Lessons for the Future for India and Europe

There are unavoidable differences and also complementarity in the European, Judeo-Christian and the Indian Hindu-Buddhist approaches to ethics and leadership. In the Western approaches, individuals can and should evaluate their own behavior and that of others with respect to understanding the possible positive or negative effects it may have on other sentient beings and on nature. The Eastern approaches provide a greater focus on what it means to be human than on either the motivations for our actions or the consequences. There is an emphasis on our inherent capacity for self-reflective choice and our propensity as human beings to behave ethically and not on rational reflection or on tradition-based norms. Spirituality is not incompatible with rationality or real-world economic, social and environmental analysis. Ethical leaders can employ the best available scientific knowledge to execute their own spiritual-based plans and policies. India and Europe should embrace their own noble traditions and seek to cross-fertilize one another to foster a state of sustainability, peace and well-being. The key is to overcome the pre-existing dominantly materialistic value orientation of our societies and the ego-centeredness of individuals and thereby come closer to a state of transcendence and oneness.