Workship and the Spirit of Action

This paper identifies the field of work as an adventure of consciousness and uses a new phrase to describe it—WORKSHIP, work as worship. Based primarily on the classical psycho-philosophy of India, laid down in the vedantic literature, this model of workship attempts a shift in paradigm from the Greek concept of work as 'ponos' or pain to a liberating dimension of work, the ultimate aims of which are ananda (bliss) and mukti (freedom). Examining the various elements that constitute workship, the author comes up with the fourfold paths of workship: discipline, righteousness, sacrifice and transcendence, and analyses them in detail. Finally, the paper argues that workship has the potential to unfold man's latent spirituality for a sustainable world order. 1. Rene Fonere; 'Krishnamurti and Modern Thought', in The Mind of J. Krishnamurti (New Delhi: Jaico Publishing House, 1971), p. 170. 2. Willis Harman and John Hormann; Creative Work: The Constructive Role of Business in a Transform ing Society (Indianapolis: Knowledge Systems, Inc., 1993), p. 13. 3. S.K. Chakraborty Management by Values (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1993), p. 166. 4. Sri Aurobindo; 'Right Attitude in Work', quoted in All India Magazine (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Society, April 1991), p. 5. 5. Ibid., p. 32 6. 'The Meaning of Work', in Man, Work and Society, ed. William Nosow and William H. Form (New York: Basic Books Publishing Company Inc., 1962), p. 18. 7. Wayne W. Dyer; You Will See It When You Believe It (London: Arrow Books, 1989), p. 41. 8. 'The Meaning of Work' (see n. 6 above), p. 4. 9. Ibid., p. 35. 10. Swami Gambhirananda; 'Taitiriya Upanishad', in Eight Upanishads (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1977), Vol. 1, p. 392. 11. Jyoti Sobel and Prem; The Hierarchy of Minds—A Compilation from the Works of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Publication Department, 1991), p. 55. 12. Ibid., p. 69. 13. Ibid., p. 76. 14. Ibid., Introduction, p. XIII. 15. World Scripture: A Comparative Anthology of Sacred Texts, ed. Andrew Wilson (New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 1993). 16. Chakraborty, Management by Values (n. 3 above), p. 164. 17. Swami Vivekananda; Pearls of Wisdom (Calcutta: The Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, 1988), p. 202. 18. The Selected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, ed. Shri man Narayan (Ahmedabad: Navajivan Trust, 1968), Vol. 4, Chapter 3. 19. Sri Aurobindo; The Message of the Gita (Pondi cherry : Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1977), p. 80. 20. World Scripture (n. 15 above), p. 638. 21. Ibid., p. 620. 22. Ibid. 23. Ronald Robertson; Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture (London: Sage Publications, 1992), p. 93

Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Meaning (existential · Political science · Publishing · Righteousness · Social science · Sociology · Spirituality · Theology · Transcendence (philosophy · Worship · Law · Philosophy · Workplace Spirituality and Leadership

• Management Lessons from Indian Epics in Context to Theory Z

  Open Access•Shivendra Kumar Pandey, Shivendra Pandey et al.•Journal of Human Values•2010

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