ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on the relevance of the ancient philosophy of yoga in the development of social entrepreneurship as a manifestation of sustainable welfare (Shubh Laabh). In the last decade scholars stress the need to broaden the entrepreneurial bottom line, by shifting from merely financial driven to social driven objectives and innovations aiming at societal impact and taking responsibility for society’s welfare (Shubh Laabh). Often these new views are positioned under the umbrella of social entrepreneurship. This upcoming theme requires theory building in order to understand its dynamics and applications in entrepreneurship education. In this chapter the yoga philosophy is being proposed as input for such endeavors. It proposes the eight limbs based on Ashtaanga Yoga as possible steps of knowledge creation. Such knowledge creation is in its pure nature about discovering and following human aspirations. Therefore the eight limbs, as paths of discovering and following human aspirations, provide a new lens for the phenomenon of entrepreneurship, more particularly, social entrepreneurship.