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Sai Baba's Mahavakya on Leadership : Book for Youth, Parents and Teachers

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Maha means 'great'; Vakya means 'utterance'. So this is the great utterance on Leadership by Sathya Sai Baba. And what is the great utterance? "A good leader knows his people as well as their mothers do, and cares for them even more." This book is the fruit of the military experience of Lt.Gen Chibber, its trial at the MBA School of the Indira Gandhi University in Delhi, and is compiled from the long and fruitful interactions between the Chancellor of the Sai University in Puttaparthi and the MBA students. It is said that management says a ladder has to be put up against a wall. Leadership gets the right ladder up the wall with excellence. True Leadership is a by product of spirituality. True spirituality is head, hand and heart acting in unison. The four components of Leadership are 'To Be, To Do, To See and To Tell.' The foundation of Leadership is the 'To Be' element. Leaders expose their character with their actions and decisions. True leadership is selflessness based on an ideal or a vision beyond self. Selflessless alone can aid the leadership of tomorrow to rise above self interest and the hubris of ego. At the completion of working through this book, aspiring leaders will be able to: assess themselves against a checklist of leadership qualitites, be engaged in a program of self-improvement; know and practice the five human values that sustain life and the universe; know and practice the basis of integrity and its relationship to character, and understand the role of desire in human unhappiness. This is as guide for youth, parents and teachers. It is written as an action guide to encourage young people to embark on a program of self development so that they can improve their leadership potential to the maximum extent. Young people are the harvest society reaps for its future. As leadership is a capability which can be acquired and improved upon by transformation of character, public and corporate leaders will benefit by reading and putting into practice the teachings contained in this book. The foreword written by Sathya Sai Baba, says "Leadership is idealism in action. A leader is one who gives up all ideas of possessiveness, strives only for the well-being of society and holds himself forth as an ideal human being."

I thought that this was a thought provoking book on leadership which challenges the commonly held views of what qualities a good leader should have. I particularly liked the self assessment and diary sections as I found them very helpful in trying to improve and transform myself - although this is still an ongoing process! Anybody wanting to improve themselves in ALL aspects of their lives should read this book. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

A wonderful book which gives examples of great leaders who, by their example, have influenced people and achieved great things in their lives. The book also indicates the importance of selflessness for a leader, unlike the CEO's of today, who are mostly materialistic fools and use money to tempt their subordinates to obey them.

Although I haven't read all of this book, I found it a very interesting,thought provoking and full of deep meaning