Visitors to India often find themselves surprised by how the lives of those who live here seem to be islands of calms in the midst of absolute chaos. It is clear that life is in many ways more complex than that of her western counterparts. Young people who learned to drive motorcycles and scooters now pilot their cars with the same techniques. Housing standards for large segments of society do not apply. City infrastructures have long ago lost the battle of having capabilities that match the size of the population. The pace of change continues to drive wide ranges of service variations; world class tailors live in air conditioned shops while traditional suppliers of sweat it out in small shops in dark alleys.
If one stops and reflects it is clear that the benefits of investments and opportunities continue to touch people across the spectrum of society in different ways. The obvious result of this is that individuals live in an extreme range of conditions. I can sit in the lounge on the sixth floor of the hotel looking across the city and the variations are plain to the naked eye.
What isn’t clear is the simple fact that the way people integrate who they are has no walls. A person is who they are. In India you find that the spiritual in people’s lives is seamlessly integrated into the business and is part of the family while mysteriously shaping the whole. Everything is influenced by the other.
This isn’t new. It is easy to think in western terms that those who are spiritual only do spiritual things. Yet the record of Jesus life records otherwise. “Three days later there was a wedding in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there. Jesus and his disciples were guests also.” (John 2.1, 2)
I find those in India committed to spiritual paths can be outstanding leaders in business and models of how fathers and mothers can work together as a family. There is no segregation. A lesson we would do well to consider afresh today.
