On his tenth birthday, Akhil Gupta’s mother cooked up a big batch of food to give to the poor in the old section of Delhi. Then she took her son down to their first stop, a Hindu temple. Next stop was the Sikh temple, then the places of worship for Jains, Muslims, Christians, and Jews. Outside were the poor of each religion. The Guptas fed them all. The experience made a lasting impression on Akhil.
“Before we went, I had only seen Hindus like us,” he remembers. “I had not seen any other types of people. I was wondering, ‘What would Muslims be like? What would Christians be like?’ Then I saw them. They smiled at me with the same sense of gratitude. They all put their hands on my head to give me a blessing. They all seemed the same to me. They were human.”
Today, Akhil Gupta brings his long-held passion for humanity—and for religious pluralism—to Harvard Divinity School. The former head of Indian operations for global investment firm Blackstone, Gupta helps advance HDS’s multireligious mission as a member of the Dean’s Council—a group of the School’s most devoted supporters—particularly through his involvement with the Religious Literacy Project.
A Vision of Human Flourishing
A graduate of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Gupta believes that science and technology could create a new golden age of human flourishing, or lead to destruction and catastrophe. He sees the world through three lenses inspired by the thought of the philosopher Bertrand Russell: humans and the external environment, humans to other humans, and humans to themselves. He says that humanity can be proud of its achievements in the first area. Less so in the last two.
“There's enough wealth to ensure a decent quality of life for everyone, but we seem to get on with our lives without worrying about the two or three billion poor people in the world,” he says. “If your vision of human relationships is competition—survival of the fittest—that in my view is a very false vision. That's the reason that we are destroying ourselves. But if you focus on human flourishing with the narrative that we're all interconnected, then I think we can achieve at the same level that we have in science and technology.”
This vision of interconnectedness is one that you might not expect from someone who rose to the top of the ultra-competitive financial sector. Gupta says he’s endeavored throughout his life not to fall into the inversion of means and ends that he sees in business and throughout the world—a commitment that has its roots in his religious upbringing.
“Very early in my life, I was drawn in by one Hindu philosophy, the Nishkam Karma,” he explains. “Nishkam means ‘without attachment,’ that you do your duty but you shouldn't be attached to the results of what you do. So, throughout my career, my ends were enrichment of experience, helping out people, adding value, and upholding value. Money and success were just the means.”
Gupta also retained two other important aspects of his religious upbringing: a respect for other traditions and an affinity for their focus on the transcendent purpose of life. At heart, Gupta describes himself as a lover of truth.
“At the core of Hinduism is the idea that we are truth-seekers rather than believers,” he says. “It doesn't matter if that truth comes from Christian insights, or Muslim insights, or Judaic insights, or scientific insights. I'm seeking the truth, I don't care about authorship.”
Taking Religious Literacy to the Masses
It’s no surprise, then, that Gupta was attracted to HDS, an institution that studies and prepares leaders of all the world’s major religious traditions—but is aligned with none. In the School’s focus on the study of religion, ethics, and theology, he sees an institution that can help leaders upgrade their “moral software” and bring people together across religious divides.
For this reason, Gupta is a major supporter of HDS’s Religious Literacy Project (RLP), founded and directed by Professor Diane Moore. He says that the program has the potential to break through the model of teaching religions individually and foster an approach that recognizes not only the differences between traditions but also what they have in common. He cites the success of RLP’s massive open online course “World Religions through Their Scriptures,” which drew over 225,000 participants from nearly 200 countries.
“HDS has evolved from an institution that trained Protestant ministers to the most wonderful institute of research and learning about all of the world’s religions,” he says. “Diane is taking that approach to the masses, which is a big step. I’m supporting RLP because I think that there’s the potential to show that many of the same concepts exist across religions. If you can see through that veil, how can you be an exclusivist in your thinking? You cannot.”
Gupta says that, with its hybrid academic/professional model, HDS has a unique capacity to integrate research with efforts to improve human flourishing—a critical advantage in an increasingly interconnected world. Moreover, because the study of religion touches virtually every profession and area of scholarly inquiry, Gupta also thinks HDS is uniquely placed to be a nexus for interdisciplinary work at Harvard.
“There are so many problems and they're all linked,” he says. “Inequality is linked to environmental pollution, which is linked to health. All these issues have to do with how we look at the ‘other.’ So, HDS should have a lot of programs with the Kennedy School, with the Business School, and with other schools. A student may not be full time at the Divinity School, but they can take one or two courses and the impact can be huge on their whole outlook on life in the future.”
Looking ahead, Gupta sees enormous opportunities for HDS to be a resource to leaders, educators, and citizens who need understand world’s faith traditions—and each other. He hopes to help the School to leverage its strengths to address the global need for religious knowledge.
“Given the brand and reputation that Harvard has, HDS can take the lead in the effort to unite humanity through religious literacy,” he says. “That’s critical because in order to have human flourishing, we have to recognize our common humanity. We have to learn to ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’ If we follow this dictum, which finds its variant in every faith, tell me which global problem cannot be solved?”
—by Paul Massari