as creating a beautiful environment where families can join together. It means having a greater vision in terms of the joy he would bring to people, the togetherness that families would enjoy and what that togetherness means to society. That larger vision will flow out onto his or her job,” she says.
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“When you are a spiritual human being, you are a connected person,” Sri Preethaji says to round up her answer. “What drives you is not just money but a greater vision, a greater purpose, of creating a difference — to an individual, a plant, a forest, a community. The difference one is creating has more value.
“What we have seen is that, when entrepreneurs come to our [consciousness] work and do the [meditation] process, they grow spiritually: they become very conscious human beings, driven by a larger vision, and they create a huge impact. Their lives become a place of incredible synchronicities. It feels like their life has become a blessing to receive goodness from the universe,” says Sri Preethaji.
“If you are driven only by money, living only in separation, in “I”-centric consciousness, attended by suffering, stress or anxiety — the way the world is structured right now — what you will see are more challenges and problems. You feel you’re moving one step forward to go back three steps. Life never feels fulfilling. You don’t know whether you can achieve what you set out to do and you get bogged down with life. You live a life of loneliness, you feel disconnected more and more, and there is anxiety filling you,” she says.
Attaining serenity + dynamism
Simple practices that people can do to raise the level of their consciousness
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So, what can the average person do to raise their level of consciousness and thus achieve greater serenity and dynamism? What Ekam believes is not putting on a band-aid but fixing the total consciousness of humanity. There must be a total revolution in one’s heart. In order to fix the challenges of loneliness and anxiety, these are a couple of practical things that Sri Preethaji always suggests that people do: One is to become conscious of one’s breathing. We live in a very fast-paced world. As a result, you’re not even seeing how shallow your breath has become. So the first step would be to become conscious of breathing. The mind, body and consciousness are like the three sides of the triangle. So if you begin with your breathing, you will see your mind calming down and your consciousness moving into a little more expanded state rather than being I-centric.
As you calm down, taking slow inhalations and making slow and long exhalations, becoming conscious of your breath will slow you down in terms of the inner rush. Anxiety is a state where there is a constant inner rush. You’re pushed into that rush. You need to stop that. As you calm your breath down, you will see your body moving into a state of calm. You experience becoming more peaceful.
The second thing is addressing the many reasons for loneliness. The ultimate spiritual reason is that you lead a totally disconnected life. You do not know what it is to feel for another or to connect to another. So, to nurture connection, I would say: Eat with your family. And when you’re eating, make sure that you’re present. That means you’re not checking your mail, messages or Instagram when you’re spending time with your family. We belong to a species where, for many thousands of years, we’ve sat down around the fire, under the night sky and shared stories. We probably shared stories of a dangerous animal that we spotted earlier or where we found the tastiest berries that day, so we have always evolved through sharing. And it is important that that experience of togetherness and sharing continues in families, rather than being engaged in social media and disconnected from one’s family or friends, or wherever you can feel that togetherness.
The other thing is to move. Our brain has evolved, our spine has evolved … For millions of years, our entire system has evolved through movement. It is time we stop sitting and being stagnant but continue to move. Even better would be if you are able to have a bit of experience with nature. That experience of sunset, of sunrise, of being with the trees and the birds does something to your brain, to your body and to your mind.
I would also recommend living with greater purpose. You can’t live just for money or to increase your bank balance or your wealth. You need to live for a purpose. Just to take an analogy from the animal world, there are species that live longer because they are entrusted with the responsibility of taking care of the grandchildren or the calves. Just like how, as a species, females live a long time after they have raised their children and gone through menopause. The reason is that you are entrusted with the purpose of continuing the species. People who have a bigger purpose of living, of creating a difference, of creating a positive impact live longer. So it is important that you journey with a very beautiful heart, experience great connection, and have a very strong purpose of making a difference in life. That is when you see the universe supporting you.
If all this is difficult, I would say to start off with the Serene Mind practice, available on breathingroom.com. This is a simple practice for calming anxiety, inner restlessness and the agitation that is being built in your body and mind. It is important to do this practice, which takes just three minutes.
But the journey cannot stop with learning meditation. Take time to nurture your heart and to live totally without the interference of the mind, because as the mind continuously interferes and pushes you into your past, present and future, you live a very disconnected life. Then these questions creep in: “Why am I living?”, “For whose sake am I living?”, “What am I doing with my life?” These questions continue to build, making you disinterested in life and making you feel lonely, then all the other mental health problems start. So take your time to dive into a spiritual experience.
Rash Behari Bhattacharjee is associate editor of The Edge Malaysia’s Capital Markets & Companies desk
This article first appeared on Feb 19, 2024 in The Edge Malaysia.
