How does a member of the tribe of the delicately nurtured feel when taking a just-born baby into her hands? As someone who is instead a member of the so-called sterner sex, I am least qualified to describe that moment of overwhelming joy.
However, I guess I came pretty close to experiencing a somewhat similar emotion recently. A few days back, the first lot of my recently published book Bhagavad Gita’s Guide to Corporate Dharma: Timeless Strategies to navigate the Corporate Jungle arrived at my humble abode. A cloud of unalloyed joy enveloped me. I confess that a few tears of uncontrolled mirth rolled down my cheeks. This baby took close to seven years from its conception to delivery. Finally, I could hold it in my hands!
How this book happened
Studying the Gita had remained a pious intention for many years. Every time I tried to go through it, I could not progress beyond its fourth chapter. But the book then went back to its place on the bookshelf. Mundane concerns of life distracted one. Life rolled by.
Until the day, when Fate sneaked up from behind and struck me with the proverbial lead pipe. In 2018, my companion of over forty years passed away. A long phase of grieving followed, wherein the words of the Gita made little sense. When Reason started returning to its throne, the desire to go through the scripture resurfaced.
Having been a corporate warrior throughout my career, the only way I could look at the scripture’s contents would be through the tinted glasses of the art and science of management. Thus, when I again picked up one of the commentaries on the Gita, I was wondering if it had anything to say that would be considered relevant by managers. Gita did not disappoint. In fact, I found the vast canvas it paints to be of immense utility in the corporate world. It even touched upon the responsibilities of business leaders and entrepreneurs. It touched upon the importance of having saatvic (pious) thoughts and performing acts in a similar vein.
नियतं सङ्गरहितमरागद्वेषत: कृतम् |
अफलप्रेप्सुना कर्म यतत्सात्त्विकमुच्यते || 18.23||
The assigned action, which is done without attachment, attraction (or) repulsion and without clinging to (its) fruit that is called ‘sattvic.’
During my career span of 35+ years, I have had a privilege to be associated with many organisations. Each one had a unique set of values that it followed. Thus, each one’s culture was different. Quite a few of these could be found on the opposite ends of a spectrum of corrupt practices. To some, the means were as important as the ends. They put a high premium on values and ethics in business. An experience of this kind made a subjective interpretation of the Gita through the tinted glasses of someone who remains a student of management even more interesting.
Slowly, an idea of sharing this interpretation with a larger audience started taking shape. This is how the book under reference came about.
An Epidemic Intervenes
By the end of 2019, a manuscript was in place. During January 2020, an agreement was signed with a publisher.
However, my Guardian Angels had their own plans for the book. Come March 2020, and the epidemic of Covid played a spoilsport. The book went into cold storage. Every two years, I kept updating the manuscript. Finally, it was in 2025 that the book found its place on the conveyor belt of the publishers.
From October to December 2025, the publisher’s editorial team burnt the proverbial midnight oil, tolerating my tantrums on finer details. Like ministering angels, they kept supporting me in polishing up the text and giving the book its present shape. The manuscript underwent as many as six upgradations during this period, even as I was recovering from a previously planned eye surgery.
Much like Jonathan Livingston Seagull, the book is soon going to take a flight of its own. Time will tell how business owners, entrepreneurs, management scholars, and students receive it. That alone will decide if it soars to greater heights or gets dumped in the wastepaper basket of Time.
Well, I have done my duty. Results are surely not within my control, as Lord Krishna advises in the Gita!
ashokbhatia 
Praise for the book on the Bhagavad Gita and Corporate Dharma
Posted in Management Lessons, tagged Bhagavad Gita, Book, CEOs, Comments, Leadership, Management, Managers, Praise on March 2, 2026| Leave a Comment »
What do professionals think of this book?!
Here are some words of praise from people across different professions, diverse backgrounds, and from varied geographies.
Anatoly Yakorev
Mentor for Conscious Enterprises Network, Montenegro (Former Director, Centre for Business Ethics & Compliance, Moscow, Russia)
Managers face mighty challenges while delivering results. Ashok Bhatia cleverly alludes to the Bhagavad Gita’s lessons they can learn and begin to practise such concepts as detachment, and equanimity. He provides relevant examples from the corporate world to illustrate his arguments, making this book an interesting read.
Dr Bharat Nain,
Arbitrator & Management Consultant,
PhD, MBA, BE(Mech), FSIArb, MCIArb, Pune, India.
Ashok Bhatia, through his excellent book, propounds an alternative path that draws on the spiritual aspect of what is regarded as the foremost “religious book” in the Asian context, the Bhagavad Gita. Differentiating between the “mind and intellect”, he has used an ancient spiritual text to convey his message very simply and with humour.
Dr Ananda Reddy
Director, Sri Aurobindo Centre for Advanced Research, Puducherry, India
I am of the view that business leaders and managers may not consciously want it, but they really need it. It offers the only remedy for correcting mankind’s lopsided growth and bringing him sanity, inner and outer balance, peace, and harmony. The book by Ashok is a commendable effort. I wish the book and its future readers the very best in life.
Dominique Conterno
Conscious Enterprises Network (CEN) Co-Founder
United Kingdom
This book is a rare, business-friendly bridge between timeless Gita wisdom and the lived realities of modern organisations. Ethics and values are made to feel operational rather than ornamental. It speaks directly to pressure points leaders recognise, from stress and burnout to ego, desire, conflict and office politics. Karma Yoga stands as skilful action with steadiness in success and failure. It offers a calm, practical case for inner resilience, detachment, and better judgment in uncertain times. The book’s light humour keeps profound ideas accessible without diluting them. It finally acknowledges the technological moment, including the challenges of Industrial Revolution 4.0 and AI-era complexity. It leaves the reader with a clear invitation to go deeper into the original scripture, guided by a grounded corporate lens shaped by Ashok Kumar Bhatia.
Late Dr (Prof) G P Rao,
Founder-Chairman, SPANDAN, India
(Former Senior Professor and Founding Head,
Department of Management Studies, Madurai Kamaraj University, 1981–1997)
Ashok Bhatia paints a wide canvas of the kind of strategic and tactical issues business owners and managers face in their routine lives. With a calm objectivity, he demonstrates how the same could be resolved by imbibing what the scripture says. The undercurrent is essentially that of following high values and ethics in management, so a business may run on a sustainable basis.
Marco Suomalainen,
MMM Enabler at UHM (Uncovering Hidden Meanings),
Kotka, Finland
The book enables one to keep learning about the precious jewels existing in India. Industrialists and managers who wish to understand the basic concepts of the Bhagavad Gita and improve their ability to handle challenges in a more constructive manner would find this book very useful.
Mohan Arumugham
Global Technology Leader; IT Director – ERP
Digital Technology
GE Power, USA
This book motivates me to look at the bigger picture in life, while at the same time remaining connected to my inner self. Using many examples of the kind of challenges we face in our careers, it makes us appreciate the deep wisdom contained in the Gita. The book, even though rooted in ancient Indian wisdom, has a global appeal.
Ashok Narayan
IAS (Retired), Expert in Indian Scriptures,
Gandhinagar, India
The author has done a wonderful job of demonstrating how the eternal knowledge of the Bhagavad Gita can be applied to the business world, thereby enabling managers and CEOs to achieve their goals with maximum efficiency and to deal with all the problems without accumulating stress or losing the balance of mind.
Chandra Shekhar Dwivedi
Ex-Vice President (Manufacturing and Corporate Planning)
HCL Infosystems Limited, Pondicherry, India
Mr Bhatia is back with his references to what he calls the ‘corporate jungle’. If the theme of his earlier book was about survival, this one addresses the issue of doing well in one’s career. However, his underlying message continues to be that of adherence to values and ethics in business, of corporate governance, of human values and of conscious management.
P R Ganguly
Member, Industrial Advisory Board, Manufacturing Department, Cranfield University, England
Ex-Deputy Chairman and Managing Director, Grenson Shoes Ltd, UK
The book is a great primer for CEOs and managers who are keen to get a basic grasp of the universal concepts highlighted in this unique scripture from India. The timeless lessons enshrined in the Bhagavad Gita have been innovatively presented by Ashok, with limited doses of subtle humour of a British kind.
Nilima Bhat
Founder: Shakti Leadership and Shakti Fellowship, Global Program for building Conscious Leaders & Change-makers, Co-convener Truth & Reconciliation Work, Distinguished Professor in Gender and Conscious Leadership. Business School and School of Humanities and Education, Tec de Monterrey, Mexico
I have no doubt that this book would be a valuable addition to the personal book collection of all leaders, as long as it does not merely remain either on their shelves or on their ‘To-Be-Read’ lists but gets quickly absorbed and put to practical use.
Ram Mohan Pisharodi, Ph.D.
Marketing Professor,
Oakland University,
Rochester, Michigan, USA.
Ashok’s latest book is like a scuba dive which gently nudges the reader toward experiencing a deeper sea-bed exploration of the original scripture itself!
Vasco Gaspar
Human Flourishing Facilitator
Portugal
Ancient works like the Bhagavad Gita offer a source of knowledge to help leaders have this inner guidance. The work of Ashok Bhatia offers a convenient bridge between these ancient pieces of wisdom and the modern fast-paced world, allowing leaders and managers to apply this knowledge to their own lives and careers.
Gayatri Majumdar
Author,
Founder-Editor,
The Brown Critique Literary Journal, Pondicherry, India
Just as in life, there are varied ways to approach the perceived challenges and stress in a corporate environment! How can one navigate this ‘jungle’ with equanimity and inner resilience by “controlling the wild horse called mind”? Answers to many of our predicaments can be found in the eternal wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita. Ashok Kumar Bhatia’s Bhagavad Gita’s Guide to Corporate Dharma is an extraordinary book for all. He elucidates profound ideas with great simplicity, tremendous authenticity and logic. This captivating book draws parallels with Arjuna’s dilemma on the battlefield, and can be invaluable for management students and corporate leaders alike. It can guide us to enhance the quality of not just own life but everyone we cross paths with.
Amazon links (In India and elsewhere)
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