Discussions on leadership are by no means new, not even remotely so! The oldest discussions on leadership took place in the great Mahabharata War on the battlefield of Kuruksetra fought between Kuru and Pandava factions of the Kaurava dynasty more than 5,000 years ago. The battle was fought to determine who would be the emperor of the whole world.

On his deathbed, the warrior-mystic Grandfather Bhismadeva was giving instructions to the future King Yudhisthira on how to handle the kingdom. In those days, one emperor ruled the whole of the world, so it was not a small undertaking by any means.

Working on proven methods from the ruling class in ancient India , His Holiness B.T. Swami has highlighted Grandfather Bhismadeva’s instructions in his book “Leadership for an age of Higher consciousness Vol 2”. Following on with this, he then takes another look at the techniques of King Prithu Maharaja, a renowned visionary king described in the ancient classic Srimad Bhagavatam.

Powerful King Prithu’s life is a strong example of his servant-leadership qualities wherein he was always seeking to fulfill needs rather than desires.

Ten Characteristics of a Servant Leader

1. A servant leader is a deep lover of people

“In Sanskrit we say param-dukha-duhki-krpam bhuudhi. This means that a servant-leader feels the suffering of others, because he is in tune with his constituents and genuinely concerned for their welfare. A servant-leader’s empathy is genuine.

A servant-leader has a great appreciation for power, money, facility and any other type of asset – not because he sees himself as a proprietor, but because he understand that such facility is necessary to become genuinely productive. A servant-leader feels a passion to help others, but realizes that if he has no facility to do so, his passion will not be realized. A servant-leader loves power, influence, money and assets, but simply to coordinate their use for the benefit of the people under his care.”

King Prithu is a genuine example of such a servant-leader. He says:

“the King will respect all women as if they were his own mother, and he will treat his own wife as the other half of his body. He will be just like an affectionate father to his citizens, and he will treat himself as the most obedient servant of the devotees, who always preach the glories of the Lord”

But maybe we don’t see how this fits into our lives – ah but it does!. Television abounds with problem solving channels, from removing the clutter and finding the carpets, to learning how to understand and discipline the children, not to mention our concern with law, order and crime.

It can help us immensely as individuals, if we too can learn to think like a properly empowered servant-leader because we can then develop our own power. Power to deal with the children’s tantrums; power to motivate; power to make decisions …and keep them; power to learn to understand other people better and to have compassion for them; power to recognise good leadership as well as power to know how to act properly according to time, place and circumstance.

Power means not only physical power, but, social, emotional, mental, even intuitive power. Knowledge gives power, however development of character is real power. Sacred power is what is needed if we want to help bring out the best in others and this can only be achieved if we develop internally – developing our character is one of the steps in raising our consciousness and deepening our spirituality.

“Character is the ability to rise above self interest for the sake of others. Character is who you are when others are not watching”

As members of the human race, we need to learn how to deal with all possibilities that this Earth School is presenting us with and to have techniques that will strengthen our character not flatten us with ignorance. We need to develop the mindset of these powerful servant-leaders to help us daily so that we can see with clear eyes, the way forward.

“….there is never a time when even the most inauspicious situation cannot be turned into an educational and productive situation”

Reluctant leaders need to understand that to a greater or lesser extent we are already influencing someone else by our actions – and this is either direct or indirect leadership any way. By becoming more conscious of this we can become wise individuals that really benefit those around us – our children, if not the neighbours, the supermarket shop staff, in fact anyone we come into contact with.

“We should always work as if our success depends upon our own work, while we know that our success is actually dependent on God’s grace. We should not be among those who wait for God to solve all our problems. God is waiting for us, and He has no favorites. He is an equal opportunity employer.”

We tend to visualise leaders standing up addressing big businesses, cleverly explaining away apparent problems and bringing forth visionary ideas for new ways forward. There is little resemblance between us and them, or so we think. And yet they all had parents, teachers, and respected guides and mentors. The boy or girl next door might grow up to be the next president but how much more will we all be benefited if he was properly trained to value guidance from someone just like you.