Jaideep 2.0: My story of turning Heartpreneur
I had heard that there are many monks in the Himalayas who meditate deeply and pray for the well being of this world. I had never believed it because I used to only believe what I saw. Fast forward two months – now I see what I believe! How did this shift come about? Let me walk you through my initial steps in the hardest journey of moving from Head to Heart!
From Transaction To Trust
Over the last 2 years, I have been fortunate enough to have been part of numerous events. Event management skills came to me without a degree. My friends have often seen me spending sleepless nights and running around with the event flow during events. And here I was, visiting the Moved by Love community where I was part of an Inclusion retreat, and there was no event flow!
It was all about tuning in – not with our heads, but with our hearts – and seeing beautiful emergence, surpassing boundaries that a defined event flow would restrict you to. Magic is in Heart and all of us are definitely magicians! We just need to learn the art of Heart.
From Consumption to Contribution
The virtual world we have created has forced our Heads into consumption mode; be it news, social media feeds, gossip, theories or philosophy. We aspire to contribute towards making this world a better place. But how can infertile soil yield nutritious fruit? Isn’t it futile? Unless we unlearn whatever we have consumed, how can we cultivate love and compassion?
I was lucky enough to travel by train to Pune from Ahmadabad with a Himalayan yogi, Joseph-ji. He shared the essence of life with me in a couple of sentences. He told me,
Jaideep, there is no materialistic path nor spiritual path. There is only one path – in which we give and grow.
While washing dishes, while tuning into collective wisdom, while having spirited midnight talks, while enjoying all the ‘masti’ in a ten-day dorm stay, while munching on little snack a kitchen volunteer offered, while hearing deep whispers in silence – my heart moved towards contribution, dissolving bit by bit the ego and ignorance.
From Scarcity To Abundance
Previously, a social entrepreneur from a corporate background in me always made note of the scarcity my tiny organisation faced. This 3-day startup service retreat initiated my inner transformation towards becoming a Heart-preneur. What followed was a life-altering experience of Vipassana. It led me to cultivate a farming mindset and stillness, with which came a deep reverence for nature, and the belief that he who offers food will never be hungry. Those were my first glimpses of abundance.
The oldest of the 6 monks I had met over 2 months, Dada Vaswaniji, gave me a real definition of abundance when he answered a query regarding how many people (numerically – easily more than thousand!) worked at Vaswani mission. His answer was,
One! All our hearts are connected and one heart is working for all us!
I have to mention about 2 other monks in normal robes who are supporting KnowYourStar with financial & intellectual capital. You didn’t see their names? That’s what they asked for- to be invisible force nudging us to keep doing good. How do I repay the abundance they are showering? I think I can only pay it forward…
From Plan And Execute To Search And Amplify
I have had a few opportunities to develop my leadership skills before, thanks to my school and college (who elected me as the leader for reasons unknown), and I learnt how to plan and execute. But in the ‘Many-to-Many’ era, this approach is not sufficient. I realised the need to cultivate (deep values) more consciously, although we did few aspects unconsciously at KnowYourStar and India Inclusion Summit, where we searched and amplified the smallest of things. Small is always beautiful & more than that, it makes you a instrument to be a ladder, through which new leaders are born in many to many context. In this era, where we have hundred trillion billion connections, how do we bring out collective intelligence to make the world (inner & outer) better? we need laddership to search & amplify…
Considering my work as a Sadhana (practice/worship) towards my Shuddi (purification)
As the days went on, I started listening more. It gave me deep satisfaction to think of everything that my team and I do. We do our work ethically, with pure intentions – something that I now see as a gift we have received unknowingly to purify ourselves to reach the truth – while still being present in society to engage with our daily chores. Most of the work that my team and I do has now shifted from internet to ‘inner-net’ – the strongest connection ever!
Rev. Heng Sure’s anti-greed mantra reverberates through me and so does the presence of another of the monks in my life- Sheetal-ji, who helped me rediscover my love of music, understanding the lyrics of many a songs, while enjoying the essence of it. It’s a good life!
Thank you for reading this and I hope you it helps you be as inspired as I am. If you want to learn more, get in touch with me for a heart-to-heart conversation. I have plenty of stories to share – both of monks and those wearing normal robes! Some defy logic, some bring smiles to faces, some create a sense of peace, some instill a respect of death, some show the truth, some make you believe, some are just unbelievable(!), some very heartwarming, and some about those love warriors – the ones creating a safer world in the Himalayas and beyond.
