Lahiri Mahasaya kept his day job, and showed that mastery is built a little at a time

Ghurni, Varanasi and an ordinary working life

Lahiri Mahasaya was born Shyama Charan Lahiri on 30 September 1828 in Ghurni, a village near Krishnanagar in the Nadia district of Bengal. His parents were Gaur Mohan Lahiri and Muktakeshi Devi. In 1833, when he was about five, the family moved to Varanasi, and that city remained his home for most of his life.

Unlike most of the teachers in this series, his dates are not in dispute. The Yogoda Satsanga Society of India and Karar Ashram in Puri agree on them, which lets this chapter give exact dates where others in the series can offer only ranges.

His youth, as recorded, was quiet. He studied Sanskrit, Bengali and English and married Kashi Moni. He then took a job as an accountant-clerk in a government department, and the work, by most accounts, was ordinary office work. Retellings differ on the exact department and on the year he retired on pension, and the details matter less than the shape. For decades he went to the office.

He died in Varanasi on 26 September 1895. His disciples included Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri, Swami Pranabananda, Panchanan Bhattacharya and Swami Keshabananda, and the parents of Paramahansa Yogananda. He wrote no books for publication, though his Bengali commentaries on the Gita and other scriptures were recorded and published by disciples, and his personal diaries appeared later. Devotees call him Yogavatar. Several Kriya lineages, including YSS and the Self-Realization Fellowship, Karar Ashram and others, trace themselves to him.

Making, making, one day made

Lahiri Mahasaya's best-remembered teaching is a three-word phrase recalled by his disciple Swami Pranabananda.

Banat, banat, ban jai. (Making, making, one day made.)

Lahiri Mahasaya, as recalled by Swami Pranabananda in Paramahansa Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi (1946 first edition), ch. 27

The phrase describes a process, and it is a modest one. Each day something is made, a little. The result arrives one day, without announcement. The maxim carries no promise of speed and none of brilliance. What it does promise is that regular practice, however small, ripens over time if it continues.

Three other teachings sit around it. The first is that a householder can realise God: family, work and a deep spiritual life can go together, and nobody needs to leave the world to take the inner life seriously. The second is that practice counts for more than theory. His tradition remembers him as preferring experience in meditation to reading or debate. The third is openness. He initiated Hindus of every caste, and Muslims and Christians as well.

Kriya Yoga itself is a meditation technique given through initiation within recognised lineages, and this chapter does not describe it. Its leadership lessons lie in how he lived with it: small, steady, alongside a full working life and open to anyone sincere.

Drongiri, 1861: permission to teach everyone

In 1861, at the age of thirty-three, Shyama Charan Lahiri was posted by his office to Ranikhet, in the hills of present-day Uttarakhand. Devotees recount that while he was there a voice called his name on Drongiri mountain, also called Dunagiri, and that he met Mahavatar Babaji, who told him he had been waiting for him. There, according to the Yogoda Satsanga Society of India, he received Kriya initiation.

The more consequential decision, for the purposes of this chapter, came next. YSS records that Babaji allowed him to teach Kriya to all sincere seekers, and not only to renunciates. A practice that might have stayed inside a small monastic circle was opened to clerks, shopkeepers, parents and anyone else who came with sincerity.

He then did something many people would find hard after such an experience. He went back to work. He returned to Varanasi, kept his job and his family, and for decades taught alongside both. Devotees recount that he went to the office, raised a family and kept accounts while teaching in the evenings.

Devotees also recount a prediction: that about fifty years after his passing, interest in yoga in the West would lead to an account of his life. Autobiography of a Yogi was published in 1946, and readers may make of that what they will. The more practical legacy is a template. A person with a demanding job and a full household can practise every day for decades, and the practice will hold.

Reskilling at the speed of a daily habit

Companies talk about reskilling as if it were an event: a programme, an academy, a budget line. Lahiri Mahasaya's maxim describes something closer to compound interest. The gains are invisible for a long time and then they are large.

The World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025 says workers can expect that two-fifths (39%) of their existing skill sets will be transformed or become outdated over the 2025 to 2030 period. At that pace, an annual training week cannot keep up. What can keep up is a small daily practice that never stops.

Habits take longer to form than popular advice suggests. In Lally and colleagues' 2010 study, participants took on average 66 days to form a daily habit, with a range of 18 to 254 days. Ericsson and colleagues argued in 1993 that expert performance is largely the result of extended, deliberate practice. Together they describe exactly the kind of patience banat, banat requires.

There is one more connection. AI tools can do some of a person's work, but they cannot practise for them. A leader who spends fifteen minutes a day actually using and testing a new tool is likely to understand it better in six months than one who attends a single impressive briefing. Carol Dweck's contrast between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset, the belief that abilities can be developed, is the psychology underneath; Lahiri Mahasaya supplies the daily discipline.

The WCRC Banat-Banat Compounding Model

Created by Abhimanyu Ghosh · A proprietary model of Abhimanyu Ghosh and WCRC

WCRC calls this the Banat-Banat Compounding Model. The curve in the diagram above shows its logic: a first practice, then a daily habit, then visible progress, then compounded mastery, rising slowly at first and steeply later. Five building blocks hold it up: a small daily practice, integrated with work and family, judged by experience over theory, open to all and sustained through patient compounding. The model scores highest on innovation and resilience, because an organisation that keeps learning every day adapts when skills shift.

Banat-Banat Compounding holds that capability is built by small, regular practice carried on alongside the full load of work and family. The leader values lived experience over theory, keeps the practice open to everyone, and trusts that steady effort compounds even when progress looks slow.

The building blocks

1. 01A small daily practiceSadhana

   Mastery comes from a fixed, modest daily routine rather than occasional bursts of effort.

   In practiceThe leader protects a short, fixed daily slot for the one skill that matters most to the next phase of the business.

2. 02Integrated with work and family

   Practice is built into a full life, so it survives busy seasons instead of waiting for free time.

   In practiceAttach learning to existing routines such as the first meeting of the day rather than to separate offsites.

3. 03Experience over theory

   What counts is what a person can do after practising, not how much they have read or debated.

   In practiceAssess capability by observed work and trials, and cut learning that ends at a certificate.

4. 04Open to all

   The practice is offered to anyone sincere, regardless of rank, background or function.

   In practiceMake core capability programmes available to every level, not reserved for a high-potential list.

5. 05Patient compounding

   Progress is slow and uneven for a long time before it shows; the leader keeps going and keeps others going.

   In practiceReview learning on a multi-year horizon and do not cancel a practice because one quarter shows no gain.

Ten minutes the calendar cannot take

Most CEOs already know which skill matters most for the next phase of their business. Few protect any regular time to build it. Their learning happens in bursts: a programme at a business school, a weekend of reading before a board offsite, an intense month after a competitor surprises them. The model asks for something less glamorous and more difficult, a small, fixed daily slot that survives the busy weeks.

Lahiri Mahasaya's life is the argument for this. He practised as a working man with a family, years before any retirement or rest. A CEO who says there is no time is usually saying there is no slot, and a slot is a decision.

The model also asks how you judge capability, your own included. Certificates and reading lists are theory. What can you, or your team, actually do now that you could not do three months ago? Judge that by observed work.

Practise where your team can see you. Lahiri Mahasaya taught as a householder among householders, and his students could see that the practice fitted a life like theirs. A CEO who is seen working at a new skill, clumsily at first, gives everyone else permission to be a beginner too. That permission is worth more than any internal campaign about learning.

The blind spot is tokenism. A practice so light it never stretches anyone, logged for compliance, will compound into nothing. Ten minutes is a good start only if those ten minutes are spent on the hard part of the skill.

Small teams, small slots, long horizons

Founders have one advantage here. In a team of twelve, the whole company can practise the same skill at the same time. Pick the one capability the business most needs over the next year, and hold a short practice with everyone at the start of the day. Judge progress by looking at the work together.

The harder discipline for founders is patience. Start-ups live quarter to quarter and are tempted to cancel anything that does not show a gain in one review. The model asks for a multi-year view of learning. Making, making: the result arrives one day, and a founder who abandons the practice in month three will never see it.

Family belongs in the design. Many founders swing between overwork and exhaustion, and learning is usually the first thing to go when the cycle turns. Lahiri Mahasaya's example suggests building the practice into a life that includes a household, so that it does not depend on the founder having spare evenings. A slot that fits inside the working day lasts longer than one that competes with dinner.

Openness matters even at this size. It is common for founders to invest in the learning of the two or three people they see as future leaders and leave everyone else to manage alone. Lahiri Mahasaya opened his practice to anyone sincere. A start-up that does the same may find capability in people it had not expected.

Opening the practice beyond the high-potential list

In large companies, learning is often rationed. The best programmes go to a high-potential list, and the rest of the workforce receives online modules. The model's fourth building block, open to all, challenges that design directly. Lahiri Mahasaya received permission to teach every sincere seeker. A large company can at least open its core capability programmes to every grade.

Boards should ask two questions each year. What share of employees at each grade are enrolled in core capability programmes? And what share of roles needing new skills were filled by internal people rather than outside hires? The second number, which appears among the KPIs below, is the best evidence that compounding is actually happening.

Integration is the other test. A practice that requires people to leave their work for an offsite will collapse in the busy season. One attached to an existing routine, such as the first meeting of the day, survives. The risk the model names is real, though: integration can turn into one more demand on tired people, with no time actually protected. A board that sees practice consistency figures by team and level will know which it is.

The payoff is slow and then substantial. A workforce that keeps learning stays employable as skills change, which benefits the company and every community it hires from.

The business model

The operating model below runs on modest inputs: a small amount of protected time every working day, a clear choice of which capability to build, access for every level of staff and patience in leadership reviews. The practices are daily practice inside normal routines, assessment by observed work rather than certificates, leaders practising alongside their teams and learning reviews held on a multi-year horizon. The outputs are habits that hold in busy seasons and skills that show up in real work across a broad base of people. The outcomes are an organisation that keeps reskilling itself, depends less on outside hiring and has a deeper skill base to draw on when it needs to innovate.

The benefit model

The leader gains a sustainable way to keep growing on a full schedule, in place of bursts of heroic effort. Employees can build real skill without giving up family time, whatever their role. Customers are served by people whose skills improve steadily, so quality rises without lurches. Investors see capability built inside the company over years, which makes performance less dependent on a few hires, and society gains a workforce that stays employable as skills change.

How to implement the WCRC Banat-Banat Compounding Model

If you are the founder or CEO

1. 1

   Pick the one skill

   In the first week, decide the single capability you most need for the next phase and write it down. Keep it narrow enough to practise daily.

2. 2

   Protect a daily practice slot

   Block a short, fixed slot every working day and attach it to something you already do, such as your first meeting. Guard it in busy seasons, because that is when it matters.

3. 3

   Practise alongside your team

   Do your practice where your team can see it, and join theirs from time to time. A founder can practise with the whole company; a large-company CEO joins one team's slot each month.

4. 4

   Judge by what people can do

   When you review capability, ask to see real work rather than certificates or course completions. Do this in every quarterly people review.

5. 5

   Hold the multi-year view

   Refuse to cancel a practice because one quarter shows no visible gain, and review progress against a horizon of years. Check each year that the practice is still building the right skill.

Rolling it out across the company

The execution roadmap

Four phases, each closed by a gate. Do not move on until the gate is met.

1. Days 0–30

   Phase 1 · Diagnose and commit

   Choose the skill that matters and see what learning actually happens today.

   • Audit current learning: which programmes exist, who attends them by grade, and which end only in a certificate.
   • With each business head, choose the one skill that matters most for the team's next phase.
   • Write a skills rubric and rate a sample of real work outputs against it, as the baseline for skill shown in work.
   • Record the internal fill rate for roles that needed new skills over the past year.

   Deliverable

   A practice charter: one priority skill per team, the rubric, and the proposed time for the daily slot.

   Gate to proceed

   Baseline recorded for all four KPIs, and every business head has agreed the rubric for their team's skill.

2. Days 31–90

   Phase 2 · Pilot and prove

   Prove that a short daily slot, held inside the working day, builds skill that shows in work.

   • Start a fixed short daily practice in one team, attached to its first meeting of the day so it is integrated with work.
   • Open the slot to everyone in the team, support staff included, so the practice is open to all.
   • Judge progress by observed work and short trials, not attendance or certificates, to keep experience over theory.
   • Remove one existing meeting or report to make room, so the slot adds no hours.

   Deliverable

   A pilot log of practice consistency and a second round of work samples rated against the rubric.

   Gate to proceed

   Practice consistency is logged for the whole pilot, the slot sits inside working hours, work samples have been re-rated, and the team chooses to keep the slot.

3. Days 91–180

   Phase 3 · Embed and scale

   Build the practice into every team's routine and open core programmes to every grade.

   • Each team agrees its own slot within existing routines, and removes something to make room.
   • Train managers to coach practice on real work, giving one piece of specific feedback each week.
   • Open core capability programmes to every grade and close the high-potential-only lists.
   • Cut learning that ends at a certificate and is not checked against work.

   Deliverable

   Practice slots written into team calendars, a revised learning catalogue and a trained manager group.

   Gate to proceed

   Access breadth shows enrolment at every grade, and every team's slot is inside working hours.

4. Month 7 onwards

   Phase 4 · Sustain and renew

   Keep going through slow quarters while checking the practice is building the right skill.

   • Review learning on a multi-year horizon and do not cancel a practice because one quarter shows no gain.
   • Check once a year for tokenism: is the slot still stretching people, or only being logged?
   • Refresh each team's priority skill when strategy moves, and retire practices that no longer serve it.
   • Track internal fill rate and report it next to external hiring costs.

   Deliverable

   An annual compounding review showing skill shown in work across successive quarters and the internal fill rate.

   Gate to proceed

   Work samples show improvement across successive quarters, and the internal fill rate is tracked against the baseline.

Implementation risks and how to handle them

By stage of company

Habits to start this quarter

1. 1

   Name the hard part

   Write down the one skill you most need this year and, next to it, the specific part of it you avoid. Make that part the content of your daily practice.

2. 2

   Keep a plain tally

   Mark each day you practise on a paper calendar or a single line in a notebook. Do not track anything else. Review the tally at the end of the quarter and notice where the gaps fell.

3. 3

   Show your work monthly

   Once a month, show a colleague something you can now do that you could not do before. Ask them to judge the work, not the effort.

4. 4

   Practise on the busiest day

   Choose your heaviest day of the week and make sure the practice happens on that day too. If it survives that day, it will survive the quarter.

5. 5

   Teach one person outside your circle

   This quarter, share what you are learning with one colleague who is not on your leadership team or any high-potential list.

What to measure

Where the model goes wrong

• !Small becomes token: a practice so light it never stretches anyone, logged for compliance and nothing more.
• !Patience becomes an excuse for never checking whether the practice is building the right skill.
• !Integration with work turns into one more demand on already tired people, with no time actually protected.

One day made

WCRC's view is that the Banat-Banat Compounding Model is the most practical answer available to the skills shock of this decade. It needs no large budget and no grand programme. It needs leaders willing to practise a little every day, to open that practice to everyone and to wait for the curve to turn.

Lahiri Mahasaya went back to his desk after Drongiri and kept going for decades. Most leaders will never have a mountain-top moment. All of them can manage the desk.