The concept of ‘change management’, as propounded modern management techniques, also applicable to personality development, is inspired by the need for effecting timely changes to ensure stability, profitability and progress. Relevant from time immemorial are the concepts, “ring in the new”, and the exhortation of Tennyson, “The old older changeth, yielding placing to new / And God fulfils himself in many ways,/ Let one good custom should corrupt the world”.

Change where needed, even complete overhaul, is always welcome where worn-out and unhealthy practices, habits and systems are replaced by gainful and life supporting ones. But the basic requirement is the recognition of the need for change, which presupposes admission of the fact that the present situation is far from desirable.

Applied to individual cases, this analytical and self-effacing approach is rooted in integrity and self-honesty, praying fervently in the manner saint Kabir did in one of his couplets (Doha), “I am a sinner over many births and am filled with toxins from head to foot. You, however, quell all affliction; therefore uplift me”. The total humility is also reflected in the aphorism of the Tamil saint, Avvaiyar, “What we know is just the size of a handful of dust, what we do not know is the size of the entire earth itself”.

The starting point for all progress thus is the admission that one is full of base instincts, that one is floundering in darkness and is also stagnant. This is the starting point in the translation into practice of the prayer “Asato ma sat gamaya, tamaso ma jyotir gamaya, mrityo ma amirtan gamaya” (Brihadaranayaka Upanishad-1:3, 28) – Lead me from unworthy to those with subsistence and merit, from darkness to light, from inactivity to “ever widening thought and action” (to quote Tagore’s expression in his Gitanjali). This indeed also is the message of Cardinal Newman, “Lead kindly light… Lead thou me on…; I do not ask to see the distant scene, one step enough for me”.

This humility also enables one to put into practice the exhortation of Henry Thoreau (Walden) – “Things don’t change, we change”. This change indeed is the precursor to effecting change all around, by the power of example, as illustrated in practical life by Gandhiji, who wrought miraculous changes by what he called as the ‘truth force’.