In the previous episode, we had witnessed the continuation of Bhishmachaarya’s key accord on the “Raaja Dharma” as part of the “Shaanti Parva”. As part of this main discussion, we’re witnessing thirty-six important qualities of a leader, wherein we’ve discussed almost thirty of them till now. During yesterday’s episode, we had witnessed Bhishmachaarya advising Yudishtra on two important aspects – Firstly, Bhishmachaarya talks about “time” and “timing” – Everything in life has a definitive timing and decision-making is completely time bound in all aspects. Secondly, he talks about the art of convincing others. While a leader should be smart enough to convince others, so that everybody is on the same page while making key decisions, this quality should not be misused by exploiting others. While “trust” is important for a leader (as discussed earlier), this trust should not be misused to take others for a ride.
Moving on further thus, Bhishmachaarya explains – “Oh Yudishtra! While someone is performing a “Dharma-Kaaryam”, you should be gracious enough to allow him / her to do it. If possible, you should intervene and enable / help the person in doing the “Dharma-Kaaryam”, but never should you be a hindrance or a stumbling block for it!” This is a very important aspect of “Dharma” for a leader – If we’re seeing someone performing a “Dharma-Kaaryam”, we should do our best to contribute more towards it, rather than ruining it. Some people have this habit – Neither they will do good to others, nor will they allow someone else to do good as well! We have our politicians in India who are epitomes of this! Neither will they do good for the people of the country, nor will they allow someone else to do good. This is one of the main reasons behind corruption in India at several levels – Both at the Centre and States. Ultimately these politicians care for filling up their own pockets, rather than working for the welfare of the people. For instance, if there is a road that is full of potholes, motorists might keep complaining constantly about the pathetic state of the road – But still, taxes would be collected in the form of “toll”. The government will turn a deaf ear to the complaints and because of this, accidents might happen. Subsequently, resident / professional associations might come together to collect funds and relay the road. When this is done, these politicians will come immediately to the road and disturb the process. When complaints were raised and when these politicians were supposed to act upon it, they would not be seen anywhere, but still the toll tax would be levied constantly! However, when someone is taking up that responsibility, these same politicians will come and create stumbling blocks – Because their corruption agenda (in the form of toll tax) is being disrupted by the citizens! This is exactly what Bhishmachaarya is explaining here – If we’re unable to do anything good for others, we should atleast refrain from creating stumbling blocks!
Subsequently, Bhishmachaarya explains thus, “Oh Yudishtra! When you’re attacking an enemy, you should know the strengths and weaknesses of that person before doing so. In other words, you should be very careful when you’re on the offensive towards strangers!” This is an extremely important point here, and in Management science, we call this “SWOT Analysis”. The acronym “SWOT” stands for “Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats”. While strategizing an attack or an offensive towards an enemy, we should first understand who that person is. For this, we should understand the enemy’s strengths (Core areas), weaknesses (Where the person can falter), Opportunities (When and how the person can be taken down) and Threats (When and how the enemy can be extremely dangerous). As a leader, knowledge about the enemy in this regard is extremely important. When I use the term “enemy”, it doesn’t mean “war” every time. This can also be equated to a competitor for an organization in the market. Thus, Bhishmachaarya’s point here is that, before we enter into an attack-mode, we should identify whom are we attacking. If the competitor is a stranger, we should be extremely careful and do the “SWOT” analysis before going on the offensive. Without doing this analysis, if we attack, we’ve to get ready to face defeat!
So for today, let us understand up to this point and we shall wait till the next episode to continue more on this discussion! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 