An evening with Ms. Nupur Tewari
On Friday, August 11, we had a fascinating session by Ms Nupur Tewari, who spoke about Japanese leadership practices and about Ikigai. She provided various insights on how we can become better leaders and enable our children to develop their leadership potential.
About Ms. Nupur Tewari
Born in a remote Indian village, Ms. Nupur Tewari has become a global, influential figure based in Tokyo. Her ultimate vision is to empower thousands of individuals, who can positively impact millions, ultimately contributing to a better world.
Ms Tewari is the founder of HealTokyo and the HealIndia movement. She has gained global recognition for her transformational and mindfulness coaching. She is a motivational speaker and spiritual healer, offering yoga consultations. She is an authority on Japanese culture. Ms Tewari embodies spirituality and compassion in all that she does, whether it involves aiding Japan's homeless population or uplifting underprivileged youth in India.
Ms. Tewari has delivered nearly 2700 transformative sessions about changing lives at universities across India and Japan. Currently, she hosts three online talk shows under "The Nupur Tewari Show," focusing on social issues and the empowerment of women in business. These shows play a vital role in strengthening the cultural and business ties between the two nations.
On the country’s 75th Independence Day, Ms Tewari paid tribute to three Indian heroes with direct connections to Japan: Rash Bihari Bose, Subhash Chandra Bose, and Justice Radha Binod Pal.
On her first visit to Kashmir, Ms Tewari conducted numerous healing and transformational sessions in various colleges and rehabilitation areas.
With her growing popularity in Tokyo and abroad, Ms Nupur has been hailed by the Japanese media as an unofficial ambassador of India to Japan. She has spearheaded various social initiatives. Her proudest achievement is the establishment of a school for underprivileged children in India. Ms Tewari has also made a significant impact on homelessness and youth abroad.
Mr Tewari’s exceptional contributions have received prestigious accolades from esteemed organizations such as The Nargis Dutt Foundation, SBI Foundation, Global Mice, Marwah Studio Wockhardt Foundation, PHDCCI, and the UP Book of World Records. She has been recognized as "the most fabulous woman leader" in spiritual healing, yoga, motivational speaking, and transformational-mindfulness coaching. Ms Tewari has also been bestowed the title of World Peace Ambassador by the Wockhardt Foundation.
About Ikigai
Ikigai is a stye of living that inspires us to remain focused on our goal. The essence of Ikigai is to make our life meaningful. When we follow the principles of Ikigai, we will wake up in the morning with a sense of meaning.
Ikigai arises from devotion to activities one enjoys. This also brings a sense of fulfillment. Ikigai makes our life fulfilling, while also contributing to the good of others. We all have an Ikigai – our particular intersection of passion, talent, and potential to benefit others. It is only a matter of finding it.
Ms. Tewari has understood the concept of Ikigai not from books but from her real life experiences. She has lived in Japan for 20 years and spent a lot of time in the rural areas, where the concept is practiced in its true form. She has interacted with Buddhist monks and imbibed their philosophy.
Contrary to popular notion, the term Ikigai itself is not that commonly used in Japan. But it is ingrained in the Japanese culture. Indeed, Ikigai serves as the foundation for the Japanese way of grooming and building leaders.
How Japan creates leaders
The Japanese create leaders from the age of 2. A holistic approach towards life is cultivated at the time of entry to school. When they enter school, the Japanese children do not study in the traditional way. They start tying their shoelaces, cleaning the classroom, serving food, etc. at a tender age. In the process, they learn to shoulder responsibilities and develop compassion and concern for society.
This kind of grooming from a young age also builds clarity of thought in young minds. Thus, unlike India, sixth graders in Japan are unlikely to say they want to become engineers or doctors. They might very well say they want to be a truck driver or nursery schoolteacher or a daycare employee. That is because from a young age, the Japanese realize what they are good at and where their passion lies. When these children enter university, they study and become what they want to be. Not like India, where they are typically guided by parents in their career choice.
The tradition continues in the corporate world. In Japanese companies, leaders are expected to help their team members find their Ikigai. This ensures that people who are not satisfied with their current role, move into the roles they aspire to be in. In short, the lesson for us Indians is that rather than imposing ourselves on our team members, we must try to find out what they are looking for. That is indeed the kind of leadership we badly need today in India.
Q&A
Ms Tewari grew up in a small village in Murshidabad in West Bengal. There was no electricity or roads or schools where she lived. She belonged to a traditional family where spirituality and reciting Mantras were the norm. She had no support. It was very difficult for a woman those days to venture out on her own, (Women would typically get married at a young age.) But she wanted to explore the world. She took the plunge and reached Japan.
In Japan, Ms Tewari came in touch with Buddhist monks and immersed herself deeply in spirituality and meditation. Looking back, Ms Tewari feels that God prepared her to embark on this journey. She discovered herself as time went by. Gradually, she developed clarity, and her vision became clear about 5 years back.
Responding to another question, Ms Tewari mentioned that we do not have to search for our purpose. Purpose will find us. All that we need to do is to do the work given to us with devotion, determination, and dedication. We will automatically find our purpose.
There is a lot that is common between Japan and India. The Japanese believe that Buddha is inside everyone. This is like our concept of AhamBrahmaAsmi. God is within us.
We are all universally connected through the concept of Vasudaiva Kutumbakam (The world is one family.). So giving is more important than taking. Indeed, the main problem today is that instead of giving, we are more focused on taking from others. If we give back, more will come back to us. We do not need to sacrifice everything we have. We can draw a line somewhere. But we must be committed to giving.
Both Dharma and Karma are important. We should be guided by what is right. That is Dharma. We should lead a life of good actions. What we do has consequences in the future. That is Karma. The easiest way to achieve salvation is Bhakti or devotion.
We should be compassionate to others. That is possible only when we show compassion to ourselves. Life is short and fragile. Even more, there is a need for compassion.
Leadership starts at home when we start shouldering responsibilities. This is something we often forget. The Japanese start taking responsibilities at a young age. That is why they are such a disciplined society. It was this discipline which enabled the nation to rebuild itself after World War II. Swami Vivekananda wanted Indians to visit Japan at least once to understand the importance of discipline.
The Japanese believe in growing as a team and not individually as in India. Japanese companies are like the Indian public sector companies. People spend their entire career with one company. Loyalty is greatly emphasized. People rise thought the ranks. Ms Tewari gave the example of a person who joined as a factory worker and retired as the factory manager.
One advantage which Japan has is its homogeneity in terms of language and culture. India is a more diverse country. Of course, Japan has its own problems. The suicide rate is high. That is mainly because people do not open up and keep everything to themselves.
We have a lot to learn from Japan. We should give our children more freedom. We should stop seeing our dreams being fulfilled through our children. We should show flexibility and leave it to our children to decide what they want to do in life.
We should make our children responsible for their own life. Our life is precious and short. We should encourage our children to take ownership of their life. If we do that, they will become good leaders.
In India, we are too protective of our children. Love is important. But we should be able to say:” We are near you. But you must do things yourself. If you have a problem, you can always come back to us. We are here to help you.”
Children have tremendous potential. Only if we empower them, we will be able to unleash their energy. Empowerment is not about a job or making money. It is about having the courage to take decisions for ourselves. As Ms Tewari put it, “Courage makes you immortal.”
This kind of empowerment will also enable children to develop clarity of thought and be clear about what they want to do. Do they want to be leaders or team members? With clarity in their mind, they will be able to change their roles and manage situations effectively. There will be no conflict or anger or negativity.
Indian companies should change the way they operate. We may have produced the CEO of Google but we have not yet produced a Google. For that we must believe in Ikigai.
In India, we have a variety of tasty foods. People are hospitable and love to feed us. So we end up overeating. In Japan, people eat a balanced diet. They drink green tea and eat rice three times but with little fat. They have three staple meals that are simple but nutritious.
We should love ourselves and eat mindfully. In India, organic foods are expensive. But we have many herbs and seasonal fruits which are more affordable. We should avoid junk foods. There is no need to shift to cornflakes. We can eat the food which we are used to, like Idli or Upma but we can consume a little less and do a little more exercise. Maybe, we can fast once a week, consuming only coconut water. We should respect our body and love our stomach. We should try to finish dinner by 7 pm.
We are all different. We think differently. And that is the beauty of life. As leaders, we must listen to the team and make them believe in us. This cannot be achieved by authority or directive leadership. Proper communication is also important. If we are compassionate leaders who take care of our teams, conflicts can be managed effectively. If we do not contain conflicts, there will be increased stress levels in the team.
Mindfulness is about presence. It is about being attentive to what we are doing, whether it is watching the sky, brushing our teeth, having food, or drinking water. When we are mindful, we are doing everything from our heart. Simple breathing exercises can help. By breathing in and out, concentrating on the process and feeling the air flow, we will become mindful. Regular practice is necessary. We can begin by doing one task mindfully and gradually expanding the scope.
When we are mindful, we are doing things consciously. Mindfulness will help us focus on the solution rather than worry too much about the problem.
Mindfulness is not the same as meditation. But meditation is important too. It elevates us, helps us to evolve and controls anger.
The reason for such suicides is that these students did not involve themselves or love themselves.
As parents, we should communicate with children in ways that will boost their confidence rather than put pressure on them. For example, there is no need to sell our land to raise money to send our children to an engineering college. Rather, we can ask them what they can do to improve the income from the land. Maybe, they will come up with an idea to generate crores from the land.
We must believe in our children, empower them, and stop comparing them with others. We should expose them to challenges in a way that does not put them under pressure.
Students on their part should think about what they can do, not compare themselves with their peers and embrace self-counselling.