In the previous episode, we had witnessed the continuation of the discussion between Sage Naarada and Yudishtra with regards to certain key aspects of “Raaja-Dharma”. Sage Naarada pays a visit to Indraprastha, immediately after Yudishtra was crowned as the king. Of course, as we all know, Yudishtra had taken oath as the king of Indraprastha – Courtesy Bhagawan Krishna and Mayan after the magnificent palace was built. After Bhagawan Krishna left for Dwaraka, Sage Naarada makes his way into Indraprastha to render certain important points of advice on Raaja-Dharma to Yudishtra. In this way, we were discussing different sets of items / people that a leader / king should be extremely concerned with / taken care of / handling them without earning their anger or frustration, etc. In similar lines, we had witnessed yesterday how important it is for a king to have people with truckloads of experience and knowledge on Raaja-Dharma in the courtroom. Sage Naarada also explains how a king should conduct independent consultations with each of them, as well as a group consultation with all of them in the courtroom, so as to ensure transparency in decision making. These points might have been explained some 5000 years ago by Sage Naarada, but till today, all of these points are widely applicable for maintaining effectiveness in administration.
Moving on thus, Sage Naarada explains to Yudishtra that as a king, he should be extremely careful not to let an enemy abduct even an inch of land from the kingdom in either direction. A king should ensure tight vigil in protecting the kingdom and even a small piece of land should not be foregone at any cost. This is a very important piece of advice, not only for Yudishtra, but also for all Kshatrya princes. Even today, we see how modern day administrators are extremely careful in this regard. If we take into account the current tensions between India and two of our neighbours, the government is very careful that even an inch of land from the Indian territory is illegally occupied by either China or Pakistan. If something like this happens even by chance, the Indian army is extremely alert and is on constant vigil so that the occupation attempt is immediately thwarted. Even in the case of the currently ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, we’re witnessing how Ukraine is giving a stiff resistance to Russia to protect their territory to whatever extent possible, even if it means mass destruction and other related war-crimes that are prevalent. Hence we can witness here that when it comes to protecting the country or any part of the territory, every government is extremely careful in this regard.
Moving on thus, Sage Naarada elucidates yet another important point here – A Kshatrya warrior should possess desires, and a Brahmana should have ultimate control on desires. This is also very important, in the sense that if a Kshatrya ruler is devoid of desires, where is he going to protect the country and amass the required wealth in the coffers? If the Kshatrya king is desire-less, then the enemies would start eating up into the kingdom and loot the entire coffer within no time! Hence, the Kshatrya king should always have the desire to do more for his kingdom and to protect the people in the best way possible. In similar lines, a Brahmin should control desires as much as possible. Of course, having a family, children and all this is fine, but a Brahmin should not go beyond this in terms of desires. This should be ensured in the kingdom as per Sage Naarada.
In these lines, Sage Naarada is explaining many other important points, and there are around 80-100 slokas with regards to this. Of course, we do not have the bandwidth to discuss each and every sloka here in detail, however, if this interests the readers, you can patiently go through the book and slowly understand the in-depth meaning of what Sage Naarada says. However, there is just one more important point to look into, before we move on into the next section. This pertains to an important concept in modern-day business management. We shall witness that in the next upcoming episode! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 