From the archives, 6 Feb 2003

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Lt Gen VK Kapoor has contributed the lead article ‘Soldiering, Spirituality and Leadership’ to the Sep 2002 issue of the Combat Journal recommending the adoption of the practice of Sahaja Yoga meditation as revealed by HH (Her Holiness) Sri Mataji Nirmala Devi for the ‘benefit of the individual and collective fraternity of the Armed Forces in all respects including physical, emotional, moral, material, and spiritual so that we develop military leaders of unimpeachable character which constitute the bedrock of military leadership’.

 

This letter is prompted by the following passage in the article as it has a bearing on the thesis the author advances:

 

“We do not need military professionals who are primarily sociologists but we do need military professionals who understand the society of which they are part. We do not need politicians in military uniform but we do need officers who are sensitive to the political system they defend. Most of all we need senior officers who understand the dangers of politicizing the military profession of a democracy through inherently flawed internal management policies, parochialism or bias.” (p. 10)

 

The author has pointed out that our backgrounds are informed by a wide variety of religious and cultural traditions. He rightly mentions that each of these has a positive influence on character formation, soldiering, spirituality and leadership potential. He nevertheless goes on to advocate Sahaja Yoga for adoption in Service leadership as a character development tool. The author does not explicate as to how any particular one of the several equally compelling practices believed in and practiced by a substantial segments of the officer corps should be privileged for wider collective applicability within the Service. The necessity for explaining why Sahaja Yoga ought to be adopted is required, given that its merits are replicated in the numerous equally valid spiritual development practices in all cultural traditions and religions. Selective advocacy, even if based on personal knowledge, research, experimentation and practice, may testify to parochialism and bias. Therefore, it is important that evaluation of which of these the Service chooses to adopt, if at all such a training innovation is deemed an imperative (at best an arguable proposition in itself), be a collective and rational exercise aiming at a consensus. This will be in conformity with the author’s injunction above that sensitivity to the political system and understanding of society are important facets of officership.

 

Alternatively, officers could be sensitized to the spiritual foundation of leadership in keeping with the author’s broader thesis. It should be left to individual officers whether they continue to pursue their own spiritual trove for self-development or internalize any other particular practice from the manifold, open and accessible paths widely known to exist in the Indian spiritual tradition. The leading of a moral life in keeping with rational, liberal and humanist principles is also an option that could be left to an officer’s individual judgment. Sahaja Yoga can perhaps be one of many such options to which officer may be exposed as part of professional leadership pedagogy. Singling it out would imply that it has inherently superior individual and collective benefits that may not be so obvious to the other practices to which officers express a sense of ownership. 

 

In so far as which of the diverse methodologies of meditation that officers can be enlightened about, a technique of comparative evaluation may be evolved whereby individual and collective benefits of each can be assessed. In the perspective of this writer, this is not an exercise that the Services are equipped or mandated to conduct, irrespective of the expertise available at the INI or the Center of Meditation, College of Combat. Importation of a popular practice from wider society and giving it Service imprimatur may not be entirely appropriate given the personal nature of spirituality and its wellsprings in respective culture and religion. Attempting to inject specific practices into our professional development through formal incorporation into our leader development curriculum would amount to a lack of appreciation of the socio-political environment through which our nation-state is currently transiting and within which our armed forces require to navigate in keeping with our apolitical heritage.