Empowering Excellence: Mr. Anil Sachdev

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Founder & Chairman Mr. Anil Sachdev

26 Nov 2014
- admin
- Faculty Desk
Summary

The Chinmaya Ashram is located in the beautiful valley of Sidhbari, very close to Dharamshala where the vision of SOIL was first created. The SOIL Institute of Management Founder & Chairman, Mr. Anil Sachdev has been teaching positive Psychology, derived from the Indian spiritual traditions, which suggests that there is goodness inside each person. Every year, all the students are taken for a week-long trip to the ashram, to teach/ learn through nature – how we can appreciate goodness within ourselves, and the community, what enables us to give our best, what are the strengths in us and the community, and how it all can be leveraged to take the community to the next level. This is indeed the best week of the entire MBA program, vividly remembered by the students even years after graduation.

Transcript

This is Anil Sachdev, the founder of the School of inspired leadership. And we are here with all our students, staff and faculty and also some of our board members and mentors, in this beautiful valley of Sidhbari, which literally means the valley of the realized souls. This is the place where the Chinmaya ashram is located. Swami Chinmayananda spent a lot of his time here because he said that we owe a debt to the people of Himalayas who looked after all the Rishis for centuries. So, in this beautiful place very close to dharamshala, with the Dhauladhar mountains right at the back, a very picturesque beautiful surroundings. We have been coming here every year since 2000 and we founded the Grow Talent company and the School of Inspired Leadership. The vision of SOIL was made right here in the place where I’m standing with the group of people who came from different parts of the country and overseas.

Every year this week that we spend in Sidhbari is one of the most beautiful periods in everybody’s lives. I teach the course here on appreciative inquiry or positive psychology derived from the Indian spiritual traditions. It basically says that there is goodness inside each person and how do we embrace the goodness within ourselves as we appreciate the goodness within others. As we help people and ourselves to find our positives, our strengths, our gifts and we learn how to leverage them to create a dream for a purpose that is truly inspiring to us and also creates a legacy and impact on the world. So, after teaching this course to the students, we make the students go into the nearby villages of Kangra district where the Chinmaya Organization of Rural Development led by the very inspiring, National Director, Dr. Kshama Metre has done amazing work for more than 30 years. These villages 30 years back were impoverished. The women were beaten up by their husbands who were alcoholics and the conditions were pathetic. Then, began this movement of Dr. Kshama Metre, inspired by Swami Chinmayananda’s teachings. She made people realize the goodness within. She got people to organize themselves, create self help groups, and created one of India’s most admired integrated community development programmes.

Our students go to interview villagers by using appreciative inquiry to ask from them when they were at their joyful best? What enabled them to give off their best? What are the strengths in the community and themselves, how can they leverage that to take the community to the next level? This is indeed the best time of their lives for our students. Many years after they pass out, they remember this as the highlight of the SOIL learning experience. They sit with the villagers, break bread, eat food with them, sing and dance with them, and also see some very difficult situations where people are in extreme pain and how the whole self-help groups have helped each other to come out of the pain. And then these students come back, they prepare for depicting their learning and sharing their learning with other students, staff and faculty. So, they use multiple intelligences, art forms, dance, music, skits and theatre to share their learning with the students. And when they do that, that whole performance which is done in the presence of us all and Dr. Kshama Metre, really makes the life of the villages come alive. It’s such a beautiful depiction that is very moving and very touching to all the students and to everybody else.

Yesterday here, we had this amazing display of the same creativity. And I can safely say that these are the best days of our lives when we come here. This is so important as a part of learning to go outdoors, be with nature and go for long walks, and then right behind the samadhi of Swami Chinmayananda where on 3rd Aug 1993, after he left his body. The body was brought back from San Diego and put to rest here. This is his samadhi. Every morning at 6am there is this aarti done here which all of us attend. Also, in the evening in winter at 5:30 and we also go to the Ram temple and then we sit in meditation in the morning. So, it’s the most joyful period. The students get very energized and inspired. We all get very energized. This is such an important part of their learning to be in touch with who they are, understand themselves in a deeper way, find a life of purpose and above all find the compassion in themselves by learning from the inspiration of God so that they really practice what SOIL stands for. And I wanted to share this with you – the beautiful surroundings of Sidhbari, the valley of the realized souls.

Thank you for listening!

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