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DEBRA AND WILLIAM MILLER ON
SPIRITUALITY
 Interview with Debra and William Miller
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What are the challenges faced by the world of business today? Can spirituality
play a role in overcoming these challenges?
We are globalizing the outer world, and I doubt we can stop the process even if
we wanted to. We can, however, work to guide and shape the process by giving it
a soul -that is by creating an ethical vision of where we want the process to go
and
committing ourselves to it in a spirit of solidarity and hope. This is the inner
globalization that must occur to build global cooperation and community and
reverse negative trends that threaten the future."
Regarding the challenges of rampant consumerism: Spirituality is relevant to
consumerism in that, it adds a deeper perspective to what we consider to be
truly meaningful in our personal, family and work life. This leads us to make
ethical choices in our consumer trends, rather than get swept away by
materialistic greed. Spirituality also leads us to make wiser decisions about
our true needs, rather than trying to fill unlimited desires with the limited
resources of the planet (and thus bankrupting both the ecology and the economy).
Our dictionary showed us how much the idea of "wealth" is wrapped up in material
considerations -defining it in terms of "an abundance of valuable material
possessions or resources; all material objects that have economic utility." Yet,
spiritual literature from around the world goes beyond this, saying that wealth
includes wisdom, love and health. For example, the universal spiritual teacher
Sathya Sai Baba says:
"Artha does not merely mean wealth of money. It means wealth of wisdom. Seeing
unity in diversity is the true wisdom.
All wealth and prosperity cannot confer true happiness. Without love, no object
can give you real happiness. Hence, the primary wealth for man is love."
There is no greater wealth than health. What is the origin of this word
'health'? It is derived from the Anglo- Saxon word 'Heilig', meaning that which
is sacred and pure.
Even the original Middle English root of wealth ("weal") was much more expansive
than our current definition; weal means welfare -the state of doing well,
especially with respect to good fortune, happiness, well-being or prosperity.
It's as if in our consumer-hungry fervour we've become absorbed with well-having
rather than wellbeing!
Regarding the challenges of ethical behavior and social responsibility, we see
both as a natural consequence of living from a spiritual basis. India has a rich
history of acting in accord with dharma, which translates in one way into ethics
and responsibility; Kautilya's Arthashastra is a great guide to this. We believe
that if India were to revive this dharmic aspect of its culture and build it
into "the way things work" in business and government, then India could be the
shining light for the world in this regard.
Regarding the challenges of attracting and retaining a high quality workforce,
people of strong values are always seeking companies that also practice such
values. The companies around the world that have been awarded the International
Spirit at Work (ISAW) award are organizations that do attract and retain a high
quality workforce by their commitment to high spiritual principles. ISAW honors
companies that have implemented specific policies, programs, or practices that
explicitly nurture spirituality in their organizations. A list of people who
received this award from 2002-04 and details of their workplace policies and
practices can be accessed at www.spiritatwork.org
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2010, ICMR (IBS Center for Management Research).All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted
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