Jain Spirit 2003 12 No 17

Author(s): Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains

Page 34

LIFESTYLE
STRAIGHT TALK
Alpa Dhanani introspects on ethics in business
A
COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO, MY HUSBAND arrived home with a copy of the Sunday Times (a UK newspaper). Enclosed was a supplement of the Sunday Times Rich List, 2003. This listed, amongst many other facts and figures, the 50 richest people in the world, the 1000 richest in the UK, the 100 richest young people and the wealthiest women. Soon he was reeling off the success stories of various individuals and families, describing their various businesses, how they had started out, what their big breakthroughs were and more.
Of course it was encouraging to read something so positive about the personal attributes and abilities of these individuals, especially for the young and/or female millionaires, those who are not native to the UK and those who had started out singlehandedly. Yet, one thought niggled away at me: how many of these people had built their empires in what I termed a 'straight' manner. At this point, though I wasn't sure of what exactly 'straight' comprised, I was embarrassed at one level to sound so cynical and question an individual's morality. Yet at another level, I justified my thoughts on the grounds that in the recent past, we have come across many and varied business scandals, in which management have acted inappropriately, pursuing their own self interests at the expense of the business community at large, including employees, customers and investors.
This got me thinking - is there a relationship between Jainism and business? I believe it is possible and is indeed the very order of the world for business and religion to co-exist. While Mahavir had detached from the material world in his pursuit of spiritual enlightenment, he had recognised the need in this world for a society at large. Mahavir saw the material world as one that was closely synchronised and co-ordinated with spiritualism. While one is justified in pursuing a goal of material wealth (which is indeed necessary for a society to function), he or she should be guided by our spiritual values. While most of us agree that it is possible to be both part of the (business) community as well as Jain, some of us fall occasionally short (myself included) in pursuing the two systematically. Thus while we agree that both religion and business co-exist, we treat them as two mutually exclusive events. We may, as part of our rituals, do our daily pooja or
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rosary, or make a weekly trip to the temple, but we distance ourselves from that context when pursuing the rest of our worldly activities.
In an attempt to interweave the business world with spiritualism, I came across four virtues that Jainism subscribes to as especially important. These virtues, interrelated to one another, are non-violence, honesty and truth, generosity and forgiveness. (The vices corresponding to these are violence, dishonesty, untruth, greed and anger). One issue, however, that of self-interest caused me concern at first - it did not appear in the picture at all, and yet it can be a very real antithesis to our Jain values: pursuing your own interests at the expense of others. But self-interest is often perhaps the one big inspiration behind anything that we do and therefore instrumental in all our activities. Also, it is not the actual self-interest that is an issue, but it is what that selfinterest comprises that becomes the issue. It is the virtues and vices, such as generosity and greed, that define what one's self interests are.
"Integrity is vital to success"
I appreciate that we live in what can be termed a rather harsh world, in which our competitors, suppliers, customers etc. may not subscribe to our Jain values and principles and as a result we may end up losing out (quite extensively) in financial terms. My aim is not to ensure smaller bank balances for fellow Jains. Rather, this article will have served its purpose if it just sets us thinking consciously about some of the things we do in our businesses from a Jain
context.
At its very basic in the corporate context, ahimsa transcribes itself as not engaging in business activities that entail violence. To take this a step further, we can extend it to refraining and minimising on activities that may bring harm to another. This may be an employee, a customer or a supplier. Recently I was talking to a pharmacist who encountered a situation in which a patient returned for a particular medicine more frequently than was otherwise normal. The pharmacist suspected that the patient was abusing the drug. In this case, was it right for him to sell more medication to the patient for 'till-care' or was it better for him to refuse the sale for 'patient care'?