In the previous episode, we had witnessed Vidura narrating the story of Virochana and Sudhanva and how both of them fell in love with a lady by name Kesini. Thus, as only one person can marry Kesini at the end, both Virochana and Sudhanva decided to approach Prahlaada who was the mediator to solve this issue. We’ve also seen Vidura narrating how Prahlaada stood on with his path of “Dharma” as he is a great “Mahatma” hismelf! Even though Sudhanva was Prahlaada’s son, Prahlaada did not support the cause of Sudhanva, and instead delivered the right verdict in favour of Virochana. Highlighting this, Vidura explains how King Dhritarashtra too should follow the footsteps of Prahlaada in following the path of “Dharma” when it comes to making crucial decisions. In the case of King Dhritarashtra, even though Duryodhana might be his son, King Dhritarashtra should always rule in the favor of “Dharma” even if it might be against the likes of Duryodhana. This is where King Dhritarashtra is failing miserably as a king, because he is clearly struggling to balance between the interests of his kingdom as against the interests of his own son!
Moving on thus, Vidura now narrates yet another story to drive home the same point. He now talks about Dattaatreya and how he met the “Saadhya-Devas”. The “Saadhya-Devas” are extremely scholarly people, but still, they want to clear some of their important doubts and misconceptions with Dattaatreya, who is also an equally scholarly person as them! Here too, various aspects of “Dharma” are clearly defined and explained. I’m not going into the entire discussion here as we’ve already discussed this during our earlier “Vidura-Neeti” project in detail. However, I shall just summarize the important snippets of what Dattaatreya is trying to explain here. He talks about the various aspects of “Dharma” that a king should follow. Firstly, Dattaatreya explains that a king should not fume in anger upon anybody immediately. In other words, a king should have his temper under control at all times. This is a very important point that we also need to adhere to. As a leader, a person should always stay calm and composed at all times. If a leader starts panicking with anger and frustration, the entire team goes into the brink of failure quite easily.
Secondly and most importantly, a king should not insult anyone unwantedly. Some leaders today have this habit in organisational setups today – Just because they might have a grudge on someone, they would start insulting that person in public with all kinds of words and sentences! This is an entirely wrong approach. A leader’s job is to nurture a harmonious team environment, rather than picking out someone and insulting him / her. Thirdly, a king should be very careful not to ditch anyone! A king should be fair and treat everyone equally without any bias or prejudice. This is also a very important point in today’s context! Some leaders have the habit of “taking sides” with a few of his / her teammates and ultimately ditch the others! This is an extremely dangerous approach and can backfire easily at the leader. Hence, leaders should be neutral to all and should be very careful in implementing this aspect.
Fourth, a king should never have the intention of “I” (Selfishness). A leader should always have a “We” approach, which means that this leader is trying to take his people along with him / her. This is the hallmark of a great leader. Conversely, some leaders have this habit – Whenever there is a success, the leader wants to take complete credit for himself and hence, he takes up the “I” approach! However, when there is a failure, the leader would pass on the buck to his people and at this time, he would run away from the scene! This is the most cowardly type of leadership that one can ever see! When there is a success, a leader should attribute it to his team, rather than taking full credit upon himself! When there is a failure, a leader should come forward and take responsibility for the same. This is the hallmark of a good leader, isn’t it?
So for today, let us think upon all these aspects that Vidura is explaining with regards to leadership and in the next episode, we shall continue this discussion further! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 