The Indian Dharma

In the previous episode we had witnessed Vidura’s very interesting explanation on why should we take bath consistently as a regular practice every passing day. He had in fact listed out nine important benefits of showering regularly.

If we look at the inner significance of having bath everyday, we are trying to remove all our impurities from our physical body, which is nothing but a “vehicle” given to us by Bhagawan to carry out good deeds and selfless service to the mankind. Just like how our mind and “Aatman” is very important for our spiritual progress, our physical body (“Deham”) is equally important as well. By regular bathing and giving the required attention to our physical body, we can maximize its efficiency to do something good for the society. We should also note that according to our Hindu “Sanaathana Dharma”, we should give importance to two aspects of cleanliness – Cleanliness of our body and cleanliness of our mind and soul. By cleaning our physical body, we get rid of all the unwanted impurities, disease-causing germs, etc. and protect our body from the harmful effects of these germs. By cleaning our mind, we tend to remove all the impurities that block our mind from thinking of Bhagawan and surrendering ourselves to him! As the old English proverb goes by – “A Sound Mind in a Sound Body!” we should realize that only if our physical body is clean, it would give us the strength and confidence to work in the positive direction. Thus a clean physical body is a “gateway” for a clean mind.

This is exactly what Vidura has also emphasized in the sloka that we had witnessed yesterday. He had clearly said that by bathing regularly, we would gain that “subtle” confidence and strength, which would keep us going with a healthy and a fresh mind. What a wonderful explanation and an important link between the body and the “Aatman”!

This is why I always keep mentioning time and again that we should spend time individually to focus and ponder upon each and every sloka what Vidura has said. It is not enough that our readers just read outwardly and glimpse through each episode. I request readers to read each episode twice or thrice or four times, so as to understand and ponder over the deeper significance of each message conveyed by Vidura. Every sloka and every phrase in Vidura Neeti conveys a very significant and a deep message. Hence only if we spend more time on each of the episodes, we would get to understand the in-depth meaning of what Vidura is exactly trying to convey. Of course I’m also trying my best to explore each sloka with its deeper significance. But however, there might be thousands of other significance for each sloka, which I may not be able to cover, owing to my limitation in terms of knowledge and also the writing part. Hence, I take this opportunity to request our readers to go through each and every sloka of the “Vidura Neeti” more than just once and try to ponder over it, so as to understand the real depth of meaning that Vidura has packed into them!

Thus so far, we’ve seen the important benefits of having bath regularly and cleansing our physical body externally. So is it enough if we cleanse our physical body only externally? What about the internal cleanliness of the body? Here is where Vidura explains about the quantity of food that we consume. He says that those people who consume less (but sufficient) food, undergoes the following six benefits. What are those benefits? Vidura explains thus:

“Gunaashca shanmitabhuktam bhajante aarogyam aayuscha balam sukham cha!

Anaavilamchaasya bhravarthavartyam na chenamaadhyuna ithikshipanti!!”

Thus Vidura explains the six important benefits of consuming optimal amount of food every day. The first benefit is “Aarogyam” – This means that we would be able to lead a healthy life if we’re able to balance our food consumption every day. Secondly, a balanced food habit gives us a long life, which might also be disease-free (“Aayuscha”)! Nowadays we see more and more people suffering from innumerable diseases, including the common ones of Diabetes and Blood Pressure. Barring few hereditary causes, these kinds of diseases happen primarily because of unhealthy food habits. If we’re able to contain our food by limiting it in a proper way, we can live a long life devoid of many diseases.

Thirdly, a balanced food habit increases our physical strength “(Balam”). This is why we see sports persons following a strict diet schedule when they’re in their peak of their sports career. This is done so as to maintain their fitness levels in a proper way. If they start deviating from their strict diet schedule, their physical fitness would go for a toss thereby reflecting very badly during the important game.

Fourth benefit of having a balanced diet is “Sukham”. As I had already mentioned before, if we’ve to be carefree for diseases, we’ve to be careful with our diet! 🙂 As people of the modern day, we need to understand this point more importantly. Given the changing lifestyle today, we easily tend to get carried away by the lucrative and the delicious fast food items that come to our doorstep nowadays. Of course I’m not saying that we should completely avoid them, as I understand that it would be too harsh on people from my side! 🙂 However, we can always have a limit for everything, including the fast food items. If we maintain the limit in food consumption, we can enjoy our favourite food items for many many years!

Fifth, Vidura explains that if we have a balanced food schedule, it also reflects on our reproductive metabolism. This might of course seem surprising, but in the modern day, many scientists and researchers are accepting the fact that the food that we consume plays a crucial role for a healthy child birth. This is applicable both for men and women. If we go into the biological aspect of it, the sperms and the ovums that are responsible for child birth get nourished only with healthy and proper food. Finally, Vidura explains that a person who has a balanced diet, would escape from being framed as a “Big eater”! 🙂

Thus these are the six important benefits of maintaining a proper and a balanced diet. All these six points are extremely important for all of us to strictly adhere and follow! I’m going to discuss few of these important points in detail in the next episode tomorrow to obtain more clarity. Stay tuned! 🙂

In our previous couple of episodes we had witnessed yet another important principle explained by Vidura wherein he had emphasized on the fact that we should never ever get into a financial relationship with eight categories of people. The main reason why Vidura stresses upon this point is that, if we happen to lend/borrow money with these eight categories of people, it becomes very difficult to get our money back! Rather, they would end up cheating us with our money and ultimately on the pretext of “helping” someone, we would end up in a disaster! Hence we need to be extremely careful with people while borrowing and lending money.

To sum it up quickly for the benefit of our readers, Vidura explained that we should never maintain a financial relationship with a “happy” king, a prostitute, a government servant, a son/daughter, brother/sister, a widow woman with a child, those who work with the armed forces of a nation and finally a person who was rich but lost his money all of a sudden.

Now moving on further, Vidura explains the next interesting aspect – Here he is explaining what are the various benefits that we would receive in life, if we bathe our physical body every passing day! I’m assuming here that all of us do have the habit of taking bath every morning! 🙂 Of course many of us might have the habit of taking bath twice or thrice a day too, but it is extremely important that we take a shower atleast once a day! Vidura is going to explain nine important benefits of taking a clean bath every day. He says thus:

“Gunaadasha snaanasheelam bajante bhalam roopam svaravarna parshuddhihi!

Sparisashca gandhascha vishuddhadaacha shreer shaukumaaryam pravaraarscha naaryaha!!”

Here Vidura explains the nine different benefits of taking a shower:

“Balam” – Vidura explains that the first and foremost benefit that we would be obtaining by having a shower every day is “Strength”! He says that, by taking a proper shower, the physical body gains immense strength. Of course we can try it out to our own self every day and check if we really have an improvement in our physical strength! 🙂

“Roopam” – Next, Vidura explains that if we take bath regularly, our physical appearance would be beautiful. This is one reason why perhaps many people who are beauty conscious in the present day focus a lot on taking a steaming and a refreshing shower before going into the beautification part! 🙂

“Svaram” – Third thing that Vidura stresses on when it comes to bathing is the “tone” of our voice. We would generally gain confidence when we are clean and tidy and thus would be reflected in the way we communicate and express ourselves to people around. This implies that when we take a refreshing bath, our voice and tone sees lot of improvement.

“Varnam” – Fourth, Vidura explains that the color of our physical body improves with taking shower. Nowadays many people in India prefer to have a lighter and a fairer shade of skin color and hence for all those who wish to go for such a thing, please note that taking shower regularly would help! 🙂

“Sparsham” – Fifth, Vidura explains that consistent bathing of the body makes it soft and smooth to touch. We can see in the modern day that this particular aspect is picked up by some soap manufacturing brands to market their soaps to people. We would have seen this in many advertisements that if we use this particular brand of soap, our skin would become smooth and silky! 🙂 Hence, this becomes one of the most important benefits of taking bath regularly.

“Gandascha” – This is a very important benefit – If we shower regularly, this would prevent our body from emitting foul smell. In the present day lifestyle we keep running around and doing so much of physical activities. By this, we tend to sweat a lot and this sweat emits bad smell from our body. Thus by regular showers, this bad smell can be eliminated from the body and instead, we can make our body smell refreshing and good. This would automatically increase our energy level and confidence. This is perhaps one reason why many brands of soaps come up in the present day come up with refreshing smells of perfumes, deodrants, etc.

Vishuddhihi” – Sixth, Vidura explains that by taking bath regularly our body would maintain its sheen and shine and thus be attractive to the rest of the world. This is also quite important today as the look of our body is very important in our professional and personal lives. We should take adequate care to maintain our sheen and shine so that we look appealing to people around us.

“Shreehi” – Seventh, Vidura explains that if we maintain our body neat and tidy, it also becomes the hub for wealth. Goddess Lakshmi is believed to enter the houses of people who maintain themselves clean and tidy.

“Saukumaaryam” – Eighth, Vidura explains that by taking regular bath, our body gains lot of smoothness and softness in such a way that we would be able to project ourself as a unique personality amidst a group of people.

“Pravaraashca naaryaha” – Finally Vidura explains the most important point here – If we shower regularly, Vidura explains that it would increase the appeal between the two genders – Boys would like girls and vice versa! 🙂 Hence, if some of us are in this bracket of age group, we should ensure that we shower regularly atleast for this reason! 🙂

Thus for today let us ponder over these points and let us realize the significance of having a shower regularly. We shall wait till the next episode to witness the next important advice of Vidura! Stay tuned! 🙂

Dear readers,

It has been a wonderful and a remarkable journey for the past 1.5 years till date and I’m humbled by your excellent and mammoth response to some important interpretations of our great Indian Dharma. To this date, we’ve crossed a viewership of 25,000 from around 100 countries worldwide and we’re still counting more to come! I wish to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for your valuable time, your comments and feedbacks for whatever I had been writing for all these months with my limited knowledge. I’m continuously working hard to bring in more value to this blog, which in turn would be extremely important for all of us to understand and appreciate the precious words of advice from our great forefathers, ancestors, “Gurus”, Spiritual Masters, present day expert “Upanyaasakas”, etc.

For many of you who had been asking me for the archived episodes of our previous Ramayana project, you can visit our blog site:

http://www.theindiandharma.wordpress.com

Here you can find all the archives of all the 324 episodes of our Ramayana project as well as the 236 episodes of our currently running Vidura Neeti project. If you still have difficulty accessing the archives, please let me know through the “Comment” section and I shall sort it out.

Alternatively if you’re an active Facebook user, you can visit the Facebook Page titled “The Indian Dharma”. Link is given below:

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All you need to do is to “Like” and/or “Follow” the above Facebook page to get live updates everyday.

Once again, my deepest gratitude to all of you for taking off some time for this noble cause. Let us join together to create a better lifestyle, a better society and in turn a better world for all of us and for the future generations to come!

In the previous episode we had commenced a very important discussion wherein Vidura is currently explaining about different categories of people with whom we should never maintain any kinds of money transactions – It might be lending money or taking money! He says that it is extremely dangerous to encourage money matters with these people and we should try and avoid such things. In the last episode we had witnessed four such categories of people – A “happy” king, a prostitute, a government servant and a son/daughter. For our readers’ convenience, we shall have a re-look at the sloka once more as we proceed into the remaining categories.

“Grineeraajaa punschali raajabruthyaha puthroh braathaa vidhavaa baala puthraa!

Senaa jeevi udhruta bhootireva vyavahaareshu varjaneeyaaha surethe!!”

We’ve of course witnessed the first four of the categories, and now we shall move on to the fifth category today.

“Braathaa” – Here Vidura explains that we should never maintain any sorts of money exchanges between our brother/sister! We might wonder why is Vidura dropping such a bombshell! The important point here is that, at some stage when the brother or sister gets married, they would have a family of their own, and if we go and ask for money or lend money to them, it would be equivalent of a money transfer between us and a third party! Moreover, although they might seem to be a third party, the stigma of being a brother or a sister would not allow us to ask them to pay back our money if in case they default! We can see this a lot happening in today’s world! How many relationships between brothers or sisters get broken down due to the want of money? It might be due to a fight for the parents’ property or even for a normal money lending. For instance if our brother is in the want of money owing to lack of income, we might lend some money to him today. But what is the guarantee that we get our money back after few days? Even though tomorrow if our brother gets a good job in a good organization and starts to earn handful money as income, what is the guarantee that he would repay our money back? If he does that, it would be fair-enough! But if he doesn’t repay, will we be able to ask for that money from him directly? Won’t we feel uncomfortable in doing so? It is all because of the stigma of relationship and we would always have the fear of spoiling that relationship between our brother and us! This is why Vidura explains that it is pretty dangerous if we’ve to have any sorts of money truncations with our immediate brothers or sisters!

“Vidhavaa baala puthraa” – Here Vidura explains that it is not very good to lend/receive money from a woman who is a widow and also who has a child with her. This is an extremely tough situation for a woman to be in, and it is not advisable for us to maintain any sorts of money transactions with such a woman.

“Senaa jeevi” – Here Vidura explains that we should not encourage any form of money transactions with those people who are in the armed forces of the country! This is because the job of being in the army is quite a sensitive and a delicate position and if there might be some sort of an allegation that the army officer or anyone has some illegal money transaction of any sort, it becomes a serious issue pertaining to the national security! Of course we’ve seen quite a few instances of such sorts happening today too. This is where the opponents or the enemy of the modern day smartly create something called as “honey trap” wherein they use women and money power to deduct all kinds of defence and other key secrets by seducing the key officers in the army and allied positions in the Defence sector. This is why Vidura is explaining that it is not advisable to get into any sorts of money dealing with those people who are in the Army or Defence sectors as this might lead to unwanted controverisies pertaining to National Security!

“Bhootireva” – Here Vidura explains that we should be careful with those people who were once rich, but have lost money recently and have become poor! This is because, these kind of people would still have that greed and desire to earn back their money that they had lost! Hence there is always a possibility that if we happen to lend money to such people, they might never return it back to us! Possibilities are very high that they might cheat us of our money, just because of their greed to see money in their hands again desparately by hook or crook!

Thus Vidura has clearly explained eight different categories of people with whom it might be extremely dangerous to lend/borrow money! Of course what we’re now seeing is just a list of what Vidura is saying here. We’re yet to go deeper into each point to analyse why Vidura is saying each of them. If we go into that deeply, we would have to do “Vidura Neeti” for an entire lifetime! J Of course I’m trying to give a deeper insight for atleast the important points that Vidura is trying to emphasize. However, it is upto the readers to think and assimilate each and every point and to analyze them for a better understanding!

We shall take this forward in the next episode and gradually move on to Vidura’s next important point of advice. Stay tuned! 🙂

In the previous episode we had witnessed yet another important point as explained by Vidura that we should understand when and where to explain “Dharma” to a person. If that person to whom we should talk about it, is amidst a wrong companionship at that point in time, there is no point in doing so! Instead, it makes sense for us to explain the “Dharma” to him, when he is alone or free! This would give him more room and space for understanding our point of view and to ponder over it much better. This is why we always say that we should talk about “Dharma” only where it would be heard! There is no point in talking about “Dharma” where it would completely go unheard of!

Now moving further, Vidura is explaining yet another important point for all of us – From whom we should never get a loan and to whom we should never lend a loan! This is again quite applicable to all of us, both personally and professionally. We are in a world wherein we’re witnessing people getting huge amounts of money as loans and finally fleeing away from the country by ditching all those people who gave that money! So let’s see what Vidura says:

“Grineeraajaa punschali raajabruthyaha puthroh braathaa vidhavaa baala puthraa!

Senaa jeevi udhruta bhootireva vyavahaareshu varjaneeyaaha surethe!!”

Here Vidura lists out eight categories of people with whom we should try and avoid any kind of money transaction – It might be lending of money or receiving of money. So let us witness each of the categories in detail:

“Grineeraajaa” – Here Vidura categorically explains that it is very dangerous to do money transactions with a king who is extremely kind! This is because we would never know when a king would become angry, since the main job of a king is to punish people for their wrongdoings! Hence we never can judge the mood in which the king would be and hence it is better to avoid money transactions with him!

“Punschali´– Here Vidura explains that we should never do any kind of money transaction with a prostitute woman! This is where many of our youth fall trap into! When I mean prostitute, I’m not only meaning those women or people who are involved in flesh trade. It also includes those who are part of modern day “nightclubs”, “dancebars”, etc. wherein such kinds of events happen at large! Vidura says that we should never ever encourage such people for any kind of money dealings, as the profession that they are into is something unethical and is seen as a disgrace! If we have any kind of money transaction with these people, it simply implies that we’re encouraging such illegal and sinful activities to thrive in our society!

“Raajabruthyaha” – Here he says that we should never ever have any kind of a money transaction with a person who is a government or a public servant! How apt are Vidura’s words! Here is where all sorts of corruption begins in today’s scenario! If we enter any kind of a government office – Be it any domain, is it possible for us nowadays to come out of the office without bribing some or the other government official? It is virtually a “No”! On one hand we keep talking about reducing corruption and the government is not doing well enough to reducing the level of corruption in the country! On the other hand, we have people like us who are so-called “government servants” taking bribes at their own will and wish! Now what can the government do if personal greed is at its peak? How much can a government monitor and investigate? It is we people who have to change! It is we people who have to bring in the change! There is no point in blaming the government for all our misdeeds and wrongdoings! It is important in today’s world that the so-called government or public servants should stay away from unwanted corrupt practices that ultimately hampers the well-being of our society and our mother country at large!

“Putraha” – It is important that we also do not encourage any sorts of money transactions with our son or daughter! Vidura explains that if we encourage our children by lending money unwantedly, it would become a regular practice in future that would make them lazy and loiter around! Moreover, constant supply of money from parents to children in today’s world entails a huge risk of driving them towards unwanted bad habits and hence parents should be extremely careful of their children’s whereabouts! This is an extremely important point to be focused upon!

So for today let us ponder upon these four important categories of people with whom we shouldn’t maintain any form of money transaction. We shall wait till the next episode to witness the remaining categories of people! Stay tuned! 🙂

In the previous episode we had witnessed the continuation of Vidura’s important message on who can be an ideal messenger to Bhagawan or to a Guru (A Spiritual Master). In that way we discussed the last characteristic of an ideal messenger wherein Vidura had laid special emphasis on the “Communication” aspect! As a messenger, a person should communicate using the right words at the right place. One such epitome of a messenger in terms of communication and also in terms of all other attributes is Hanuman! We witnessed during our Ramayana project as to how Hanuman was such an impeccable person in terms of being a messenger to Bhagawan Rama and Mother Sita. Hanuman was so devoted that we even witnessed Bhagawan Rama’s heart melted and was reduced to tears of joy and happiness!

Now moving on further, Vidura is talking about a very very important point here – He says that if a king is talking with a group of people who he shouldn’t be talking with, and if we are somehow part of that group by chance, we should only try to come out of that group and not to advise the king that he’s doing something wrong! Vidura explains thus,

“Naninhavam mantrahatastena gaccheth samprustha mantrasya kusangatasya!!”

How applicable is this point to today’s scenario? If in an organization, we have to meet our supervisor or anybody who is above our level (Even Managing Director or whoever for that matter), we should know when and how to meet that person. If for instance, that person is sitting with someone or a group of people whom we do not share a good equation with, it is always better that we avoid going to meet that leader at this point in time. It is always better to approach that person either when he/she is alone or while amidst a group of people who would share a good equation with us.

Why is Vidura emphasizing such a point here? The main reason for such an emphasis is to highlight the point that if someone is amidst a wrong companionship, whatever “Dharma” we try to inculcate to that person would directly go to the drain! In other words, we have to know when to talk what and to whom! This is extremely important for us, both in terms of our corporate career as well as our personal life. If we’ve to talk to a person about something good, we need to first understand the situation in which the other person is at currently. Only after understanding that situation we should open our mouth and talk! Else what would happen? The entire group of “Adharma” would gun us down immediately and easily and our words of “Dharma” would never be heard by the person who has to hear!

This is exactly what happened to King Dhirdiraashtra as well! When the gambling game was going on, everybody around King Dhirdiraashtra were supporting the game and this made him get carried away by it. Amidst all these people was this one person called Vidura again, who tried to advise King Dhirdiraashtra against playing the infamous game. But did King Dhirdiraashtra listen to Vidura? NO! This is because when “Adharma” is at its peak, there is no point if one person alone emphasizes the “Dahrma”. The king is never going to listen to that! This is why Vidura is now advising King Dhirdiraashtra on the various aspects of “Dharma” when he is alone and when he is away from all those people like Duryodhana, Sahuni, Bhishma, etc.

Thus, just like how a sweet bird’s humming goes unheard of amidst the houling of a group of foxes, the precious words of “Dharma” would go unheard of, if they are uttered amidst people who are epitomes of “Adharma”. Thus the message from this episode is that, if in an organization we’ve to talk to a leader or anybody who is at the helm of affairs, we should always know the right time to approach them. If that person is amidst people who might negate our points of view and who might make us unheard, we should never try to barge inside and make our presence felt. Rather, it is better for us to wait until those people disperse off, and subsequently we can go and talk to that person. This would make more sense, rather than entering into unwanted fights, conflicts and arguments with people!

So for today let us introspect on this important point of selective talking and we shall wait till the next episode to witness more of Vidura’s advice to King Dhirdiraashtra and also for all of us! Stay tuned! 🙂

 

In the previous episode we had commenced a very important discussion on who can be an ideal messenger to Bhagawan or to a Guru (A Spiritual master). It is extremely significant in a way that it gives us an opportunity to identify certain key pitfalls that we have in our lives and correct ourselves so that it enables us to walk the path of Dharma with more clarity. For the convenience of our readers we shall quickly re-visit the sloka that Vidura explains pertaining to this regard:

“Asthabdham akleebham adheergasuthramsaanukrosham slakshamahaarha manyaihi!

Arogajaatheeyam udhaara vaakyam dhootham vadath ashtakulopavannam!!”

Eventually we had discussed five characteristics of a true messenger to Bhagawan wherein we said that this person should completely be devoid of any kind of pride, jealousy, personal agenda, etc. and also should be having a pure and a noble heart! Now moving further from here, Vidura explains the next set of characteristics of a true messenger of Bhagawan:

“Arogajaatheeyam udhaara vaakyam” – Here Vidura explains that the messenger should be an epitome of speech & communication! That is, he/she should know which words to employ in which context and how to talk precisely to the point! We’ve discussed the significance of giving a good speech and talk at various occasions, both during our Ramayana project as well as during the current Vidura Neeti too! We’ve seen that whenever we talk something to someone, we should talk directly to the point without bluffing here and there out of the context. Moreover, we should also make sure that we talk in a pleasing manner, without hurting others’ sentiments and feelings. If there are good words to employ, why should we employ bad and unparliamentary words while we talk? Hence adequate care needs to be taken by all of us with regards to the choice of words that we make while talking.

This is also important in terms of our character. It is because, the people whom we’re addressing would judge us based on our choice of words and the way of communication. We should always keep this in mind! This is exactly what Vidura also says here – A true messenger can impress someone in a pleasing and an emotional manner only with the correct choice of words! This is also what we term in the modern day corporate as “Communication Skills” and certain “Basic etiquette” while we address someone or a gathering. Thus Vidura concludes this sloka by explaining that all these above mentioned characteristics are of prime importance if we’ve to become trusted messengers of Bhagawan or a Guru.

One such epitome of being an able and an ideal messenger is Hanuman himself – If we trace back to the “Sundara Kaanda” of our Ramayana project (Episodes 200-250 – Life Lessons from Valimiki Ramayana), we can witness how Hanuman conducted himself as an epitome of each and every characteristic what Vidura is explaining currently! For instance, we know how smart was Hanuman in crossing the ocean, talking secretly with Mother Sita, advising Ravana about his misdeeds and finally by showing his immense power by burning down the entire Lanka city within minutes! In due course of the Sundara Kaanda, we also witnessed how Hanuman was an epitome of effective communication and how he conducted himself with Bhakti and Devotion towards Mother Sita and conveyed the vital information about Rama’s pursuit! In return he also listened to Mother Sita’s accord carefully and conveyed the same to Bhagawan Rama. Not only did he convey Mother Sita’s safety and security to Rama, but also the way in which he conveyed it to him, made Bhagawan Rama melt down to tears! At the end of Hanuman’s emotional and heart-touching accord on Mother Sita, Bhagawan Rama starts weeping and replies back to Hanuman thus: “Oh my dearest Hanuman! I’ve been moved so much by your selfless pursuit of my beloved wife Sita! The way you conveyed the events just melted me down! I really want to recognize your great help by giving you some prize, but unfortunately since I’m currently on an exile, I’m not in a position to give you anything for now!” Saying thus, Bhagawan Rama embraces Hanuman with him with all his love and grace and this wonderful gesture of Bhagawan Rama moves Hanuman into tears as well! What a gift he has got from his hero! Does any other materialistic gift matter to Hanuman more than what he has got from Bhagawan Rama now? Never at all!

Thus from this example we can witness how Hanuman was an ideal messenger with all the above-mentioned characteristics by Vidura! So for today let us appreciate this important sloka and let us enjoy the beauty of Hanuman as a divine messenger to Bhagawan Rama! We shall wait till the next episode to witness Vidura’s next advice! Stay tuned! 🙂

 

In the previous episode we had witnessed yet another important explanation and a message from Vidura pertaining to modern day Human Resources Management – This time he talks about recruiting the right person for the right job! Vidura in the above sloka mentioned that there are four categories of people whom an organization should never employ! The first category that Vidura explained was of those people who refuse to execute the tasks that are assigned to them duly by the organization. Secondly, a person who procrastinates his duties for no reason should also be thrown out with immediate effect! Thirdly Vidura explains that that those people who think too much about themselves and those who ignore the valuable advice of other people around him/her are very dangerous to have in an organization! Here is where we had a detailed discussion about how we should be extremely careful with those people who are “power mongers” or “mavericks” in an organization. We should realize that such people would go to any extent to pull us as well as the organization to low levels, just to gain personal power, name and fame. Finally Vidura explains the fourth category wherein a person who always have a negative response for everything in the organization is also dangerous in the long-run for an organization.

Thus HR managers of the current day should be very careful when they come across any of these four categories of people. It’s best to avoid such people’s entry into the organization, however if there are compulsions (of whatsoever kind) to have such people within, we should be extremely careful not to fall into the trap of these people.

Now moving on further, Vidura now explains who can be an able and an efficient messenger to Bhagawan or to a Guru. He explains thus:

“Asthabdham akleebham adheergasuthramsaanukrosham slakshamahaarha manyaihi!

Arogajaatheeyam udhaara vaakyam dhootham vadath ashtakulopavannam!!”

This is a very beautiful sloka and now let us try to understand the meaning of this, part by part.

“Asthabdham” – Here Vidura explains that a person who doesn’t have even an iota of self-pride is a perfect messenger. If our master has instructed us to execute a task, we should never have the intention that “I’m doing this and it’s only because of me, this is happening!” We should always have that “down-to-earth” characteristic in us to be a good messenger to Bhagwan or to a Guru (A spiritual Master). Ultimately we should realize that Bhagawan is just using us as an instrument to get something done for the benefit of the whole world and there is nothing for us to feel proud of! Perhaps we can feel proud of ourself that Bhagawan has chosen us more than anybody else and we shall feel happy about it. This is a different thought and we shall be grateful about it to Bhagawan. However, we should never ever think that the success of the task given to us is only because of our hard work and efficiency. We should realize that there is someone above us who wants things to happen this way and it is pure grace that makes it happen!

“Akleebham” – A person would be a good messenger to Bhagawan or a Guru who would be devoid of unwanted fear in life. If a Spiritual Master gives us a task to perform, there is no point in fearing about its consequences or after-effects. This is because, Bhagawan is directly overseeing and supervising the work and He would ensure that things would go fine. Thus we should realize that whatever we do as our duty, we should always surrender it to Bhagawan and then perform. Once we do that, He takes care of what should happen and what should not happen. Thus the “fear” factor would automatically disappear from us if we develop this thought process. Thus we should realize that if we’re doing a duty, we should never fear for anything and should keep proceeding with the task and such people devoid of fear would make an excellent candidate for being Bhagawan’s messenger!

“Adheergasuthram” – A person who is steadfast in his duty and ensures perfection in completing the task would be an ideal messenger! Thus we should realize that the focus should be on the work in hand, rather than fearing about the consequences of it. The more we are focused on our work, the more we’re pleasing Bhagawan’s heart! We should always remember this in mind!

“Saanukrosham” – A person who is merciful by heart becomes an ideal messenger to Bhagawan! He/she should never be egoistic and should have the important characteristic of “mercy” towards all living beings. Such a person melts Bhagawan’s heart immediately and He accepts them unconditionally!

“Slakshamahaarha manyaihi” – A person who is pure by heart makes an ideal messenger for Bhagawan! It is very important that we do not have a hidden “personal agenda” while doing voluntary service and I’ve been explaining this umpteen number of times now! Here Vidura is also categorically explaining the same thing – Whatever we do in life, it should be with a pure heart and should not harm anybody in any way possible. We should have our intentions very clearly focused only on Bhagawan and the benefit of the world! Bhagawan is going to out rightly reject us if we take advantage of doing voluntary service for gaining power, name and fame!

This is a big problem nowadays in many temples and in ashrams – People take up “voluntary service” in many prominent ashrams nowadays just with the sole intention of gaining muscle power, money power, name, etc. They use their influence to make other people suffer and ultimately they try to gain happiness out of others’ sufferings! Such people would eventually meet up with disaster sooner or later. Thus it is important that we do not fall under this category!

So for today let us spare a thought on these four attributes of being a good messenger for Bhagawan or to a spiritual master! It is important that we come out of our ego, self-pride and jealousy while offering voluntary service wherever we are in this world! We shall wait till the next episode to continue this discussion further and also witness a beautiful example of a person who was an epitome of all these characteristics put together! Stay tuned! 🙂

 

 

 

 

In the previous episode we had witnessed an extension of Vidura’s explanation on how we should never compromise “Dharma” at our workplace. Vidura further explained that if there is a blatant “Adharma” happening right under our nose, we should never keep quiet. Rather, we should try and escalate it to the top management atleast in a feeble tone, irrespective of whether the top management pays heed or not. If the result of our action is negative, we should even be prepared to quit such an organization before it collapses by itself. This is extremely important because we should realize that if we lose our job because of an organizational collapse, especially due to an unethical happening, it would be very difficult to get a job elsewhere in future. Our reputation would be at stake!

Moving on thus, Vidura now explains the next important point:

“Shaktignya aatmevahi saha anukampyaha!

Vaakyantuno naadritheeyate anusishtaha!!”

Here Vidura clearly explains as to who are those people whom we should never employ in our organization as workers! He explains four catrgories here and let us look at all the four in detail:

“Naadritheeyate anusishtaha” – Here Vidura explains that those people who refuse to execute the tasks that are assigned to them duly by the organization should be thrown out immediately! It is because, employees are paid by the organization for their contributions towards the growth and development of the organization. If the contributions from the employees’ side are zero, there is no point in having such people in the organization. It only means that the organization is wasting its money by paying them salary! Hence those people who do not do their duty properly towards the organization should at any cost be chucked out immediately!

“Vaschaabi niyujjyamaanaha” – A person who procrastinates his duties for no reason should also be thrown out with immediate effect! In effect, this person is also not going to contribute anything substantial to the organization and hence there’s no point employing such people!

“Pragnyaavimaani” – Here Vidura explains that those people who think too much about themselves and those who ignore the valuable advice of other people around him/her are very dangerous to have in an organization! This is because if there is a sensitive issue in a company and if such an issue is let to be handled by these kind of people, the outcome might be extremely dangerous even for the very existence of an organization. Hence those people who have “headweight” and who have a notion that they know everything in this world, should be thrown out of an organization without wasting further time!

This is a very important point here – In the modern day, many organizations fail because of such leaders! There are people who has a big personal agenda behind their association with an organization – That is, name, fame, power, money, etc. So as to attain all of these four, these people might go to any extent to push and enforce their personal agenda on the organization, thus spoiling the entire system! Such people, should first of all be identified by the top brass of the organization very early and once these people are identified, they should be thrown out immediately without wasting even a minute, as the existence of these kinds of people in the organization may create any kinds of problems at any moment! Thus as leaders we need to be extremely cautious of these kinds of people who have personal agenda behind joining our organization!

“Prathikoolavaadi” – A person who always have a negative response for everything in the organization is also dangerous in the long-run. This again we see quite common in today’s corporate world – If there is a program of any sorts of development in terms of new software, new ways of working, etc. there would always be some people who would negate the entire thing and would try to create tantrums! Such people are always dangerous as they pave the way for the detrimental path of the organization in the long-run! Hence Vidura explains that it is better not to employ such people too in an organization!

So in today’s episode we had witnessed a very important “Human Resources Management” concept again – This time, whom not to employ in our organization. As HR managers, we need to take cognizance of this important explanation from Vidura and try to implement it in our professional setup accordingly! We shall wait till the next episode to witness the next point of advice from Vidura! Stay tuned!

 

In the previous episode we had witnessed couple of important points as explained by Vidura, which directly pertains to modern day management – Especially in the “Human Resources” domain. Vidura clearly points out both sides of the story here – The employer’s perspective as well as the employee’s perspective. With regards to the employer’s perspective, we’ve already seen that there is a certain “Dharma” that every organization should follow when it comes to employing people and remunerating them for their work. Now in the last episode, Vidura had mentioned the other side of the story wherein from the employee’s perspective, one should exactly know and understand what is expected out of him/her from the organization and should strive hard to achieve it. By doing so, employees also need to carefully thread the path of “Dharma” (Here in this context, Ethics and Value Systems) while discharging the professional duties.

At the same time, if some unethical happening takes place in the organization, employees should be ready to point it out to the top management immediately, so that corrective measures can be taken then and there. As an employee, one should never sit idle when an “Adharma” is happening right in front of our eyes. Vidura explains that we should atleast raise a feeble tone against the “Adharma” that takes place in front of us, so that someone in the organization can pick the signal up!

As we discuss these two points, many of our readers might have a doubt: “Is it possible to survive in today’s organizations if we’ve to take a bold step to pinpoint others’ wrongdoing? Won’t that person who’s committing the wrong thing backstab me? If such a thing happens, I would lose my job! Now how would I survive and take care of my family if I suddenly lose my job one day?”

Yes of course, there are valid questions in today’s scenario! As we progress through the “Kali Yuga”, more and more such “Adharma” is going to thrive! People are going to use all possible ways to dethrone someone for their own personal growth, name, fame and money! As a single person, it might be virtually impossible to stop such people who perform “Adharma” in groups and teams! However we should realize that “Dharma” is “Dharma” and there’s no deviation from it, wherever we are and whatever we do in life! This is why Vidura himself is very careful while explaining this point here – He says clearly that we should raise atleast a “feeble” voice against the “Adharma” and not a strong voice against it everytime! Now here comes our smartness. This is why I always keep telling – In the modern day it is not enough if we work hard! We should also work smart! We should have complete awareness as to what is happening around us. If at all we start to sense some danger through some source, we should be smart and quick enough to detect it and come up with ways to mitigate that danger. Thus we should understand here that pinpointing the “Adharma” can still be done, but in a smart way that we do not get affected by it. There are many examples wherein people have quickly climbed up the corporate ladder by doing such things in their organization. Many a times, if a person points out an unethical activity at the right time to the right person, the organization hails such people to the maximum and they get specially rewarded. But, we should know the right approach and the right way to escalate certain issues in the organization. This is very important.

If for instance in extreme cases, even after pointing out the unethical happening and no change happens after that, we should also be prepared to quit such an organization too. I might sound a bit harsh here, but if we continuously associate with such unethical organizations, our name and reputation would be pulled down in no time if the organization gets caught on a large scale! All of us know what happened in the case of Kingfisher airlines, Sathyam Computers, etc. When these companies collapsed due to gross unethical practices, employees were completely left in the lurch! It thus becomes very tough to look out for another job when we’ve to come out of an organization after it collapses. This is because, people outside might have a wrong perception that since we’ve been working with a company that has collapsed on unethical grounds, we would also be equally unethical as our previous organization! We should never give room for such a thing to happen to our career!

This is why Vidura is extremely careful in re-iterating the point that if there is a gross “Adharma” that takes place in the organization, we should never shy away from reporting and escalating it to the top management. Of course, smartness is required during this exercise and there’s no second thought on that! However, if the organization does not take cognizance of the problem even after repeated appeals, we should be prepared to leave the organization before it eventually collapses by itself!

So for today let us ponder over this important advice of Vidura and let us do the needful! We should always remember that the world is wide open and is full of opportunities! If not this one organization, it’s not going to be the end of the world for our career to blossom! If we stick to our “Dharma”, more than anything else, Bhagawan is going to be happy and with His grace, we’re always going to get a better opportunity in life! We should always have this thought in mind as we progress in our professional careers, wherever we are in this world! We shall wait till the next episode to witness Vidura’s next important point in detail! Stay tuned! 🙂