These are the best of times. Humanity’s soaring quest for freedom has never been pursued more vigorously. Science and technology are advancing at an astounding pace. Our standard of living has taken impressive strides in many parts of the developing world. Knowledge has been essentially democratized. We’re becoming a more just and equal world for all. Individuals are increasingly creating a life of authenticity and meaning. Meditation, mindfulness, yoga, healthy living, and natural foods are within arm’s reach of all. Globalization has dissolved boundaries and distances to give us what sometimes seems to be a one-world village.

And yet, these are the worst of times. Teens’ mental health is in steep decline. Our environment is in crisis. Loneliness is on the rise. Chronic disease is ravaging the later decades of our lives. Drug addiction is rampant. Social tensions are fracturing our communities, even our families. Homelessness and immigration are straining our cities. Geopolitical conflagrations are threatening a way of life founded on global access to goods, talent, and supply chains. Trust in institutions — government, higher education, religion, business, Supreme Court, science and more — is at an all-time low.

This is a moment laden with such promise and such peril. In our lifetime, never has it been more critical than today for us to bring the two halves of our life together.

“Which two halves?” you might ask.

In the past, most people pursued a material life, and a few pursued a spiritual life. People were making a choice between material or spiritual.

More recently, many of us who have been pursuing a material life have recognized the need to inject some spirituality in our life as well. So we may be doing yoga every week, going on an occasional soul-nourishing retreat, and reading a spirituality blog. We have created a life that is material and spiritual.

But this is not enough. The material part of how we’re leading our lives is not sustainable, and is causing a breakdown in today’s conditions. One may have hoped that adding a spiritual element would de-stress and detox us, but spirituality can’t simply be a small side hustle — it needs, I offer, to be at the very center of our material life. The material then becomes our outer, expressive layer, and the spiritual becomes our inner, replenishing core. The life we need to lead is one where material equals spiritual.

What happens when “material equals spiritual”? In such moments, our conflicts and challenges are resolved not simply by analysis, but by the crystal clear counsel of our inner voice. Our energies are directed toward the pursuit of noble, uplifting causes. We build inspired teams and organizations, where people come in joyfully to do their life’s most beautiful work. Our relationships move toward appreciation, respect, and harmony, while also challenging us, in healthy ways, to expand our understanding. We become, in Yogananda’s words, “actively calm, and calmly active,” surrendering our attachment to success. And yet, success on its own then comes knocking on our door.

This is the kind of world I ventured forth to create when I launched my course on Personal Leadership & Success at Columbia Business School fifteen years ago. I grew up in India, where I was blessed to be introduced to a world that was so beautiful on the inside, though a bit messy on the outside. I then moved to the United States, where I saw a world that was so beautiful on the outside, though a bit messy on the inside.

What might happen, I wondered, if we could bring these two worlds together, to create a life where our outer strivings and creations and achievements flow naturally out of our inner strivings and sparks and realizations? 

Personal Leadership & Success has yielded, over the years, many precious gifts — a structured path to connect with one’s inner core, steps we can take to activate Purpose, Wisdom, Growth, Love, and Self-realization, an understanding of how to live a life of meaning and purpose, and guidance on how to pursue success in a balanced and authentic manner. I’m so grateful for what we’ve achieved together in this class over the years — the personal journey story related by each participant, the intimate shared space in the personal leadership groups, the practices we’ve implemented in our lives, and the very special energy we’ve created in class together.

15 years and 10,000+ MBAs and executives later, it is not just those who have taken this class who have benefited — my team at Mentora and I have grown in many powerful ways with every year of experimentation, experiences, and exposure to the inspiring reflections and journeys.

Now I’m very happy to share that we’re launching a new membership-based program — Mentora Life — for Personal Leadership alumni, readers of my book, Inner Mastery, Outer Impact, and those who have been following this newsletter.

Mentora Life offers the opportunity to build connection and community with like-minded truth-seekers, united in a shared quest for happiness, health, high performance, and harmony, and to tap Mentora’s rich arsenal of personal and professional growth tools and our network of inspiring role models and experts.

Two weeks ago, we completed a successful pilot of Mentora Life, with excellent results. I’ve included reflections from a few founding Mentora Life members below, and the photos you see above are from our first Quarterly Talk Series held in New York City.

We’re now inviting applications globally for our fuller launch of Mentora Life in January 2024. My intention is to start Mentora Life chapters in major metros around the world. Each member would be part of a growth partner circle of 8-10 members in their city, and meet with them every month. Those members who do not have other Mentora Life members living close to them will be invited to become a virtual group.

Mentora Life is not for everyone. Members will be invited to pursue deep work, deep connection, and deep impact. That will, I know, be exactly what some of you are seeking. But I also respect that some of you may already have a beautiful, rewarding community like this in your life, which is wonderful, if that’s the case. And for some, this may not be the time in your life where you are able to dedicate the few hours of monthly time such a program and community will expect you to contribute, to get the most out of your experience.

But if this is something that stirs you from within, I welcome your interest in applying for membership in what we aspire to make a lifelong fellowship. We are enrolling a small intake of members during the current pre-launch pilot phase, with an early application deadline of Nov 1, 2023, and a fuller intake of new members in January, with an application deadline of Jan 23, 2024.

Mother Teresa once said, “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” With Mentora Life, we’ve now cast a stone across the water. I wonder if the ripples will reach your shores today.

Warmly,
Hitendra

Here are some reflections by Mentora Life participants from our recent pilot:

“The experience at Mentora has been both personal and universal for each one of us. We have found lessons that we weren’t even looking for when we started but discovered that we needed along the way.”
“What’s been most inspiring for me is what’s been reinforced by everyone who’s spoken tonight, which is that there is a group of people who have a shared view of wanting to do the work individually and collectively around inner discovery, to enhance our opportunity to do better for others and to make a difference in the world which clearly needs it. That’s just a beautiful space that’s been created. There’s been a real openness in this sharing, that others alluded to as well. And I think what has been most uplifting for me is I’m starting to see the next set of seeds being planted. In one of our recent conversations, someone in our group was talking about visions he had for potential ways in which he could make a difference in society more broadly. And he was starting to connect the dots with what others were saying. And there was a sense of, ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if we all could do something together?’ And so that really got a smile to my face.”
– Sukanya Soderland, SVP, Chief Strategy Officer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Harvard Business School (’08)

“The questions that Hitendra is asking right now are exactly what I’ve been asking myself my whole life…the broader question of purpose and how to unite them all was always something I was interested in. This group is serving that purpose and holding me accountable to answering it myself. It’s a safe, caring, and intellectually driven group…It’s really been a wonderful source of support, motivation, and congregation during this time.” 
– Claudina Bonetti, Senior Executive & Entrepreneur, Columbia Business School (‘96)

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