Mumbai is the global financial capital of India with many businesses contributing to the spiraling growth of the financial engine. What could be a better pace to organize the Artha Forum conference on Dharma in Business on April 7th, 2017.
The Learning Galaxy at the Urmi Estate , Lower Parel was the venue and witness to some really wonderful insights into the topic Dharma in Business owing to the conference organized by the Artha Forum. Mr. Amit Chandra – Managing Director of Bain Capital, Mr. Sunil Sanghai – Vice Chairman and Head of Investment Banking HSBC, Mr. Rajeev Srivastava – Managing Partner of Basil Capital Partners and His Holiness, Bhakti Rasamrita Swami – Global Spiritual Leader, were the eminent panel members at Artha Forum.
It was wonderful to have speakers talk about Dharma in Business from their personal life stories and their application followed by a felicitation ceremony of a family that has also recently shown the way.The award “Chatrapati Shivaji Gau Raksha” was presented to Gowani Family for their exemplary role in protecting cows and nurturing them. It was conferred to Mr. Vinod Gowani, Managing Director of the T.G. Group who received the Award along with his family. The Gowani family has adopted 88 cows in Govardhan Eco village established by International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) for 30 years. The Gaushala in GEV is now named as Urmi Gaushala.
Over 150 business professionals & entrepreneurs attended this event. By hearing the experiences of esteemed the speakers, the attendees were empowered with answers to the questions “What is the dharma of business? And why is connecting with that dharma vital to the future of humanity and the planet?”
Amit Chandra, noted businessman and MD, Bain Capital, called upon the audience to get involved in charitable works and learn to give back to the society. “We must spare at least one-third of the time to do social work,” he said. In a country which celebrates its wealth creators, Amit Chandra and his wife are known to be a couple that both give between 50-75% of their time and annual income to social causes. Many business leaders grapple with the issue of when is the right time to start giving, how much should they give, and should they get involved with their time? Sunil Sanghai in the question and answer session with Amit Chandra requested him to help answer this question for the assembled audience.
Rajeev Srivastava, Managing Partner, Basil Capital Partners, said “In line with the mission we exist to connect entrepreneurs, professionals and business leaders over the common ground of “Earn with Integrity, Spend with Compassion.” We support individuals and business houses to translate this into practical action through events, conferences, training, and literature. We believe that the more you give, the more you will prosper and we have seen this from our own experience and working with companies whom we have nurtured as businesses.”
“Dharma upholds everything in life so why not business…why should it be an exception. If our business is run according to principles of dharma, the dharma will protect our business, it will sustain,” said HH Bhakti Rasamrita Swami, worldwide spiritual teacher and leader while delivering a talk on ‘Dharma and Business’ at the Artha Forum.
Dharma is embodied in the form of a bull which has four legs that represent the four pillars (of Dharma). These four pillars are Balance, Cleanliness, Compassion and Truthfulness and must be protected by people across the society, he said.
