We create our own world
He’s known in biz circles as the billionaire businessman who introduced the great Indian middle class to the delights of mall culture. The smiles on the faces of his customers mean much more to him than the wealth of his business empire…
Kishore Biyani
SPIRITUALITY to me is about discovering oneself and thereby achieving a sense of fulfillment and an inner peace. This sensibility cannot be measured or fully defined. It is about a particular moment, an instance, an expression, an experience that is realised.
I am a non-conformist. I visit temples, but not for performing puja. Temples are places where different sections of the society converge and I like to observe how human beings behave at places of worship. I do not wear any amulets or lucky charm. Rather than depend on such things, I lead my life based on some simple philosophies like, ‘Go with the Flow’.
Different people have different ways of measuring success and thereby deriving happiness. Some people measure success by the car they drive, their job title, the grades they received in school, the college they graduated from, or the awards and recognition society has showered over them. We all live in our own shells — have our exclusive admirers and critics. We love to inspect ourselves in the mirror, either to reprimand or pat ourselves on the back. And when someone becomes known to the public, he or she lives by the mirror of the newspapers or television channels. Many of them, I have found, decide their success by the number of times they have appeared on television or the number of times their name or photo appeared in the newspapers.
To me every individual is inherently special and successful in some way or the other. What is therefore important is to discover oneself, introspect and understand one’s strengths and weaknesses and then let the flow take over. I have always looked at the end goal and pursued it with all my passion. And when faced with tough challenges, I have chosen to take the lesser-travelled road rather than confronting someone or compromising on my belief system.
Even in the competitive arena of business, I have let the flow take me over and lead me to the simple satisfaction of doing a job well. To me ‘flow’ implies immersing oneself fully into what one does.
I interpret life very differently and I have this belief that we all come to this world to kill time. Therefore, we pick up some activity that we like doing and call it our profession. I call this the Time Pass theory.
I work to build a business, an organisation. But what I am essentially doing is trying to spend the time I have in this lifetime. Every morning, I get busy getting ready to leave for work or some meeting. I am doing it not because I have to do it. I am doing it because I will not have much else to do through the day.
Through this work-life of ours, we tend to create our own world. We make our own definitions of success and failure, of victories and defeats. And we use these not only to judge our own selves, but also to judge others, without ever realising that all we are doing is basically digging holes and filling them up. Yet I have seen so many people take their life too seriously, not realising that what they are essentially doing in this world is time pass.
For me happiness can be achieved only when I am truly tuned into my environment and am willing to go with its flow. The fulfillment I experience when I see happy shoppers outside our stores, when I see more customers carrying our shopping bags, or when I see the simple smiles of pleasure on the faces of our customers, is far greater than any recognition or award. And that’s when I realise my sense of spirituality.
(Kishore Biyani is the CEO, Future Group and author of
It Happened in India) 
Courtesy :: Sunday Times (6th May 2007)
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