Business and Faith – How So Many Businesses Fail Us.

Tonight, I speak at Imperial College’s Business School about business and faith in society. I am of course a Hindu and India is known as Hindustan to many.

And the next time an Indian politician or businessman falls short of what India deserves, what India expects, I want you to remind them of what is Hindustan:

Tell them: India is the world’s largest, oldest, continuous civilization.

Tell them: Varanasi, is the oldest, continuously inhabited city in the world today

The World’s first university was established in India in 700 B.C.

Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to humans.

Tell them: The art of Navigation was born in the river Sindhu 6,000 years ago.

Birthplace of the faiths followed by one in four of all humanity: Hinduism, Buddhism.

Tell them: India has its Barack Obama: a Prime Minsiter of a faith followed by only 2% of the population, sworn in by a Muslim, from a party led by a Christian, leading a nation with 79% Hindus.

You tell them the words of Historian Dr Arnold Toynbee who said, “It is already becoming clear that a chapter which had a Western beginning will have to have an Indian ending, if it is not to end in the self-destruction of the human race.”

You tell them the words of Albert Einstein who said ‘When I read the Bhagavad Gita and reflect about how God created this universe everything else seems superfluous.’

You tell them the words of French Journalist and Philosopher Francois Gautier: who said

“Oh Member of the Indian Intelligentsia! You think that reading the latest New York Times bestseller, speaking polished English, and putting down your own countrymen, especially anybody who has a Hindu connection, makes you an intellectual? But in the process you have not only lost your roots, you have turned your back on a culture and civilisation that is thousands of years old and has given so much to the world. Cry O my beloved Hindustan, look what thy children have done to thee!”

And the words of Annie Besant.

“And if Hindus do not maintain Hinduism – who shall save it?

If India’s own children do not cling to her faith – who will guard it?”

You spread this message when politicians and businessmen falls short and let us down.

Finally, remember oh business genius of the future…when a child goes hungry in another part of the world…you have failed.

(You might want to look up Akshaya Patra, RowForFreedom, British Asian Trust to name a few).