Q: How important is it for a leader to be spiritually aware?
A: The definition of spirituality may change from person to person. Incorporating spirituality into a company’s leadership makes it a more humane workplace that provides a sense of community and shared purpose. It leads to greater perceptions of trust, organisational support, and commitment among its employees, which ultimately positively affect organisational performance. Spirituality is about seeking a meaningful connection resulting in positive emotions, such as peace, contentment, gratitude, and acceptance.
My life is full of ceaseless activities revolving around honesty, ethics, morality, and spirituality. Spirituality immensely improves the quality of whatever we do in our lives. The high point of my life is my spiritual outlook. Satsang with Saints and noble persons has deepened my spiritual understanding and strengthened my resolve to make a lot of money by excelling in my business and using it for the larger good of the people who crossed my life. Spirituality keeps changing its methods as necessitated by the new times.
Shrimad Bhagwad Gita is the focal point of my life. In my earlier days, Dongreji Maharaj nurtured my being. My spiritual growth was facilitated and guided by some enlightened people, namely, Indravadanbhai Choksi, an original Surti, who held Satsang in his house, Atmendraji, who had been the Collector of Ahmedabad, and who later spent his life in renunciation; and Dani Dutt Jha, a teacher of Sanskrit Paathshala in Surat. They helped me remain grounded in spiritual values while I was succeeding in the physical world.
My journey from Dudhala, a remote village in Gujarat, to the finest places in the world, from an impoverished rural life to the riches of life in the city, from a seeker to a provider, can only be attributed to spirituality. Morari Bapu, Ramesh Oza and Swami Sachchidanand are spiritual masters.
Q: What would be the key takeaways from your life experiences right from the times of being a village boy to a diamond baron?
A: My life is held together by a guiding philosophy of life, or what I call the ‘Triveni’ of life. This involves three fundamental beliefs, namely, that honesty and ethics should inform all human activities, that there is a God or an unseen force that permeates everything,and, finally, that the family should be at the centre of one’s life.
I want to put God-centred devotion at the core of all my business activities. Work is a form of Bhakti, a way of serving God through serving one’s fellow humans. This way of identifying God and humanity has been the defining feature of my life. These are the few key takeaways from my life experiences, from being a village boy in Dudhala to a diamond baron in Surat.
Q: You speak about training the young and have shared very interesting tips for the same; how has that experience worked so far with your new generations? Do you see a shift in the attitude of every generation?
A: The family system is about guiding the next generation and forgiving the last. We are a ‘Grand Dholakia Family: Six Families, Six Generations,’ now numbering more than 1,500 individuals, and we meet annually to commemorate our union. My life is my message to the new generation.
I consider my family business the ultimate test of the goodness of people. Respect from elders forms the core of a family business. What I have found is that, in a family business structure, sometimes what is needed more is a sense of discipline rather than creativity. You have to take everyone’s ideas and make them work. When dealing with money, there is a limitation on how creative you can be. I decided to further embed philanthropy in our business so that it became an obligation for my future generations and not an option.
I ensured that my next generation learn these fundamental truths of life, I was also cautious in creating enough space so that the new generation could spread their wings as they liked and fly as high and far as they dared. Maybe as a sign of being grown-up or conditioned by things happening unexpectedly, even after the best planning and effort, I stopped bothering much about the future. I developed a liking for uncertainty. I realised that too much certainty, conformity, and rigidity take away the natural joy of experiencing life as it arrives. We may not know what will happen tomorrow, and being ready to accept with an open heart and mind is the hallmark of a happy man. I liked the idea of flying in the sky over walking on the road for going through life.
Two Gandhian principles I imbibed were Truth and Peace. People say that being in business makes it challenging to talk the truth. However, the kind of person I am, I always want to find the underlying cause of an issue—social, personal, or political. It was difficult, but I continue to be the way I am. I did not look for short-term gains, but over time, I held peace talks with warring people and eventually settled issues amicably. I continue to stick to these principles, which makes me what I am now. These ideologies are passed on to the next generation, who can also learn how to become better citizens of the country.
I practice what I profess. My Gen-Next is on the same path. I went through challenging experiential learning, which was impossible for the next generation as they had been born and brought up amidst abundance, care, and conveniences. After much deliberation, we have designed a novel way of sending them to unknown cities for a month to live all alone.
Q: DAF is a business story with ethics and honesty at the center of it; what do you suggest it takes to remain ethical and honest?
A: At SRK, we have a policy and code of conduct that defines acceptable and unacceptable behaviours. Honest behaviour in the workplace means the extent to which individuals abide by consistent and rational ethical standards.
In my autobiography, ‘Diamonds are forever, so are morals,’ I have said that the first principle of honesty and ethics I learned from Dongreji Maharaj. It was to understand this life as a God-directed phenomenon. ‘God will not give us any problem ever beyond our capacity of sorting it out.’ We are all tested if we would stick to honesty and ethics or succumb to cheating and manipulation. This is the first and foremost principle I learned and followed in my life.
I have never had to resort to lies, and I have never had to lie to gain money or prestige. The policy of never giving up my honesty has proved true and valid. By God’s grace, my mind did not succumb to doing clever things for small profits and success remained attached to me as my shadow.