Ancient Wisdom for Modern Management: Leadership  Insights from the Bhagavad Gita

Mahanish  Panda; Madhumita  Das; Kandarp  Singh; Roma  Puri

doi:10.21844/16202118205

Mahanish Panda Assistant Professor, Asian Law College, Noida, India
Madhumita Das Research Scholar, IMI Kolkata, India
Kandarp Singh Assistant Professor, School of Management, Bennet University, Geater Noida, India
Roma Puri Associate Professor, IMI Kolkata, India

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21844/16202118205

Keywords: Bhagavad Gita, leadership, systematic literature review, Religiosity, ADO framework

Abstract

The Bhagavad Gita (BG) provides eternal insights into leadership that have far-reaching implications for human health and the health of organizations. The purpose of this study is to systematically review 43 articles published in peer-reviewed journals and indexed in Scopus from 1999 to 2025 that investigate BG-based leadership in contexts of religiosity, spirituality, organizational transformation, and health care. Five emergent themes from the analysis are (1) Visionary Leadership and Strategic Dharma, (2) Ethical Foundation for Sustainable and Healthy Organizations, (3) Inner Mastery and Self-Transcendent Leadership, (4) Transformative Pedagogies and Character Development, and (5) Resilient Leadership in Times of Disruption. Findings suggest that BG concepts, such as dharma (duty), viveka (discernment), and Nishkama Karma (selfless action), promote ethical responsibility, psychological resilience, spiritual wellness, and holistic health. Applications to Health Care, Medicine, and Education demonstrate BG’s relevance in reducing stress, providing empathic care, and creating human-centered leaders. The findings are grounded in the Antecedent–Decision–Outcome (ADO) framework to describe how antecedent factors (i.e., spiritual virtues) influence leadership and health outcomes through internal transformation, which is moderated by contextual factors. The review indicates that before 2017, the literature examined in this review reflected philosophical discourse, while thereafter, empirical research shows that BG’s global relevance continues to grow. Based on the findings, this research establishes BG as a universal model of ethical, resilient, and health-based leadership and identifies theoretical, managerial, spiritual, and future research implications.