47 Quotes & Sayings By Awdhesh Singh

Awdhesh Singh is a Social Entrepreneur. He is the founder and chairman of the Delhi-based NGO, Karmaveer, which was started in 1995 with a vision to help people with disabilities and special needs.

1
Even if you do nothing, say nothing and be nothing, there will still be many who will criticise you. It is much better to be criticised for success than be condemned for failures because success rids you of the many miseries of life. Awdhesh Singh
2
The knowledge of the Spirit is the true secret of creativity, leadership and happiness. It is spiritual intelligence that makes an ordinary person a genius. When a genius loses his spiritual intelligence, he becomes quite ordinary. Awdhesh Singh
3
A saint or monk can afford to be compassionate to all, but a leader or boss cannot always be kind. He may soon be without a job himself if he is unduly compassionate, and chances are, no one would show him any compassion then. Awdhesh Singh
4
If integrity is considered a virtue, it may be because most people lack integrity. Also, as only a few succeed in their pursuits, some may link failure with a lack of integrity. But this is not fully true. When you reason it out, you might conclude that honest people are more likely to fail and the dishonest rise faster. Awdhesh Singh
5
When a desire is deep, it reaches the subconscious mind and calls for cultivation of qualities that will help fulfill desires, and this is what transforms an ordinary person into a great leader. Awdhesh Singh
6
The mystery of the world is revealed only to the person who can look upon the material world with his physical eyes and simultaneously has the spiritual vision necessary to see the unseen spiritual world. One who knows both Matter and Spirit is thus the true knower, and is a spiritually intelligent being. Awdhesh Singh
7
Evil is termed as sin because it has the power to attract the mind. It acts upon our mind and heart to do what nature desires, even when such acts are prohibited by the laws of society. We feel guilty doing things that nature has designed as perfectly natural. Awdhesh Singh
8
As per the Indian philosophy of the Upanishads, the source of evil is one’s ego-sense —Ahankara–which differentiates oneself from the other selves. A person, who visualizes himself independent of others, tries to guard or please himself at the cost of others. Evil is thus the tendency of a person to live a life that is not ‘in harmony’ with the rest of the world, but ‘in opposition’ to it or at best ‘in indifference’ to it. The good is to discover the unity in the diversity of ‘all selves’ and beings. Once unity in diversity is realized, every being becomes our own self and good deeds follow automatically . Awdhesh Singh
9
It is said in the Upanishads: ‘I am the Universe.’ If you ask a hundred people as to how they find the world, they are all likely to give different answers. For some, the world is beautiful and the people are good, while for others, the world is extremely bad, and the people are treacherous and sinful. Why the same world is different for different people? It is so, because the outer world is the projection of our inner world. Therefore, the only way to improve the world outside is to improve the world within. While we may not have any control over the outside world, we can change our world within and thus change the world outside. Awdhesh Singh
10
The purpose of evil is to complement the good. If there is no hatred in this world, there can’t be any love too. While love is a positive emotion, hatred is a negative emotion. Yet the feeling of love can’t exist in a person without invoking hatred. The more you are capable of loving, the more you are capable of hating, since the source of love and hatred is the same — passion. A man without passion can experience neither love nor hatred. Awdhesh Singh
11
Everything in this world seems to be created in pairs. If there is a man, there is a woman–in almost equal numbers. In the same way, there is pleasure with pain, love with hatred, wisdom with ignorance, passion with repulsion, ecstasy with depression, and so on. The world seems to have been divided into two attributes–good and evil. Even God seems to be divided-- God Himself and His counterpart–the Devil. Awdhesh Singh
12
Scriptures exhorted men to shun evil and become good–which seems to be an impossible task–since as soon as we try to add goodness in us, evil too gets added in us without our effort–almost automatically. Awdhesh Singh
13
The key to a good life is to balance the good and evil rather than trying to get rid of all evils because if you get rid of all your evils, you would also lose all your desire and ability to do good. In other words, you become neutral like neutron and become useless for the self and the society. Awdhesh Singh
14
The very concept of evil challenges the wisdom of God because He would never create anything that is not desirable or not needed. Everything has been created in this world with a purpose. Awdhesh Singh
15
People always have reason to hate, though they often may not find any reason for love. Awdhesh Singh
16
A wise man thus seeks not a straight path, but one that is the shortest or most convenient. The idea is to reach your goal comfortably and quickly rather than wasting your time in finding ‘Which is the straightest path? Awdhesh Singh
17
People falling in love for one reason may fall out of love due to another reason. However, if faith or trust is the basis of love, it does not break easily. Often people use all their reasoning to understand each other and even live together for years to satisfy themselves that they are in love. However, marriages based on such logical love, the love based on reason, do not last long. Quite to the contrary, marriages where the partners do not even know each other, survive for life–being based on mutual trust and faith. Awdhesh Singh
18
Intellectuals are rarely successful as leaders. They are so trapped in their ideals that they cannot venture out in the real world to win and lead. Awdhesh Singh
19
Leaders are usually a reflection of the people they lead. How can a leader be moral if his people are immoral? Awdhesh Singh
20
It is never easy for any leader to choose between differentiation and equality. You are condemned either way. When you treat everyone equally, you are considered just by majority as equality benefits below average people and they seem to always be in majority. At the same time, you are also condemned because you can’t produce results with people having a crab mentality. However, if you choose to reward the excellence and punish the non-performer, you achieve the desired results but get condemned for being unfair, unjust, cruel and Darwinian. Awdhesh Singh
21
All great leaders are known to have faith. They first develop faith in themselves, which means they connect their body, mind and intellect with their soul. They also connect their soul with the Universal Soul where all souls of the world are connected with each other. Leadership is thus a spiritual quality that comes from faith and trust. Awdhesh Singh
22
If you wish to succeed as a leader, you should be capable of transforming the souls of people, which control their intellect, mind and body. A good leader transforms the souls of the people, which then become like his own soul.. Once the nature of the followers is changed, they ‘willingly’ follow the path of their leader A leader transforms ordinary men into exceptionally powerful people just like a strong magnet transforms an ordinary piece of iron into a powerful magnet. Awdhesh Singh
23
The most interesting aspect of leadership is that it cannot be predicted. All great leaders had been quite ordinary in their early years. It was only when they became leaders that people started recognising them as leaders. It is difficult to identify specific qualities that make a leader. However, when leaders emerge, people are inclined to point out their leadership qualities. Yet, when other people imbibe the same qualities and try to imitate the actions of their leaders, they may fail. Awdhesh Singh
24
Academically brilliant persons usually make excellent managers and bureaucrats as they can efficiently implement the vision of the government or world leaders by following the prescribed methods. However, they may prove to be poor leaders, for they may not have taken the pain to understand the world on their own, and hence, cannot contribute any new thought or line of action to tackle new problems. Awdhesh Singh
25
A leader is one who chooses the interest of his followers over his personal ignominy. He can beg, steal and even snatch for the followers. He suffers individual loss for the sake of the gain of his followers. That makes him a leader whom people follow because they themselves do not have the courage to do so. People do not mind if someone else does all the dirty jobs for them while they can enjoy the fruits without getting their own hands dirty. Awdhesh Singh
26
We praise our leaders when they act against our adversaries. But when our own interest is threatened, we begin to dislike the same leaders, irrespective of the sincerity of their intentions. An effective leader is bound to create enemies. Awdhesh Singh
27
Hatred is the emotional price leaders must pay for getting love and honour. Awdhesh Singh
28
A leader cannot avoid being hated. This hatred is directly proportional to his influence and power. A person who does not wish to be hated should avoid leadership roles. Awdhesh Singh
29
A leader is criticised for whatever he does as all his actions benefit some and adversely affect others. When other people commit the same mistake, they can be forgiven or ignored, but never a leader, for his actions affect a large number of people. Awdhesh Singh
30
Hatred is very powerful. It can overpower love. When a man burns in the fire of hatred, he cannot feel any love, and is willing to destroy his enemy even if it kills him. It is amazing to note that a leader who may be driven to act against another in hatred, may be showered with love in the process. People who share his hatred may love him for rising up to the challenge. Awdhesh Singh
31
A leader must take responsibility for all his actions and not blame anyone for his problems. The follower, on the other hand, is always in search of a scapegoat or a miracle worker who can solve his problems. That is why leaders and followers complement each other. A leader is one who is willing to take on responsibility of not only his own failures but also that of his followers. Awdhesh Singh
32
The very meaning of a leader is that people must follow him. If no one follows, you cannot be a leader even if you are the most intelligent, powerful and wealthy person in the world. Interestingly, you cannot become powerful or wealthy unless you are a leader. Further, anyone who acquires wealth or power automatically becomes a leader as people tend to follow such people. Awdhesh Singh
33
The knowledge of the worker is often called ‘skill’, for it requires manual dexterity and training. The knowledge of the manager is ‘academic’ as it can be taught in colleges and universities. However, the knowledge of the leader is ‘creative’ which can generally not be taught, and must come from within. Awdhesh Singh
34
A great leader is almost always a great follower for he knows what to learn and from whom. Awdhesh Singh
35
A leader is one who travels the path carved out by him, and he ‘leads’ himself onward on that path. If his path is good and his goals are desirable, many more may follow him in their desire to achieve the same goal. Hence, followership is the effect of leadership and not its cause. Awdhesh Singh
36
You do not become a leader because people follow you. Rather, people tend to follow you because you have leadership qualities. The journey of leadership often starts alone. Awdhesh Singh
37
A leader is generally not more virtuous than most ordinary people. The opposite is usually true. Because people are reluctant to be led by those perceived as evil, a leader expertly creates a façade, behind which he hides all that may appear dirty. This is a difficult art where the leader has to wear two masks, one in public and the other in private–and no one should see the true face of a leader. . Awdhesh Singh
38
The actions of a leader are always criticised by scholars as well as common men. A scholar has no obligation to produce result, so he is free to rebuke leaders for not sticking to noble means. Common men envy leaders their position and power, thus feeling happy in vilifying them to pull them down to their own levels. Awdhesh Singh
39
A true leader is responsible for his followers who have reposed their faith in his leadership. If an ordinary man fails, it is a personal failure. But when a leader fails, he shatters the entire ideologies, principles and morale of all those who followed him. The impact is much bigger and stakes are higher. Awdhesh Singh
40
Hatred is the price that society extracts from its leaders for the honour, power and wealth it bestows unto them. Awdhesh Singh
41
Love can be simply stated to be the desire of the human being to integrate oneself with other selves in such a way that one starts feeling the pain and pleasure of another person as if of one’s own. Hatred can be defined as just the opposite — to derive pleasure in the pain of others, while feeling unhappy seeing others happy Awdhesh Singh
42
If people have faith, peace prevails among them. There is no logic for peace. In fact, peace is the most illogical thing in this world. If we see inequality, injustice and poverty around the world, often we think–‘why people don’t fight for their rights?’ Peace is a miracle, which defies all logic. Political leaders are clever and they destroy peace by inventing logic that creates hatred. Even in war, the logic put forward by both the sides are totally contradictory, and both the sides feel that they are right. Awdhesh Singh
43
Even if you do nothing, say nothing and be nothing, there will still be many who will criticize you. It is much better to be criticized for success than be condemned for failures because success rids you of the many miseries of life. Awdhesh Singh
44
Love can be simply stated to be the desire of the human being to integrate oneself with other selves in such a way that one starts feeling the pain and pleasure of another person as if of one’s own. Awdhesh Singh
45
Every faith has logic even though people after developing faith forget the logic behind the faith. There is a strong logic behind the creation of religion–the greatest symbol of human faith–that has provided a common code of conduct and belief, and brought millions or even billions of people together. Religion has benefited man even materialistically, as it reduced the conflict between individuals and ushered in a long era of peace and prosperity. Awdhesh Singh
46
Most people hate successful people for their small little faults rather than appreciating them for their great strengths. Awdhesh Singh