The Enlightened Leader: From being Awakened to being Enlightened
“Remember, just because you cannot see, hear or physically touch it doesn’t mean it’s not happening right in front of you, it’s just happening at a higher frequency of resonance which our minds can’t perceive yet.”
One of the most significant occurrences, in the field of medicine and healthcare, in the 20th century, took place in 1967. This historical event was of the first transplant of the human heart. In 2008, this story was depicted and played on the silver screen. Let us consider the event first.
In 1967, on the 3rd of December, a formidable team – surgical, nursing, and technical, led by Dr. Christiaan Barnard, undertook the world’s first successful human-to-human heart transplantation, taking Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town to global fame. The unprecedented media coverage of this event transformed Barnard into an international celebrity, and it is believed that apartheid politicians exploited this moment of medical history to publicise the then isolated apartheid state of South Africa. At that time, there was little mention of those who had been instrumental in Dr Barnard achieving this milestone. Hamilton Naki, was a black gardener, who went on to work in the animal laboratory at the University of Cape Town and it was he who assisted Dr. Barnard in the research effort that preceded the first human heart transplantation. Naki, who came from rural Transkei, had no access to higher education under apartheid. Then how?
Noticing the Unnoticed
“I stole with my eyes”, Naki famously said when asked, how he learned his impressive surgical skills without any formal training. Hidden Heart is a compelling film – about surgeon, Dr Barnard, and technician, Naki and the interweaving of their lives, in the context of this first successful human heart transplantation. Their story, set in the backdrop of apartheid South Africa, is one of both glamour and injustice. The film explores the lives of these two characters through the voices of their relatives and friends. They reflect back on this historic event as also about life during and after apartheid. Hidden Heart lives and breathes not only from these dialogues, but also picturises beautifully, the striking colours of South Africa—street scenes in Cape Town, and the former Transkei. Naki developed excellent technical skills and in Hidden Heart Barnard is shown to have valued Naki’s intraoperative role alongside his expertise at running the animal laboratory and in training a generation of future surgeons. According to interviews with Naki and Barnard in Hidden Heart, Naki was present in theatre during heart and liver transplantations. It was in the post-apartheid era, however, that the Press began to report that Naki was as responsible for the success of the sensational operation as Barnard. Subsequently thus, in 2003, Naki received his honorary Master of Medicine degree from the University of Cape Town, perhaps too late.
To be honest, I never knew about Naki until I watched this film. I remember learning about Dr Barnard in school and then reading about him several times subsequently as the “Father of Heart Transplant”, which indeed he was, but what about Naki? His name does not seem to have made it to the text books, reaching the corners of the world. It makes us realize one of the solemn truths about this world –for every person, thing or event which is clearly visible, there are always other contributing persons, things or events which are hidden from us – not visible. Our entire attention is focussed on “that which is seen”.
From this moving incident, we move to another story, a story I have narrated several times in my life. In fact, this story also appeared in an article I wrote for Talent Talks, several years back…
Perceiving the unperceivable
There was a famous monastery, which had fallen on very hard times. Formerly its many buildings were filled with young monks and its big church resounded with the singing of the chant, but now it was deserted. People no longer came there to be nourished by prayer. A handful of old monks shuffled through the cloisters and praised their God with heavy hearts.
On the edge of the monastery woods, an old rabbi had built a little hut. He would come there from time to time to fast and pray. No one ever spoke with him, but whenever he appeared, the word would be passed from monk to monk. “The rabbi walks in the woods.” And, for as long as he was there, the monks would feel sustained by his prayerful presence.
One day the abbot decided to visit the rabbi and to open his heart to him. So, after the morning Eucharist, he set out through the woods. As he approached the hut, the abbot saw the rabbi standing in the doorway, his arms outstretched to welcome. It was as though he had been waiting there for some time. The two embraced like long lost brothers. Then they stepped back and just stood there, smiling at one another with smiles their faces could hardly contain. After a while, the rabbi motioned the abbot to enter. In the middle of the room was a wooden table with the Scriptures open on it. They sat there for a moment, in the presence of the Book. Then the rabbi began to cry. The abbot could not contain himself. He covered his face with his hands and began to cry too. For the first time in his life, he cried his heart out. The two men sat there like lost children, filling the hut with their sobs and wetting the wood of the table with their tears.
After the tears had ceased to flow and all was quiet again, the rabbi lifted his head. “You and your brothers are serving God with heavy hearts,” he said. “You have come to ask a teaching of me. I will give you a teaching, but you can only repeat it once. After that, no one must ever say it aloud again.”
The rabbi looked straight at the abbot and said “The Messiah is among you.”
For a while, all was silent. Then the rabbi said, “Now you must go.”The abbot left without a word and without looking back.
The next morning, the abbot called his monks together in the chapter room. He told them he had received a teaching from “the rabbi who walks in the woods” and that this teaching was never again to be spoken aloud. Then he looked at each of his brothers and said, “The rabbi said that one of us is the Messiah.”
The monks were startled by this saying, “What could it mean?” They asked themselves, “Is Brother John the messiah? Or Father Matthew? Or Brother Thomas? Am I the Messiah? What could this mean?”They were all deeply puzzled by the rabbi’s teaching. But no one ever mentioned it again. But it never left their minds.
As time went by, the monks began to treat one another with a very special reverence. There was a gentle, wholehearted, human quality about them now, which was hard to describe but easy to notice. They lived with one another as men who had finally found something. But they prayed the scriptures together as men who were always looking for something. Occasional visitors found themselves deeply moved by the life of these monks. Before long, people were coming from far and wide to be nourished by the prayer life of the monks and young men were asking, once again, to become part of the community.
That is the story of the Rabbi’s gift. Do you notice that its again the invisible “vibes” which created the visible positive changes at the Monastery? What lessons do these two stories hold for us as Leaders and Managers of Talent?
Recognizing the Unrecognized
Let’s examine some natural phenomena now.
“He is one but the wise call him by different names – such as Indra, Mitr, Varun, Urukram, Agni…” (I.22.164 Rig Ved, considered the world’s earliest scripture, roughly 10000 years old)
Here, Urukram – stands for the source of never-ending energy – boundless, infinite. Energies make up our Living world. Even though the total amount of energy is understood to be constant, this Energy has been there before humans arrived on the planet … and will also outlive the human race. It is divine and boundless. Very broadly, these Energies can be distributed into two main categories – known as energies and energies yet to be discovered (like Dark Matter of the universe).
Then there is the 3rd category. Energies which we know but cannot perceive through our human equipment – like those light and sound rays, beyond our human vision or hearing. They exist but we are almost unaware. Here is the lesson. Just like visible/ perceivable energy forms – only hitherto noticed qualities of people, get known and get focused on – strengths and weaknesses. Weaknesses, even more, by Managers of traditional mindsets.
Enlightened Leadership
Most Talent initiatives are therefore directed towards enhancing knJ of capability – let’s call it unknown – is not even noticed. While potential is at least believed to be present in some people, “unknown” refers to the talent of individuals, who are considered to be either mediocre, or unintelligent, and therefore not even deserving of our attention. But the fact is, that this unknown also needs to be gradually nurtured, like seeds below the ground.
Regular Leaders have the knowledge and skills to help organizations to address the first category. The Awakened Leaders work harder at unleashing the potential of their promising Talent. But the Enlightened Leaders belong to a rare breed. They smell out the Talent in the most ordinary people, because they recognize that there are no ordinary people, only lazy Leaders. Enlightened Leaders do not seek contentment at work, but meaning. This makes them extend themselves beyond the common place Leaders. They are like the scientists who are constantly striving to discover the energies which exist, but are beyond the limits of our senses. This gives them and their organizations, deeper and enduring character and longevity.
If we have to make breakthroughs in organizations today, of the sort that Dr Barnard achieved with his team (coupled with good infrastructure), then we must stop placing emphasis on merely repeating the practices of the last two decades. We need to become inquisitive, open minded, large hearted, Enlightened Talent Leaders who have “The Rabbi’s Gift” to create magic…and make our organizations, and society thrive….again.
