Need for a theory of inspiration

It has been presumed for many years that satisfying lower order needs of workers - adequate food, clothing and shelter, etc. are key factors in motivation. However, it is a common experience that the dissatisfaction of the Clerical employee and of a Top Manager is identical, though their scales and composition vary. It should be true that once the lower-order needs are more than satisfied, the Top Manager should have little problem in optimising his contribution to the organisation and society. But more often than not, it does not happen like that. On the contrary, a lowly paid schoolteacher, or a self-employed artisan, may well demonstrate higher levels of self-actualisation despite poorer satisfaction of their lower-order needs. How can this be explained?

'Self-transcendence' propounded in the Bhagawat Gita tries to address this dichotomy. Self-transcendence involves renouncing egoism, putting others before oneself, emphasising team work, dignity, co-operation, harmony and trust ­ and, indeed potentially sacrificing lower needs for higher goals, the opposite of what was propounded by Abraham Maslow.

“Work must be done with detachment.” It is the ego that spoils work and the ego is the centrepiece of most theories of motivation. What we need is not merely a theory of motivation but a theory of inspiration.

Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore says that working for love is freedom in action. A concept which is described as “disinterested work"in the Gita where Sri Krishna says, “He who shares the wealth generated only after serving the people, through work done as a sacrifice for them, is freed from all sins. On the contrary those who earn wealth only for themselves, eat sins that lead to frustration and failure.”

Disinterested work finds expression in devotion, surrender and equipoise. The former two are psychological while the third is determination to keep the mind free of the materialistic pulls of daily experiences. Detached involvement in work is the key to mental equanimity. This attitude leads to a stage where the worker begins to feel the presence of the ultimate intelligence guiding the embodied individual intelligence. Such de-personified intelligence is best suited for those who sincerely believe in the supremacy of organisational goals as compared to narrow personal success and achievement - courtesy various sources on Bhagawat Gita