In the previous episode, we had witnessed Bhishmachaarya continuing with his accord on “Raaja-Dharma”. In this, he is explaining thirty-six different attributes of a leader to Yudishtra and as part of this, we’ve witnessed around twenty-three of them. During yesterday’s episode, we had witnessed Bhishmachaarya explaining about how a leader should take care of women and ensure their upliftment. However, the leader should be careful enough to know the boundaries up to which he can engage with women. In today’s context, this can be applicable to organizations which are more and more women-driven. However, having said that, every organization should ensure that their women leaders / employee’s are treated with utmost dignity and professionalism. There should not be any iota of misbehaviour or abuse against women in any form. Secondly, Bhishmachaarya was talking about the food that we consume. As a leader, it is nothing wrong to consume food according to our preferences, but that should not come at the cost of spoiling our health. Only if we are healthy, will we be able to take care of the others in the organization / territory properly.
Moving on further, Bhishmachaarya explains thus, “Oh Yudishtra! You should ensure that you respect all kinds of elders without any hesitation or ego towards them. If there are people senior to you, ensure that you give utmost respect to them without any expectation!” This is a very important point here, which explains “humility” as a very important aspect of a leader. No matter how much ever we achieve things in our life – We should never allow pride to take over us. At any point in life, we should be humble and when it comes to elders, we should respect them with our humility at our heart. This is the sign of a learned “Panditha” being a leader. Are we having this quality today? We should introspect within ourselves. The moment we receive a higher academic degree or a promotion in the corporate, we start thinking no end of ourselves! At this point, even if we see some aged people in our family and outside who might be less qualified academically or professionally, we tend to discard them very easily! We might be young in age and might have achieved a lot of professional laurels. However, we should always understand that our age (in number of years) might be equal to their number of years of experience in their lives! We should always remember that life is the best teacher for any living being, and life experiences can make or break an individual. If someone who is elder to us is sharing their life experiences with us, we should listen and learn from them with humility, rather than discarding their words openly. Hence, the point here is that, the more and more we achieve in our professional and personal lives, the more humble we should become! We might have enormous qualifications, but that doesn’t mean that we would keep flaunting them every time.
Moving further, Bhishmachaarya is now talking about an allied pointer here. He says thus, “Oh Yudishtra! You might be well-educated, but your respect towards your “Guru” should never diminish even an inch. You might know several things more than what your “Guru” knows. But if your “Guru” had not laid that foundation for you, please remember that you might not have been able to learn all that you know now!” This is also an extremely important point. Some people might have this practice – Even though they might have completed a PhD and would be working in several high positions in corporate, they would never forget their roots! They will make it a habit to go and visit their school and meet all their school teachers. This is extremely important and I think all of us should try and do this atleast once a year, if not more. It is not only about reliving our past school-day memories, but is also an opportunity to seek the “Anugraha” of our teachers, who have shaped us up as successful individuals. Post our school days, we might have pursued several forms of higher studies, but foundations laid in a school by our teachers are things that can never be forgotten.
Hence, the point here is that, no matter how much we may achieve in our lives, we should respect our teachers (“Gurus”) at all times. We might have overgrown them in several walks of life. However, if that respect and courtesy is absent for our school teachers, there is no point in achieving whatever we do in life! So for today, let us understand these two important points and we shall wait till the next episode to continue this discussion further! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 