Mangaluru: Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev of Coimbatore’s Isha Foundation on Sunday said that neither military prowess nor the political circus help making a nation or bring in well being; but it is the success of businesses that makes a nation live well.

Delivering the founders day lecture at Karnataka Bank here, the Sadhguru said that though India had been the most business-oriented nation on the planet in the past, it had forgotten it in the last two-three centuries owing to foreign rule. Instead of having an education system producing human beings, India has a mass manufacturing education system sending out “products”, he said.

Stating that well-being of businesses and stability depended upon the banking system, the Sadhguru said that unfortunately the nation is being rocked by banking scams.

Reliability of the banking system defines a nation’s stability. Managing money is an important aspect of the social structure, he said and added that it was the responsibility of the primary sector.

Money should belong to somebody, though it sounds very democratic when money does not belong to anybody, he said. Money not belonging to anybody is unsafe.

Handling money needs agility of finance and not bureaucracy of finance, which private sector banks have been showing and government banks have been lacking. In about 15-25 years, private banks would exceed the nationalised banks, the Sadhguru said.

While money is an important structure, people are also important. “If we don’t build great people, we will not build a nation. In the last 70 years we have not built too many men of money; but built men for money,” he said and added that “If there are too many who live for money, nation would suffer. We need to come out of this ailment.”

The Sadhguru said that people mistook money for commodity and not a tool; consequently people were shocked in the last one year as money was stored in warehouses. Money should be in banks and commodities in warehouses, he said.

Drawing a similarity between monetary audit and life audit, the Sadhguru said that one has to be flexible and enjoy life knowing fully well that one never fails in life, as ultimately everyone will pass one day.

Bank chairman P. Jayarama Bhat, MD and CEO M.S. Mahabaleshwara and others were present.