A workshop on Railway Professionals and Human Values
was held at the Sri Sathya Sai International Centre
and School, Bhimsham Pitamah Marg, Pragati Vihar,
New Delhi 10003. The workshop started at 10 a.m
on 11th October 2003 and ended at 2 p.m.
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The
workshop was presided over by Lt. Gen. Dr. M.L.
Chibber, Director of the Center. The Guest Convener
of the workshop was Shri C.L. Kaw, former Chairman,
Railway Board and he was ably assisted in this by
S/Shri V.K. Agarwal former Chairman Railway Board
and Shanti Narain, former Member (Traffic), Railway
Board.
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| There
were in all 18 participants and 7 observers. The
lists are at Annexure I am II. |
Baba's
central thesis was that a Muslim had to become a
better Muslim, a Hindu a better Hindu, a Christian
a better Christian and so on. There was no need
to convert anyone to a different religion. Although
the religions appeared to be different, they had
an element of commonality in that they all believed
in the five basic values of Truth, Non-violence,
Righteous Conduct, Love and Peace.
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The
acid test was whether a person had character. Baba
had nine criteria for this purpose. The very first
was honesty. A participant in one of his courses
defined an honest person as one who did not steal,
cheat or lie. The ninth criterion was whether the
person could be trusted. Only a person who could
be trusted deserved to be a leader. This demanded
utmost purity in thoughts, which meant a strict
harmony between thought, word and deed. If one did
anything for personal gain, it could not be called
a pure thought. No one would accept a person who
worked for self-gain as a leader.
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Shri
M.K.Kaw introduced the theme of the workshop to
the participants. The purpose of the workshop was
to introduce Sathya Sai's major hypothesis that
there may be apparent differences among religious
systems, but there was an underlying unity among
them as far as the human values they propounded.
The participants were to imagine that they had already
decided to practice the five fundamental values
of Truth, Non-violence, Righteous Conduct, Love
and Peace. Would they find it a practical proposition
in today's bad, bad world?
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The
International School had held a similar workshop
for senior police officers. They had unanimously
expressed the view that it was not at all utopian
to think of practicing values in the daily lives
of police officers. Encouraged by this response,
the School had decided to hold a series of such
workshops for various professional groups. The idea
is to spread the message and act as catalytic agents,
in the context of Baba's divine mission to effect
a spiritual transformation in the spiritual level
of the human race.
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| Shri
C.L. Kaw |
Railways
are a service department and all railway men have,
therefore, to be servers of the public. They have
to be honest in their dealings, have a high sense
of responsibility and have an exemplary devotion
to duty.
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The
public perception is that values are totally missing
from the working of railway men. This is because
many employees have succumbed to the temptation
of making easy money. They give an alibi that one
cannot otherwise survive in the present atmosphere,
which is vitiated.
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Not
only in railways but also in all the spheres of
life, all the values can be practiced. Speaking
in truth is far simpler and does not need the kind
of watchfulness that is required to maintain a lie.
The basic values have to be inculcated in people
very early in life and emphasis needs to be laid
on this aspect within the educational process. Education
neglects this requirement and lays very little emphasis
on character building.
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In
the railways, an attempt has been made to correct
this lacuna by organizing training courses for railway
men. These courses taught them courtesy, customer
care, good behavior etc. but only a fringe of the
problem could be tackled. Railway interaction with
the public is on a daily basis and railway men have
to be ever alert to retain the good image of the
railways.
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Extraneous
causes like rail roko agitation and other
law and order problems often affect the working
of the railways. Railway men have to show great
deal of concern for the welfare of the public under
such trying circumstances.
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I
consider a railway man very lucky. He has been given
an opportunity by the almighty to serve the people
through his vocation. Service to fellowmen is a
sure way of achieving liberation. Baba says that
seva is even more important than worship. Other
people have to attend to their official duties and
then think of doing seva. Railway men are lucky
to have the opportunity of seva while performing
their official duties.
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Railways
are a very big family. The employees and their
family members number almost one crore. If they
change their way of life, it can have a perceptible
effect on society as a whole. The importance of
their work has to be brought home to them. They
have to realize that people entrust their lives
to them. They should feel proud of the job they
do and be convinced that society at large appreciates
their service.
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The
Sathya Sai Trust is paving the way for a better
tomorrow by focusing on character building and nurturing
of human values.
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| Shri
V.K. Agarwal & Shri T.P. Mani |
Indian
Railways is the biggest organization of the country,
1.4 crore people travel by rail every day and the
railways carry about 14 lakh tones of freight daily.
Railway men and their families number one out of
every 133 Indians. This highlights the importance
of inculcating the basic human values among railway
men, which alone can ensure efficiency and effectiveness
of the Indian railways.
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No
organization can survive without certain fundamental
value systems if it is to generate confidence among
its employees, customers and users and ensure a
dynamic functioning. The principles of Sathya, Dharma,
Ahimsa, Prema and Shanti are basic and eternal and
have to be present both in individuals and organizations.
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Sathya
denotes complete unison in word, thought and deed.
It is the presence of Sathya that ensures customer
confidence. It implies absolute dedication on the
part of employees with a sense of trusteeship. All
assurances in terms of service parameters have to
be unfailingly ensured-for example, punctuality
of passenger train operation, movement of freight
in time and without loss or damage in transit, provision
of passenger amenities, and extension of courtesy
to all customers, impartiality in administrative
decisions.
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All
the forces in operation in an organization, which
ensure not only its sustenance in a harmonious manner,
but also its growth in the dynamic dimension from
part of Dharma. The four pillars of Dharma are truth,
purity, charity and compassion. There should be
well laid out, clear-cut and transparent systems
in operation. If the systems are not serving the
best interests of the users, the organization should
reformulate the systems. Each railway man should
have a pride in the task he is performing and have
total loyalty and commitment to the railways. This
is the employees' dharma. The organization's dharma
would be to have concern for the welfare and growth
of all its employees through a proper HRD programme
and career plan.
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Ahimsa
implies absence of any trace of violence in thought,
word or deed. Practicing ahimsa can lead to the
creation of a harmonious atmosphere in the functioning
of any organization. Softness of speech, clarity
of communication, compassionate approach to customer
relate issues, problem solving attitude, acceptance
of constructive criticism are some of the aspects
of ahimsa which are relevant to railway men in their
functioning.
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Prema
refers to the eternal principle of universal love,
which forms the pivot of creation itself. It is
the operation of ego that acts as a retardant in
the flow of love. People capable of generating positive
thoughts based on universal love and compassion
are able to set in motion positive actions on the
part of individuals who come in contact with them.
Under the influence of prema, all effort leads to
joy. Service organizations like the railways should
create an ambiance conducive to the flow of love.
This will not only create a sense of fraternity
among the employees but also result in higher level
of customer satisfaction.
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As
far as peace is concerned, it is the result of the
operation of the other fundamental values. These
values lead to maximum efficiency, smoothness in
functioning, satisfactory customer relations and
attainment of goals by teams. Such an organization
would be a dynamic one and would inevitably attain
higher levels of efficiency in its functioning and
growth.
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| Shri
Shanti Narian |
| The
railway network in India was set up by the British
to improve the mobility of people and goods, integrate
the fragmented markets and also serve their strategic
and administrative needs. |
The
railways achieved all these objectives but recently
there has been a down side in its performance. Systems
are cracking up, selfish holds sway, money power
dominates the value system and individual interest
transcends national interest.
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| The
rise and fall of civilizations is a series of cyclical
events, depending whether it upholds dharma or fails
to do so. A similar situation arose during the Mahabharata
war. The righteous Pandavas were in a minority,
while the regime was dominated by a coterie of evil.
At that time, a beacon of hope appeared in the form
of Lord Krishna. Krishna tried to activate the vast
reservoir of power within Arjuna. The Gita should,
therefore, be taken as the application of philosophy
of life and its problems. |
The
message of the Gita is that we have to pursue our
ideal of righteousness in the midst of life's myriad
problems and struggles. We all face a kind of moral
crisis when we have to exercise a choice between
the eternal human values even though these may lead
us to adversity and the opposite path, which entails
a loss of self-respect and self-respect.
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In
the bureaucracy, we are often given verbal orders
to act against the law, rules and policy. If one
musters the courage to stand up to such orders,
the consequence generally is transfer, a loss of
status or being sent to an unimportant or uncomfortable
post. Surely we owe it to our organization to face
the odium of an inconvenient transfer in our bid
to uphold values.
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If
the Indian Railways are functioning today it is
because of thousands of such employees, high and
low, who have the courage to say no and face the
consequences. We have to motivate the large majority,
which tends to sit on the fence, and motivate
them to exercise their inherent right to say no
to wrong orders.
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We
have to re-ignite the pride and self-esteem, which
alone can enable us to tap the vast reservoir of
energy inside us. Sathya Sai Baba is the Modern
Avatar, who has taught us the five fundamental values
of Truth, Non-violence, Righteousness, Love and
peace. Baba actually lives these values himself
and exhorts to realize that his life is his message.
At the practical level, he has taught us to follow
a ceiling on desires and performance of selfless
seva to our unfortunate brethren.
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Railway
men can take up the mission of providing a safe,
comfortable, efficient cost-effective transportation
service. In order to convert this vision into a
reality, some practical steps should be taken as
under:
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We should design a module of human values
for training of trainers in railway men's
Training Institutions |
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We should evolve another module, which emphasizes
the universality of the teachings of different
religions, on the lines of the Indian Army. |
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We should attempt to highlight the achievements
of great Indians, especially in the ethical
field, so they can become role models for
the younger generation. |
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The Sai International Centre can assist in the formulation
of these modules and use electronic media to reach
it to our constituents. |
