A Bhagavad Gita for your leadership team
The Bhagavad Gita is a conversation between a leader and his counsel on the morning of his hardest decision. Arjuna knows what is right and can see exactly what it will cost him, and the seven hundred verses that follow are Krishna leading him back to clear sight and to action. That is the situation every person on your leadership team meets in a smaller form most weeks. A gift that speaks to it directly says something a hamper cannot.
The difficulty with gifting the Bhagavad Gita is that most leaders already own a copy and have read very little of it. A standard edition asks for Sanskrit, for patience with commentary, and for a free evening, and the book goes back on the shelf. An edition made for a working leader asks for a few minutes in the morning, gives the meaning in plain language, and connects the verse to the day ahead.
If you are choosing an edition for a team, these are the things to look for.
What to look for in an edition for leaders
One verse to a page
A page a morning is a habit a busy person can keep. A dense edition with ten verses to a page is read once, if at all.
The meaning in plain English and in Hindi
Your team will include people who read one more comfortably than the other. An edition with both, and a transliteration for the Sanskrit, excludes nobody.
A reflection on leading, with a question
The Bhagavad Gita speaks about duty, decision, anger, ego, failure and trust. An edition that draws the leadership teaching out of each verse, and ends with a question, is what makes the book useful on a desk rather than a shelf.
Suitable for readers of every faith
The book should treat the Bhagavad Gita as a text on duty, decision and self-mastery, so that every member of the team can receive it as a gift about leading.
Made to be kept
A hardback with a jacket, a ribbon, a box and a bag. The gift is opened a hundred times, and it should look right on a desk in year three.
The Ethical Leader’s Gita
Each of the 700 verses of the Bhagavad Gita on a page of its own, with the Sanskrit, a transliteration, the meaning in English and in Hindi, and a reflection on what the verse asks of a person who leads others. An 880-page hardback with jacket, 11 by 8.5 inches, with forewords by Prof. Dr. Sunil Maheshwari and Prof. Dr. Vishal Gupta of IIM Ahmedabad. MRP ₹4,995. On this site ₹4,295 including courier within India, and from ₹4,160 per copy for 10 copies or more.