Servant Leadership Principles in Hinduism Religion Cultural Context
The world is full of different religions. These religions are deeply embedded in the cultural life of people. Every person with a certain cultural background tends to belongs to a religious group. Inside our various cultural contexts, we are guided by our defined way of life rules. However, in many cases, we have seen such ways of lives aligning with that from other people’s cultural and religious contexts. Hinduism is one of the oldest and widely practiced religions in the world. Hinduism is widely practiced in southeast Asia and the Pacific. However, it has spread and is even widely practice by Hindu people across different parts of the world.
Every religion cultural contexts have different ways of life or religious and cultural norms. However, if there is one of the aspects that is still applied in various religions is servant leadership practices across the world. Servant leadership refers to a leadership philosophy whereby the main objective of the leaders in a society’s cultural context is to serve (Waterman, 2011). This is very different from other leadership styles, especially the transformational leadership style. In transformational leadership, the main objective is ensuring that the organization thrives or even the company in general. For servant leadership, there is a clear distinction as the leaders are focused on sharing power to help people under his authority to perform better.
Servant leadership is founded on key principles. Some of the principles of servant leadership include the aspect of listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship leadership, commitment to the community’s progress, as well as community building. These servant leadership principles apply to various religious-cultural contexts (Waterman, 2011). Hinduism is one of the religious, cultural contexts where there is indeed the depiction of servant leadership principles. In this research paper, we hence aim at analyzing how such principles are applied in Hinduism cultural contexts.
Principles of servant leadership are depicted in the Hinduism religion. Among the Hinduism religious, cultural context, their traditional leaders have been valued for their listening effectiveness. In Hinduism, listening is a very important component of leadership. Hindu religious leaders focus on the value of communication to ease the process of decision making on the matters they are handling (Gottschalk, 2013). Their commitment is towards listening to other people who depend on them to lead them spiritually. Similar to Muslims and Christianity leadership aspects, in Hinduism, leaders across all aspects of the religion are meant to listen respectively to what a person is saying. In addition to that, religious leaders, specifically in Hinduism, focus on getting in touch with another person’s inner feelings (Carroll, 2013). In other words, the focus on understanding how the people they lead feel in terms of studying their body, spirits as well as mental aspects.
Empathy is another servant leadership principle that is highly present among Hinduism leadership. It is, In fact, strongly rooted in their religious, cultural context. Based on my interaction experience with Indians, the sphere of emotions is the center of their religious leaders’ experiences and Saul. Empathy leadership aspect is also displayed in their various forms of communication, particularly the texts. Research studies that have analyzed the ancient Indian texts have realized that they do depend on the complex sphere of human response to the natural revelations of life aspects such as beauty and divine presence. During the worshiping of their gods, religious leaders act as mediators and ensure that there is emotional engagement with their gods in a while also putting themselves on their servants’ shoes (Hage & Posner, 2015)). Indians tend to have people in their midst who possess different special and unique spiritual gifts. Empathy is displayed through their acceptance of such people into their religious society and even given the respect they deserve.
Considering that servant leadership is built on the aspect of healing your servants as a leader, Hinduism is one of the religious groups where it is highly practiced among their leaders, especially the religious leaders. This is a principle that is practiced to contribute to the transformation and integration of servants to the community and contribute to community progress. Healing is also dependent on the spiritual aspect among the Hindu (Lipner, 2012). The Indians have various spiritual healing practices that are practiced and are conducted by religious, spiritual leaders. Among the Indians, forms of possessions, spiritual disorders as well as other forms of abnormalities are Perceived as spiritual problems, and the healing is done through spiritual, religious practices. Examples of the oldest forms of healing include the Ayurveda (Lipner, 2012). It involves a series of various traditional things such as herbs, water, minerals, among other forms. Religious spiritual and cultural-religious are the ones who oversee such a process. It is one of solving community problems (Lipner, 2012).
Furthermore, persuasion and awareness are key principles of servant leadership that are applied in the Hinduism religious, cultural context. Servant leaders as well know it depends on persuasion but not using authority to pressure people into something. In Hinduism religious practices, persuasion is the key thing given attention by religious and cultural leaders. Indians are very religious people. In many cases, leaders persuade their servants while showing them the religious aspect applicable to the matter being persuaded on, especially the spiritual and emotional connection with their gods. Religious practices among the Indians are based on awareness among the people on the importance and the need to participate in various religious practices. This an aspect of religious life that makes life easier for Hinduism religious leaders since they won’t have to use persuasion in most cases. But it is still applied in instances where it is needed.
However, leadership in Indian culture is founded on voluntary subordination. This is one of the aspects of Hinduism that is commonly seen among Indians. It is indeed one of their behaviors that depicts the aspect of servant leadership. Voluntary subordination refers to the aspect of the radical willful act of a person giving himself or herself up for the service benefit of his fellow brothers and sisters (Waterman, 2011). A person tends to hence consider him or herself as a servant. Most of the Indians community relies on Mahatma Gandhi’s principles of how people should relate and live with each other in society. Gandhi’s Principles do also align with the principles of servant leadership. Gandhi himself left behind a legacy of a true servant leader. According to Mahatma Gandhi, service to humanity should be the key tenet among each other in a community or a society in general (Carroll, 2013). Among Indians, any leaders are supposed to show service or his or her servant aspect but not power or authority. When Gandhi was spending his days in South Africa, he used his time as a leader to serve his fellow Indians and transform their life by teaching them English at a free cost (Carroll, 2013). Hence, Mahatma Gandhi is a clear example of people in Hinduism religion who holds the commitment to the growth of other people as well as building them. Besides, this is a clear indication of building the community. Hinduism religion is based on servant leadership, where each person is meant to help another person for community development and growth both in terms of religion, culture, and other aspects.
Moreover, in the Hinduism religion, servant leadership is depicted through the aspect of authentic self among leaders across their various religious aspects and practices. In Hinduism, a servant leader should be the one who can be relied upon. This is indeed possible and is common among Hinduism religious leaders as well as their different aspects of lives where leader’s p depicts a steady portrayal of being responsible, vulnerable, humble, showing integrity as well as acting as a sense of security for your people who depend on you (Carroll, 2013). There are various who have portrayed authentic self in leadership in India, but mahatma Gandhi still stands out as the best. The various characteristics of a servant leader in Hinduism above, Gandhi indeed incorporated all of them in his leadership lifetime. Hindu people show leadership regardless of where they are, the positions they hold, among other factors. For Hinduism religion, servant leadership is showing sacrifice for the people and placing yourself in other peoples’ shoes.
In conclusion, the application of servant leadership is common among various religions. For Hinduism, the indeed depict a true definition of how servant leadership should be done. Through servant leadership in Hinduism, community progress is ensured as there are people who act as good examples to others and sacrifice themselves for the common good of others. Servant leadership in Hinduism religious context has been defined the way it is supposed to be; being a servant to your fellow brothers and sisters who are below you or in any circumstance you are given the opportunity to lead.
References
Carroll, B. C. (2013). Servant leadership theory cross-culturally: A comparative study between India and the United States. Regent University.
Gottschalk, P. (2013). Religion, science, and empire: classifying Hinduism and Islam in British India. Oxford University Press.
Hage, J., & Posner, B. Z. (2015). Religion, religiosity, and leadership practices. Leadership & Organization Development Journal.
Lipner, J. (2012). Hindus: Their religious beliefs and practices. Routledge.
Waterman, H. (2011). Principles of ‘servant leadership and how they can enhance practice. Nursing Management, 17(9).