Creativity Innovation and Intuitive Power: How It Worked for Me

By Balraj Sardana

The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. Following the simplicity of his master, Sri Sathya Sai Baba, the author has truthfully shared the learnings of his eventful life – be it failures or successes. By nature, a man of depth and an ocean of wisdom, knowledge and ideas, he believed in a holistic approach. As a designer by profession, he has penned down quick holistic solutions to problems which were otherwise seemingly impossible to solve. Being a fearless person, having confidence in his intuition ‘the voice of God’ he faced challenges throughout his life with full faith in His master. His father’s courage and conviction while interacting with the Rajas and Maharajas, has been beautifully depicted in this book. Still waters run deep. As a keen observer and critical minded person, he started to create a diagnosis to problems at the very first glance, re- discovering and re-enforcing the principle called – ‘Not knowing advantage’. He approached any situation with the expectation that it would yield all around benefits including cost savings, minimizing effort and evolving environment friendly solutions. Thus, he established that purity and love are the bedrocks for getting up to the level of Intuitive power.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing India
• Release date: Mar 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9781543707151

Balraj Sardana

BALRAJ felt that he should share the process at work which would bring out creative and innovative solutions to problems that had no easy solutions or no solutions at all. He thought that if there are any secrets not found in books, he must truthfully share with all. Therefore, this book.

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Copyright © 2021 by Geeta Sardana.

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Dedicated at the Lotus Feet of Sri Sathya Sai Baba.

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Balraj Sardana (1945 – 2018)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

This book highlights Balraj Sardana’s journey from his childhood, college days and then his work at Tata Steel. Sri Sathya Sai Baba has had a profound influence on him and his family life right from the beginning. In this book Balraj shows how Sri Sathya Sai Baba helped him at each stage of his life including finding creative and innovative solutions at work and surmounting many problems that he encountered.

Balraj Sardana was born in Jamshedpur, India to Mr. & Mrs. Prithvi Raj Sardana. Mr. Prithvi Raj was a spiritual person. He survived the 1935 Quetta earthquake. A holy person visited his family home in Quetta a few days before the Earthquake and performed some prayers etc., after which he took four large spikes and hammered them into the ground at the four corners of the structure. Miraculously - this house was unharmed and no one in the family was injured when devastation was wreaked all around. Mr. Prithvi Raj was follower of Sri Sathya Sai Baba and a self-made person. These qualities, he passed on to his children – Hans Raj, Balraj, Yogi Raj and Shobha. He came to Jamshedpur from (the then) West Punjab to learn Electrical Technology, worked in the radio repair industry in Kolkata (Calcutta) and finally opened his own electrical parts and repair shop, Sardana & Co., in Jamshedpur.

Balraj was schooled in Jamshedpur, went to Ranchi for college and finally joined IIT, Kharagpur in Mechanical Engineering. He spent most of his life working at Tata Steel.

Following is the timeline of Balraj Sardana:

His life was influenced by his father and grandmother. At Tata steel, Balraj had several Creative and Innovative solutions to the problems at work. Many a times he felt some Higher authority helped him solve the problem.

In Balraj’s own words the reason for writing the book…

My dear colleague, Vikas Bhu Sharma after leaving Tata Steel joined the Global R&D of General Motors in Bengaluru (Bangalore). During this period, I was in Bengaluru (Bangalore). Whenever I happened to meet Vikas, he would bow down to show his respect to me. I would tell him that we are friends now and I should not be treated as an ex-boss. He expressed his desire and told me that I should share the process that brought out amazing solutions, which were witnessed so many times. I thought to myself, if there are any secrets, which are not found in books, I must truthfully share with all. Therefore, this book…

Sharing his lifetime unique experiences with the present generation was my husband’s lifelong wish which finally got fulfilled. By God’s grace, he completed writing the book just a couple of hours before the cerebral stroke, after which he slipped into coma and breathed his last with a cool, calm look on his face.

Geeta Sardana

CONTENTS

The Son Remembers

Tribute to my Dear Father

Friends Remember

A Word of Thanks

Chapter 1

The Philosophy of Divine Intervention

Chapter 2

Parental Values and Ideals

Chapter 3

Student Days and the Guru

Chapter 4

Career with Tata Steel

Appendix

Technical Notes

Notes

THE SON REMEMBERS

Hello son, how are you? I hope everything’s good with you. This is how my last conversation began with him while I had gone abroad on a business trip. It was about 9:30 PM in the night and I was yet to have my dinner. Somehow, I didn’t stop him, and it felt that both of us had all the time and I had all the patience to listen to him. We spoke for about 45 mins, and now coming to think of it, he summarized his entire life for me in those beautiful 45 minutes. He was at an all-time high, seemed to be extremely satisfied and content with what he had done in life and at the same time delighted that he had completed writing this book which was the only thing pending. We ended the call on a high note. Few hours later, my wife called me up to say that he had a stroke and had been admitted to hospital and it was serious. I immediately scrambled around to get my tickets for the very same day. Meanwhile, he had already slipped into coma and by the time I reached the hospital from the airport, he was no more. Although I couldn’t see him in person during his last few moments, I am grateful to God for giving me an opportunity to hear him out during his last few active moments.

At the outset, I really consider myself privileged and fortunate to have such a father. From my childhood and until today, I have always looked up to him for everything. Coming to think about it a little deeper, I sometimes wonder if such a person ever walked in flesh and blood amongst us. His purity of thoughts, actions and words were so immense to the extent, I would call it sacred. His selfless and genuine approach to everything without expecting anything in return just touched my heart. He’d always been a genuine well-wisher for all of us including extended family and friends and would proactively look for the smallest of opportunities to contribute to the betterment of our lives. He always spoke the truth and nothing but the truth and never shied away from speaking the truth no matter what. There was no element of pretense in him, and he never did things to impress others. He did things because he felt very strongly and passionately about them. He maintained only one standard which was the same regardless of the individual in front and would never compromise that for anything or for anyone. I have seen him go to any extent to tread the path of truth and righteousness. He never believed in offering bribes or lying even if it meant extreme inconvenience for him.

I remember one occasion when he was travelling by train in the nineties and did not have a reserved seat. Despite having the money to bribe the ticket collector and secure a seat for himself (and we are talking peanuts here), he instead chose to spend the whole night sharing an unreserved seat with someone else as he didn’t want to pay a bribe. As a young professional, he was tasked with multiple high value investigations within the company on several occasions. Every single time, he never hesitated to bring out the truth in black and white in front of the top executive management fully knowing that telling the truth could completely risk/ doom his career. As an engineer, he was par excellence, a problem solver, a thinker who always believed in solving problems using first principles. His dedication and contribution to the field of engineering has been remarkable and the work he’s done in Tata Steel stands testimony to that.

When visiting our house in Bengaluru/ Hyderabad during his last few years, he would look for the smallest of opportunities to help with issues to make our lives better and would literally go out of his way to provide the best solution under the circumstances. He never believed in makeshift/ temporary solutions or arrangements. He always believed in eradicating problems completely from the