In the previous episode, we had witnessed Bhishmachaarya continuing his accord on the “Aapad Dharmam”, wherein he is talking about “Mithra” (Friendship / Relationship). In this, he is explaining that when work is being delegated by the leader, he / she should do it in such a way that it is equally distributed towards many people, and should not be delegated to just one person. If this is done so, chances are high that the work quality would be compromised. Secondly, Bhishmachaarya is explaining that while sharing resources, a leader should be patient. He should not think of harming others, just for the resource to be obtained at any cost. This is a very important point that needs to be stressed upon. We’ve seen yesterday how two states in India – Karnataka and Tamil Nadu keep fighting for the resource called “Water” in the River Cauvery. While Karnataka is an extremely greedy state, not to share even a single drop of water with Tamil Nadu in River Cauvery, Tamil Nadu is not a state which goes soft on the issue either. Tamil Nadu keeps hammering the tongs on Karnataka for the Cauvery River water, which ends up in a bitter fight. Tamil Nadu also doesn’t understand that one needs to be patient for the monsoon rains to happen, so that Karnataka is automatically going to open the flood gates of the river.
Thus, the point is very clear – When a resource has to be shared, one needs to be patient. The leader has to wait for things to happen on its own, so as to avoid unnecessary fights with the other party. Moving on further thus, Bhishmachaarya explains the next allied point. He says thus, “Oh Yudishtra! Just like how you’ve to play the waiting game when it comes to resource-sharing, as a leader, you should play the waiting game to accept people as close aides. When people come closer to you all of a sudden, it might not be with good intentions every time. You need to examine them, test them and then accept them. You should not blindly trust people, just because they talk very nicely and come closer to you!”
This is a very important point here – Many times in our lives too, we might get carried away by the talks of certain people, who might come very close to us, but little would we know at that point that they’ve come to loot us left, right and centre! For instance, there might be certain people who are into “Sales” and “Marketing” who can talk very nicely to us, so as to convince us to buy their product / service. They might butter us with all juicy words and with this, we also would get convinced and get carried away! Finally we would end up buying their product. However, after the purchase is over, we would realize that they’ve sold a faulty product for a high price! Now when we need a repair of this product and when we call the people who had earlier convinced us beautifully to buy it, these people will disappear completely and would never pick up our phone calls even! This is why Bhishmachaarya explains that when some people come abruptly closer to us by talking very nicely, we should be very alert. We should not give in directly to their gimmicks and fall for them.
This is exactly how Surgriva was careful, when Bhagawan Rama and Lakshmana came to them. We’ve seen this during our earlier “Shrimad Ramayana” project – When Bhagawan Rama pledged to Sugriva that both of them would be friends for life, Sugriva was not ready to believe Bhagawan Rama straightaway. He wanted to test Bhagawan Rama’s prowess, before accepting the fact that Bhagawan Rama is all-powerful in nature! So, Sugriva pointed out to the “Dundubhi Shareeram” and asked Bhagawan Rama to kick it with all His force to prove His strength. Bhagawan Rama obeyed Surgriva’s words. He kicked the dead body of Dundubhi and it went and fell at a far distance. This showed Bhagawan Rama’s prowess, but Sugriva wasn’t convinced as yet. He wanted Bhagawan Rama to hit seven trees which were in a straight line with seven arrows and plunder them. Bhagawan Rama accepted this challenge too, but in a different and a more convincing way – He plundered all the seven trees at the same time with just one arrow, and this happened within a split of a second! Before Sugriva even realized what was going on, all the seven trees were plundered by Bhagawan Rama! Thus, only after Bhagawan Rama “cleared” these two tests, Sugriva accepted Bhagawan Rama as a good friend, whom he can utilize to kill his brother Vaali!
Thus, this is a great characteristic of a leader – Whatever Sugriva did here is exactly right – Even though Bhagawan Rama was all-pervasive and supreme, Sugriva wasn’t ready to believe straightaway. He wanted Bhagawan Rama to undergo the tests, so that the trust can build. Bhagawan Rama Himself accepted both the tests and proved to Sugriva that He could be a trustable aide! So for today, let us ponder over this important point and let us wait till the next episode to continue further with Bhishmachaarya’s accord! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 