One of the hallmarks of a great captain is that he never goes by numbers. He will never complain that there is a lack of manpower. He will perform efficiently even within limited resources.A company called Max Financial Services (MFSL) is worth 24,000 crores. MFSL was ranked 166th in the Burgundy Private Hunoor India 500 list published by Axis Bank in December 2022. In the last week of November 2022, its share price increased by eight percent. MFSL is registered in both BSE and NSE. Surprisingly, such a company as large as MFSL has only twelve registered employees. Mr. Analjit Singh who is the founder and chairman of Max Company seems to be good at running a company with less people. From this example, it can be observed that the success of a company or an organization is not necessarily due to numbers or the influence of the sheer power of numbers on related things. High performance leaders don't fall into the numbers game. They work on the principle of one.
Kama Holdings is a small mid cap company. Their area of interest is education, real estate and investment. According to a report, it is worth Rs 8,388 crore. Surprisingly, the company is run by only three employees and six board members !
Pramukh Swami Maharaj was a skilled leader who never laid emphasis on numbers. When he was appointed as the head of BAPS, the number of saints was very small, in fact they could be counted on fingertips and even the devotees in the organization were very less, only a few thousands. But Swamishri never looked at numbers. Instead on focussing on how many people, he would concentrate on how skilled are the people. Then he would provide them with innumerable scope and opportunities to perform. People kept on working on new things and kept learning new things.
Years ago, at the request of the devotees of London, the construction of a big temple was commenced. It was to be a very divine, magnificent and supernatural temple. Also, it was designed in the Haveli style of Architecture in wood, which was never before seen in Europe. The whole project was of an immense scale and hence it was imperative that Saints stay there to oversee the temple building activity, further nourish the satsang and provide a source of strength to the satsangis. The devotees had also repeatedly requested Swamiji to appoint Saints for the same in this regard. The enormity of the project called for about ten to fifteen saints to oversee it. But Swamiji sent just two saints in 1994. Atmaswaroop Swami went along with another saint to supervise the work of the temple and conduct spiritual activities. These two saints stayed there and gave their services. Further, Atmaswaroop Swami had asthma, so the cold climate of London was not suiting him in any way. Again, the asthmatic condition got aggravated in the chilly cold as well as due to snow fall. The problems increased in such circumstances, but Swamiji did not increase the number of saints and completed the massive work with only two saints.
Something similar happened in America, a country, three times bigger than India and having a fairly large satsang. Over the years, several devotees have settled out there. Also, in big cities like Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Jose, Dallas, etc., It was quite feasible to build huge temples. Again, apart from America, Satsang is fairly widespread in Canada as well. So the conditions were good to build a temple in Toronto. The devotees of America and Canada wished that Saints be placed in their respective countries full time in order to oversee the temple construction and for other Satsang activities. A request was also made to Swamiji in this regard. keeping their reasonable request in mind, Swamiji instructed Yagnavallabha Swami to stay there with a saint. Looking at such big countries with respect to only a couple of saints may seem surprising but Swamiji entrusted this massive work to these two saints. Thus , these Saints settled in North America and in time, beautiful full scale temples with pinnacles were built in Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Toronto and more than 100 other smaller Hari mandirs were established all over North America. This is also a record of sorts for Pramukh Swami Maharaj. At present Akshardham is being built in a 260 acred complex at Robbinsville, a town in the state of New Jersey. The whole gist is that Swamiji never did any work by putting many saints or devotees on the task. Right since the inception of the organisation, Swamiji has taken the services of as few saints and devotees as possible for any given task. Of course, wherever required, the numbers have been increased in a very thoughtful manner. This is such an eye opening management theory. But Swamiji had always worked by it.
Thanks Giving
This article is written and submitted to The E Today by Sadhu Amrutvadandas. We thank swamiji for his research and analysis and hope to see the awareness about life and peace being spread ahead to larger mass of our citizens.