He did his Engineering degree from Punjab Engineering College,
Chandigarh followed by Master in Business Administration, specializing in
HRD. In his career spanning almost two decedas, he has touched the lives of
thousands of persons. In corporate vconsultancy, he specialized in Self Development,
Stress Management, Motivation, Emotional & Spiritual Quotient, Leadership
and Empowerment training for executives of all levels. He has a rare combination
of training in both the modern Applied Behavioral Science as strong spiritual
upbringing.
While bringing this book to life, I realised it is a big
task in which many people contribute. I take this opportunity to acknowledge
the important contributions of many of my friends and colleagues.
I gratefully acknowledge the contributions of various trainers with whom I
worked closely. Special thanks go to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who taught me how
to reach out to others and share one’s learnings. Dr MMP Akhouri, is
my sounding board with whom I discuss all my projects. Thank you Akhouri for
your valuable inputs from time to time.
Mr Oswald Summertron and Dr Pearl Drego taught me the basics of Transactional
Analysis that immensly contributed to my personal growth journey. They have
a special place in my heart.
I cherish Mr Parthasarathi’s warm support and words of encouragement
to me and I look forward to his inputs. I know I can always go to Partha for
any difficulty and he will be there for me.
Dr Ishwar Dayal and Dr Udai Pareek have been gracious enough to preview the
book and gave valuable feedback. Thank you Ishwar and Udai for your words
of encouragement and advise
Is our destiny in our hands or are we driven by others,
or do we wait for God to take care of us? How does one find happiness and
be at peace with oneself? Such questions occur to many in life. However, most
of us live with such questions but the author of this book went beyond raising
concerns and looked for answers. The book describes his experiences to confront
these questions and his journey to seek his identity. In this journey he does
refer to ideas and concepts to explain or in some way highlight his experiences
that either support or differ from traditional knowledge. For example, the
author believes that two important aspects of Indian personality are feelings
and spirituality. These aspects are an important partof Indian family life.
In this respect the orientation of a person in the Eastern World is different
from the Western.
In the second chapter the author has emphasized that the exercise of being
oneself requires that a person should take charge of his own life rather thanblame
others for his misfortune and difficulties. The third chapter is an extension
of this theme to suggest that it is easy to rationalize one's failures. Success
is achieved through one's own efforts and by believing in himself or herself.
Chapter four discusses the ways the author has been able to"work towards
personal growth." Apart from meditation , the authorbenefited most by
two kinds of inputs :
i) reviewing as a habit the events of the day in a diary and learning from
this
experience, and
ii) special attention and serious note of feedback from others, including
role models.
Chapter five and the remaining chapters are concerned with several aspects
of self development. He believes that recognition of feelings is essential
for development. It is also necessary to analyze feelings like anger and hostility,
etc. and make conscious effort to overcome them. Such negative feelings can
be impediment to one's own growth and for achieving a state of self actualization.
Continuing growth depends a great deal on one's acquiring a positive attitude
to learn and develop sensitivity to
clues that ordinarily we fail to note. In this process the author believes
those group processes or what is termed as group dynamics contribute a great
deal toward "empowerment of the self". The last three chapters in
a sense are different from the earlier nine chapters. These chapters have
to do with what the author has described in chapter one, the spiritual self.
He believes that spiritual growth is necessary for quality living . He believes
that Patanjali's Yoga Sutra can be applied to bring about qualitative change
in one's life.
The strength of the book is that it suggests and also provides hints about
how an individual can enhance self-awareness . And these methods are illustrated
in steps by personal journey towards understanding the self. Those Persons
who are concerned with questions such as "Who am I" and "What
am I" would find the book useful. The attempt of the author to support
certain concepts of growth with his own experiences from life is useful. However,
the author appears to find a great deal of time to devote to "self-development."
Many people in the humdrum of living may not be able to arrange their time
the way the author was able to do.
I found the book extremely useful. This is different both in
content and treatment from many books that reflect on the subject of this
volume. The book could be useful to students, teachers, managers and all those
who seek ways to understand themselves and grow.
Reviewed by Ishwar Dayal
Former Founder Director, IIM Lucknow
