Mr. Geithner has his work cut out for him, economists and policy analysts in both India and the United States say. Reaching economic agreements between the two countries has traditionally been an arduous task.

“On principle, they both agree on everything,” said Jahangir Aziz, chief India economist at J. P. Morgan in Mumbai. “It always comes down to the nitty-gritty and that’s where things get stuck. Part of the problem is neither of them wants to give the other side an inch.”

Shouldn’t the US go a little easier on India, given the size of its market?

It took nearly 20 years for the United States to lift a ban on imports of Indian mangoes, for example, and a deal to allow energy-strapped India access to American nuclear technology, agreed to in principle four years ago, still has not cleared all the legal hurdles that would let American companies sign contracts here. The two countries remain far apart on American farm subsidies and India’s unwillingness to open its markets to foreign farmers, because they both want to protect their agricultural sectors. The countries’ disagreements there helped to scuttle global trade negotiations in 2008.

A funny & relevant tweet from Sadhguru’s public talk yesterday:

When you start thinking only I am right and everybody else is wrong, this is the first step towards madness.

Surely the US qualifies?

India as a culture has invested more time, energy and human resource toward the spiritual development of human beings for a very long time. This can only happen when there is a stable society for long periods without much strife. While all other societies were raked by various types of wars, and revolutions, India remained peaceful for long periods of time. So they invested that time in spiritual development, and it became the day to day ethos of every Indian.

The world looking towards India for spiritual help is nothing new. It has always been so in terms of exploring the inner spaces of a human being-how a human being is made, what is his potential, where could he be taken in terms of his experiences. I don’t think any culture has looked into this with as much depth and variety as India has. Mark Twain visited India and after spending three months and visiting all the right places with his guide he paid India the ultimate compliment when he said that anything that can ever be done by man or God has been done in this land.

So definitely as humanity, today we have reached many peaks in terms of science, economics or technology but if we do not heal the inner damage then all the power that technology has given us will only be used destructively. We are already on the verge of threatening the extinction of the planet. If human beings are not tempered from inside there will always be conflict.

I don’t know about the other gurus traversing the globe, but my endeavor is and theirs should be also, to aim at the political, economic and other areas of leadership. If some element of spirituality enters the life of these leaders, it could change the complexion of the world in a very short time. It is a priority and is beginning to happen but not significantly.

From Kavita Chhibber‘s interview with Sadhguru.

India

She wore a raiment of so many a hue An unfamiliar eye would think she is madness true Her children are such multi-flavored stew This amalgamation of culture a heady brew Isn’t man just an outcrop of the land that his forefathers slew It’s antiquated history of blood & beauty knew A faraway visitor here saw what man or god could ever do Now it is time that you & me blow life & breath anew. –Sadhguru

From India Today: “Because he’s the intelligentsia’s favorite guru…Because he has captured the imagination of the world with his ideas for a better future…” Click here for the pdf & here for the online version.

Unfortunately, because of India’s status in world affairs, I’m sorry to say that I’m not sure this ranking will make a huge impact in the global arena. But nonetheless, it’s recognition of the important work that Sadhguru and Isha Foundation is doing! And, if, as the headlines keep declaring, India rises to the global super-power that it’s destined to become, anything can happen..

“A world full of love, light and laughter – its time has come.

Let us make it happen.” - Sadhguru

From an article called “How meditation can improve leaders’ performance”

The role of a leader in organizations is one of constant pressure to perform and stress to solve problems. Leaders need to be at the top of their game to be alert and productive at all times. Unfortunately, far too many leaders use adrenalin-type of strategies to do so, such as caffeine, long working hours and poor nutrition. Certainly the notion of slowing down and being in a peaceful state isn’t commonly seen as an effective leadership strategy. Yet recent brain research shows that meditation can actually improve performance.

Sadhguru will be conducting a Leadership Retreat in California, April 8-11. We can’t afford to let our leaders miss it!

Q: Can the high-tech and spirituality merge together? What’s your experience on that? What is the advice that you will offer to some of the folks who work in high-tech who are aspiring also on the spiritual track? Can they merge together?

A: Spirituality is high-tech, always been! It’s the highest technology. Because all technology, as I already said, what is the purpose of developing all this technology? Human well-being, isn’t it? And true human well-being will happen only when spiritual well-being is there.

When I say spiritual, do not think in terms of religion, or looking up to heaven or whatever. Spirituality means, as there is a physical reality, there is a dimension beyond the physical which is the basis of your existence. Iif you don’t keep that well, what you call as myself, if you don’t keep that well, if you do not understand the technology of keeping that well, which is very high technology. So if you don’t do that, then there is really no use of other technology.

So I don’t see any kind of contradiction. As people become more and more scientific in their way of looking at life, they will naturally become more and more spiritual. The reason why spirituality has been not as much as it should have been in the world is, there has not been sufficient scientific way of thinking in the planet. Today, probably for the first time in the world, like never before, more and more human beings are beginning to think logically and scientifically. So naturally, the world will become more and more spiritual.

Economic activity in the world is as old as humanity. Beginning as a rudimentary activity, it has become more and more efficient, complex and finally disastrous to the planet today.

Until the inner well being is in place, organization of the outer world will continue to be haphazard. We must remember that we are spiritual well beings first and indulge in economic activity to exist in this world. As long as we force our will, instead of doing what is really needed, we will not prosper. In the coming years, economic leaders will be even more influential than the political leaders. It is important that they too work towards the inner well being of humanity-only then can we take control of our outer well being.

Spirituality too has been in the world as long as humanity has existed and the process too has evolved. While spirituality is about organizing your inner being, economics is about organizing your external situation. Cultures that created a balance between their inner well being and outer world did well during their times.

Today the constant buzzword heard is “sustainability”. True spirituality will only happen when people are peaceful and happy and you would think that would be a state in all affluent nations, but that is not so. Instead all economic activity you see in the world is desperate action. People have no concept of what they really need-from a simple matter like how much food they should put in their mouths to how much money or property do they really need. People just do not seem to know when to stop. They are running endlessly in pursuit of happiness.

Only when you are at peace within yourself will you handle economic activity in the way that is good not just for you but for everybody else.

Spirituality has never been as organized as economic activity. Whenever the spiritual processes have been organized it has ended up as religion. All religions on this planet have started as spiritual processes but in the form of religion spirituality has created more trouble.

Economics today is also in a state of dysfunction. Organized economics is supposed to create big opportunities and well being for everyone but the disparity between the rich and the poor is so huge today that it seems as if they are living on different planets.

So both spirituality and economics today do not have the right focus. Today we are not human beings with limitations. Technological advances have greatly empowered all of us, but has it made us happy? It doesn’t seem so.

There seems to be a renewed interest in spirituality, because while economically people have made such huge strides, the inner well being and happiness hasn’t followed. So suddenly there is a great interest in yoga. I hear about 200 million people are practicing yoga in India today and about 25 million people are doing so in the US. This kind of phenomenon hasn’t happened before, and that is because the economic progress has not brought inner well being with it.

Click here for a direct link to Sadhguru’s Keynote Address at TiEcon2007.

“A patriarchal ethos dominates both the societies, American and Indian, but they operate in different ways. In India, despite the patriarchal ethos, powerful women leaders have emerged,” says political scientist Imtiaz Ahmed.

The most famous examples are BSP chief Mayawati and AIADMK head Jayalalitha. Both emerged from the shadow of iconic godfathers, to establish themselves as leaders with grassroots support.

It is not enough to be someone’s wife, sister or mistress in Indian politics. Neerja Gopal Jayal, professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University’s centre of law and governance points out that “Even at the panchayat level, we have had women from the member families being nominated. But the first time, patronage may work but not the second time. And this is true at the national level too.”

I myself have often wondered how, especially in the super-conservative state of Rajasthan, female leaders have established themselves. (See today’s article about Sonia Gandhi criticizing “the corrupt and inefficient [Vasundhara Raje] government.”)

Ranjana Kumari, director of the Centre for Social Research says, “What is unique to India, is the fact that women have the space to grow as leaders. Maybe, it has to do with our cultural ethos, where women are worshipped as goddesses.’’

I’m not so sure about the goddess worship argument, considering the low status of the majority of women; I think it could be more likely the ethos of ‘Mother India’ and the self-sacrificing stereotype of mothers/women.