In the previous episode, we had witnessed the official end to the Kurukshetra war, wherein Sanjaya has lost his divine vision, gifted by Sage Vyaasa. This marks the conclusion of the war and on the other hand, Ashwatthama and Co. leave Duryodhana alone and proceed towards the banks of River Bhaageerati. Meanwhile, as Ashwatthama leaves, Duryodhana breathes his last. Now, the charioteer of Drishtadhyumna goes running to see Yudishtra and convey what has happened the previous night. As the next day commences, Yudishtra gets the breaking news that several warriors like Drishtadhyumna, Shikhandi, etc. were murdered brutally by Ashwatthama the previous night in a cold-blooded and cowardly fashion when all of them were fast asleep. Upon hearing this, Yudishtra could not bear the shock! He faints on his chair itself, unable to speak a single word! Arjuna and Bhagawan Krishna are also present along with Yudishtra as the charioteer comes and breaks this news. All of them are stunned beyond words!
Composing himself after a few minutes, Yudishtra says thus, “Oh Bhagawan Krishna! This is why I was repeatedly asking you right from the beginning – Should we fight this war at all in the first place? You said “Yes”, and I obeyed your words. Now see where this has led us to! I never expected such a disaster to happen! Oh Bhagawan Krishna! Oh Arjuna! A man’s biggest weakness is lapse in concentration and focus. It is only because of this we’ve lost all these people to Ashwatthama’s cowardly act!” Now let us break this conversation between Yudishtra and Bhagawan Krishna for a minute and analyze this important point that Yudishtra is making here – A person’s most important point at which he / she encounters failure is lapse in concentration. How is this applicable here? Yudishtra feels that he should have predicted Ashwatthama’s moves in advance. Ashwatthama is roaming around here and there in deep anger and frustration. An able king / warrior should be able to predict that the enemy who is frustrated, will seek revenge in some form or the other. Hence, by saying that he failed because of lapse in concentration, Yudishtra opines here that he should have kept a vigil over Ashwatthama’s movements, knowing for a fact that he is still alive, simmering with anger, and given his past track record that he would go to any extent to kill his enemy. Thus, this is an utter lapse in concentration and focus and Yudishtra had to pay a heavy price for it!
Now, how is this applicable to our daily lives and also in the professional space? One of the most important qualities of a leader is to stay focused at all times. When we say “focus”, it should be towards the ultimate end-goal. In cultural studies, we refer to this as “short-term” vs. “long-term” orientation. In today’s scenario, many of us, including corporate organizations, are mostly driven by short-term goals, rather than long-term ones. Of course, I’m not saying that short-term goals aren’t important. Yes they are – But to what extent? Can we compromise our long-term goal in the pursuit of the short-term ones? This is where we lose focus and concentration. If we get carried away by the short-term goals only and for short-term profits, we are directly compromising on the long-term sustainability of the organization. This is exactly where Yudishtra also lost the plot here. He thought that the eighteen-day war was over and was rejoicing happily with his brothers! Just because Duryodhana has been killed, Yudishtra came to a short-term conclusion that the war has concluded. However, little did Yudishtra anticipate that still three of them were alive, and amongst the three, only if Ashwatthama was chased away (Ashwatthama is a “Chiranjeevi” & death could not near him) from here permanently, the war will come to a close! This is the long-term orientation which Yudishtra lacked, and hence, we’ve seen how the leader had to pay a heavy price of losing his people to the wrath of the enemy!
This could happen in organizations as well – If we lose our focus even for a moment, the competitor can stamp on us and overtake us with ease! Hence, if the business has to sustain, long-term orientation along with constant focus and vigil are extremely important. So for today, let us understand up to this point, and in the next episode, we shall take this discussion forward to see how Yudishtra continued to react to Ashwatthama’s cowardly act! Stay tuned!
The Indian Dharma 