The Indian Dharma

In the previous episode we had witnessed yet another important message from Vidura that is specially pointed out for Human Resources Managers in today’s organizational setups. He explained very clearly that an organization can never succeed in implementing complex tasks without the help of quality employees. Given the scarcity of human resources available across the world, it is the primary duty of an organization to maintain and take care of its existing employees in a fair and equal manner.

In this way, it is saddening to note that just on the pretext of “cost-cutting”, the onus comes on the heads of employees everytime! Rather than thinking of concrete long-term strategies for cutting costs through reducing/outsourcing tasks, employee salaries and benefits take the first hit! It is sad to note that employee salaries are being treated as a huge cost burden today! Little do organizations realize that it is only because of the hard work of employees, there was a taste of success till date.

Some organizations even go to the extent of propagating arrogantly that salary hikes and increments given to employees are “luxuries” and they are not supposed to “demand” for them! According to Vidura, if organizations start behaving this way with arrogance, this would mark the beginning of their downfall. If such behavior continues, employees who have the quality in them would easily put down their papers and there are many other good organizations elsewhere in the world who would give them a “red-carpet” welcome! Ultimately due to arrogance, we would end up losing quality and high-profile employees to our competitior or to other organizations worldwide! As HR Managers, we should always realize that the world is now full of opportunities. If we’re not going to keep our people happy within our four walls, employees would never shy away to leave the organization forever! This is one strong message that Vidura too conveys through the Vidura Neeti and we as managers should realize the importance of this critical message in today’s turbulent times!

Thus HR Managers should be very clear in what they talk to employees – With regards to the exact job description, roles, responsibilities that the organization expects from employees and also the gross salary, important deductions from the salary, (Taxes, PF, etc.) and finally the net “take-home” salary. Moreover, employees should be clearly apprised of the various HR policies of the organization right at the beginning itelf. This is very important and employees should not be in for a surprise if their salary is deducted abruptly due to “policy” issues! This is blatant cheating from the organization’s perspective, and such cheating and unethical means of denying employees their dues should be stopped immediately!

Moving on now, Vidura continues thus:

“Abhipraayam yo vidithvaa tu bhartuhu! Sarvaani kaaryaani karottyateendraha atandritaha!!”

So far thus having spoken so much from the organization’s perspective of how to treat employees in a fair manner, Vidura is now going to talk from the employee’s perspective as to how to maintain oneself as a good employee in the looks of his/her organization. In other words, Vidura explains some characteristics of a honest and a good employee. He says that the employee who understands the likes/dislikes, needs, and requirements of his employer and channelizes his work pattern accordingly is always considered to be one of the best employees in the organization. This is always essential – An employee can progress faster along the corporate ladder only if he/she exactly understands the job role, job responsibilities, time frames, deadlines, etc. for his job, along with the nature of the boss/supervisor! This is why we always say in the modern day corporate that it is not enough if we work hard today! It is also important that we work “smart”! Thus, “hard work” coupled with “smart work” is essential for the success of an employee in today’s corporate world.

Next, Vidura explains:

“Vaktaa hitaanaam anurakta aaryaha!!”

Here Vidura explains another important point – If there is an unethical happening that is taking place in the organization and as an employee of this organization, if he/she pinpoints it out to the top management in a convincing way, this employee is also going to one of the stars in the organization! It’s because it proves to the employer that this employee is an honest and a sincere person and also he/she is genuinely concerned with the welfare of the organization. Hence, as an employee we should be very straightforward and honest in our approach and if there is a wrong practice that happens in our organization, we should always try to refrain ourselves from it! Moreover, we should apprise of this wrong happening to the top management atleast in a feeble voice, if not vehemently! This would always prove to the organization’s top brass that we are genuinely concerned with the moral values and ethics of doing business and also projects that we are true to our conscience and well-wishers of the company’s genuine growth and development!

Hence for today, let us ponder about these two important points with regards to the employee’s side of the organization. As the concept of “Psychological Contract” explains that there are expectations from both the organization and its employees on each other, from our part as employees, we should try and satisfy the expectations that the organization has from us! In other words, we should never compromise our hard work coupled with sincerety, ethics and our value system as taught by our “Sanaathana Dharma” and we should always have this in mind while we are at work!

We shall wait till the next episode to witness more of Vidura’s important advice in this context! Stay tuned! 🙂

In the previous episode we had witnessed how Vidura lays lot of stress in the welfare of employees and workers and he talks at length on how to treat employees in such a way that they’re happy and satisfied with their job at hand. Eventually in yesterday’s episode we had concluded that employees do give their blood and sweat for the beterment of the organization and as leaders, we should never underestimate that. We should be transparent with the employees about their job roles and the compensation package paid to them accordingly. There should be no ambiguity in this part – For instance, if the employer is going to increase the workload of the workers without substantial increase in their salary package, it is a clear signal that the organization is taking employees for a ride! It is evident that the organization or the employer is totally misleading the employees and cheating them!

If this happens on a continued basis, this is where employees lose the trust with the organization and they start exhibit what is called in Organizational Psychology, “Deviant workplace behavior”. As part of this deviant workplace behavior, employees might go to any extent to defame the name of the organization through different ways – They might exhibit deliberate low performance on the job, they might indulge themselves in sabotage, that is, purposefully damaging key infrastructure in the organization’s premises, or they can even go to the extent of abuse – both physical and verbal! Hence to avoid all these aspects of deviant workplace behavior from employees, it is the bound duty of the employer to adequately take care of them in a fair and a respectable manner. At last at the end of the day, the employer should realize that employees also have a family to take care of at their homes! If we’re hurting an employee in some way, it is also equivalent of hurting a family at large as well! Hence as an employer, one needs to be extremely careful while handling employees. This is exactly what Vidura explains here too – He says that an employer should never desert a worker who is totally loyal and sincere in his/her efforts towards the organization. Subsequently he mentions that the professional deal between the employer and employee should be fair and transparent wherein both parties clearly know what to do and what to expect in return.

Sometimes what might happen is that, certain organizations would promise a particular amount of salary. But of course there would be a few deductions from the salary such as TDS (Tax Deducted at Source), Contributions towards Employee Provident Funds (PF), etc. Thus while discussing the salary package with the employee at the time of joining, the organization is bound to let the employee know all these kind of deductions in advance.

Unfortunately we have few organizations who deliberately hide such dedcutions from employees and when they find it out in their salary slip, they get shocked! Thus it should be remembered by every organization that whatever rules, policies, frameworks, etc. that exist within the organization, they should be clearly communicated to the employees when they join duty. In this way, we are making sure that the relationship between the employer and the employees is healthy and transparent. If these policies are not clearly communicated to employees at the beginning, there are chances that this relationship would get strained and eventually emnployees might end up quitting the organization.

Moving on thus, Vidura explains,

“Krithyaani poorvam parisankyaaya sarvaan nyaayavyaye!

Chaanuroopaan cha vritthim sangrinhin aahmavaan sahaaya saadhyaanihi dushkritaa!!”

 Here Vidura explains a very important aspect. He continues to drive on the previous point by advising King Dhirdiraashtra that he cannot get any crucial job done for the kingdom, without the help of good workers. He cannot achieve anything of a higher level all by himself and he needs people around him with a good heart and with a good intention. Vidura says thus to King Dhirdiraashtra, “Oh King! Look at whom you have around you! You have people like Duryodhana, Ducchaasana, their uncle Sahuni, etc. who can go to any extent of even influencing learned people like Bhishma into the path of “Adharma”! What kind of people are these? What are you going to benefit by having such crooked people in your vicinity? Rather, you should have someone like Yudishtra by your side, who can guide you relentlessly through the path of Dharma even at tough times. This is the reason why some people are extremely successful – They have the right people around them so that they are properly guided towards their goal! But look at your situation! Even though there are few people who can correct you, you’re not going to listen to them! Rather, you’re not going to keep good people near you to rule the Hastinapura kingdom! Where is this going to lead?”

Saying thus, Vidura slams King Dhirdiraashtra for his approach and advises him that he should have the right people near him so as to execute critical tasks successfully. This is an important message to all of us too, wherein we should realize that for an organization’s success, quality employees are the backbone! We should never lose them by any means! We should try all ways and means to make employees feel contented and satisfied working with us. So let us ponder over this important point today and we shall wait till the next episode to witness more of Vidura’s important advice! Stay tuned! 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

In the previous episode we had witnessed a very important Management concept being explained by Vidura in a very lucid form for all of us to understand and comprehend. He had mentioned the significance of how do we treat a worker in a proper manner. This is what we call in the modern day management science as “Employee Retention”, wherein an organization takes care of its employees in a way that they are happy and satisfied and protecting them from quitting the organization due to various issues.

Moving on thus, Vidura continues this explanation forward by saying that if we find a worker to be an extremely good person in terms of personal and professional commitments, we should never desert him/her during critical times. In other words, if a good worker faces any kind of problem, the organization that employs this worker should try to back him up and never leave him alone! Vidura explains thus:

“Tasmin bruthya bharthari vishvasanti!

Na chainam aapatsu parithyajanti!!”

Here Vidura explains that if a worker faces an imminent danger, we should never sacrifice him/her at any cost. Rather, we should help this person to overcome his difficulty in a smooth manner. This is again part of the “Employee Retention” strategy of modern day organizations! Nowadays, organizations go an extra mile in reaching out to its employees with regards to a variety of issues faced by them – Both personal and professional. We can see today that many organizations have in-house counseling mechanisms for its employees wherein it enables them to open up their problems to a trusted person/s within the organization, so that they can arrive at a solution in a smooth manner. In addition to this, modern day companies enhance their infrastructure facilities like creating place for playing some sports, gymnasium, etc. so that employees do not get burnt or stressed out too much with work! All these facilities are provided to employees so that they can balance out their work along with some recreation activities. Nowadays, many companies have also started the practice of celebrating important festivals within their campuses. This again gives an outlet for employees to express themselves, and if employees undergo stress and burnout, these kinds of initiatives are a key for their betterment – both productivity wise and personally as well! Thus the underlying message here is that, if employees face problems, the organization should never ignore them and rather, the organization should take an active role in helping its employees to come out of their problems in a smooth manner.

Now moving on further, Vidura explains thus,

“Krithyaani poorvam parisankyaaya sarvaan nyaayavyaye chaanuroopaancha vrutthim!!”

Here Vidura extends his discussion on how do we treat our employees in an organization. This is an extremely important point here – He now says that if we’re hiring a new employee to an organization, we should convey the exact job details, roles and responsibilities clearly to him/her at the time of joining. Here we see that the transparency between the employer and the employee is very important. The employer should not hide any significant part of the job requirements from a prospective employee during the recruitment stage. The employee who is joining our organization should exactly know what he/she is expected to do as part of the job requirement before joining, and also the compensation package that would be offered to him/her. The employee should not feel later on after joining the organization that he/she is being taxed with more job requirements than already promised by the employer before joining. In the modern day, this discrepancy happens because organizations think that they would end up paying more amount of salary to the employee if they disclose the entire part of the job description. Hence some organizations play the “dirty game” of promising a lesser salary package with a corresponding lesser job requirement. However when the employee joins the organization, he/she comes to know that the job requirement is much more than what was promised, but the salary remains the same! How sad is this on the part of the employee! He/she feels cheated by the organization, isn’t it? It is sad to note that more and more organizations are resorting to this dirty trick and it is advisable that such unethical approaches should be avoided! If there’s a deal, it should be fair for both the employer and the employee and never should be the case wherein the employee ends up on the losing side for no fault of his!

So for today let us ponder over this important aspect of Human Resources Management as explained by Vidura in his Vidura Neeti. Let us realize that our employees give their blood and sweat for our organization for its betterment and upliftment and hence it becomes our bound duty to honor their hard work in the right spirit! We should never end up cheating employees in such cheap manner as mentioned above and such unethical behavior from the organization’s part makes employees lose their trust with us, and would eventually get fed up and quit the organization once and for all! So let us not get into such situations! We shall wait till the next episode to continue more on this important discussion point! Stay tuned! 🙂

In the previous episode we had witnessed Vidura reminding King Dhirdiraashtra about each of the blunders that he had committed towards the innocent Paandavas with a blast! He had initially started with the game of gambling and how it ended up in a disastrous manner wherein an innocent Draupati was insulted in public by Dhirdiraasthra’s sons! Eventually Vidura continued to lambast King Dhirdiraashtra that even during the initial stages he had advised the king against playing this infamous gambling game, however his advice went in vain! After the game was over, the Paandavas were humiliated to the worst extent possible by sending them on a terrible exile! Because of the greed for power and fame, Duryodhana has gone to any extent to humiliate the Paandavas for no fault of theirs! Despite all these happenings, the worst part is that King Dhirdiraashtra has remained a silent spectator to all the wrath of his sons! Thus Vidura takes every ounce of his time and energy to lambast King Dhirdiraashtra that he hasn’t seen such an ignorant king in his entire lifetime till date!

Moving on thus, Vidura now explains how do we treat workers in a good way and how to retain them. How important is the nature of a servant or a worker for a kingdom to prosper? This is going to have excellent practical applications to the modern day world and let us see what Vidura is going to say on this:

“Yastaata na krudhyati sarva kaalam!

Brithyasya bhaktasya hite ratasya!!”

Here Vidura warns King Dhirdiraashtra that he has the wrong people for the job as everybody in his Hastinaapura kingdom inclusive of seniors like Bhishma, Dhronaachaarya, etc. are only behind fulfilling their own personal agenda! We’ve already discussed in one of our previous episodes how Vidura explains the significance of having the right person for the right job at the right place and at the right time! Now our readers can connect the dots here – He’s now telling that we should never get angry or frustrated with a good and a quality worker. If that worker is genuinely interested in the development of our company in the positive way, we should never show our anger or frustration to him/her. Thus even if this worker falls short of some expectations at some point in time, we need to be patient with him or her and we should not create tantrums to such people.

How applicable is this advice to the modern day corporate scenario! In today’s world, there are many jobs for which we do not get adequate human resources! First of all in the present day, it is very difficult to get people who would give us a quality output on the job! Hence it is extremely important for an organization to retain such quality employees who are extremely scarce in nature. On top of this, nowadays we see a huge chunk of the freshly graduating population going behind very few segments of “lucrative” jobs whereas there are so many other jobs that do not have adequate people to perform! This creates a huge imbalance in the society.

We can see here how Vidura clearly talks about “Employee Retention”, which is an important concept in Human Resources Management today! Nowadays we’re witnessing a tremendous boom in certain sectors of jobs and we see students being recruited from their respective college campuses well before they complete their graduation! In the present day, we also witness many people having more than one job offer in hand before finishing their college education! This of course is an extremely good trend as it shows the level of brilliance and capability of our student population. However, this signals “bad news” for the employers as they are always in a jinx whether these people would eventually join the company or not at the end of the day! The employers today are in a constant dilemma as to whether the new employees that they recruit would end up joining another company that would give them a more lucrative salary & benefit package! If such is the situation today, we should understand that retaining the existing employees and the new employees who join the organization is very important! Organizations should realize that they should never ever humiliate their existing employees in a bad manner in terms of salary, working environment, etc. in such a way that they finally quit and join another organization that would be a competitor to us. Thus, “Employee retention” becomes one big area of concern in today’s corporate world and companies should focus heavily on this important idea.

So for today, we’ve witnessed an important message from Vidura in the management perspective as to how do we retain employees within our organization and how do we ensure that they are happy and satisfied. This is a very critical point and let us spare a thought today by introspecting on this. We shall wait till the next episode to witness an extension of this point wherein Vidura is going to say that an organization should never sacrifice its employees at a time when they need a helping hand from the employer. This is going to be an extremely important discussion and we shall stay tuned till tomorrow to witness more of it! 🙂

In the previous episode we had witnessed Vidura lambasting King Dhirdiraashtra that he went ahead to play to game of gambling despite his advice not to go for it. At that time he was so obsessed with the game that he did not even think whether it is a “Raaja Dharma” for a king to play such games or not. Now Vidura says that there is no point in brooding over the mess that King Dhirdiraashtra has created for himself!

This is exactly the mess that we are into as well! At the moment of our wrongdoing, we just get carried away by the momentous pleasure associated with it, but we forget the disastrous after-effects that are associated with it. This is always a tricky situation and we would end up repenting at a later stage when we start experiencing the results of our bad actions. This is why we mentioned in the previous episode that we should try to listen to our “conscience” and our “heart”. Bhagawan has designed us in a way that His voice is always with us in the form of our conscience. Hence we should learn to listen to it and act accordingly. Whenever we’re tempted to commit into something that is wrongful in nature, we should try to take a step back, think about it, analyze the after-effects of it and then act accordingly. If we tend to realize that the consequences are disastrous and detrimental, we should always know ways to avoid that situation and run away from it immediately. There is no point in repenting after we do the wrong act and when we start experiencing the ill-effects of it. This is exactly what King Dhirdiraashtra is doing here! Hence it is important that we shouldn’t fall into such a trap.

Thus Vidura emphasizes this point by the following sloka:

“Uktham mayaa dyutha kaalepi raajan nedanyuktham vachanam praachipeya!

Tadoushadham pathyamiva aathurasya na rochathe tava vaichitra veerya!!”

Thus Vidura continues to lambast King Dhirdiraashtra by saying, “Oh King Dhirdiraashtra! When I was advising you not to play the gambling game, you felt like as if I was injecting poison into you! Now you’re not getting sleep at night properly and you’re coming and asking this same Vidura (whom you neglected and rejected before) for advice on Dharma! If you would have listened to my words the other day, you could have had a peaceful sleep tonight!”

“Kaakairimaan chithabarhaan mayuraan paraachayethaaha paandavaan dhaardaraashtaihi!!”

 Vidura again continues to lambast by saying further thus: “Oh King! Do you know the next blunder that you did after the game of gamble was over? You initially mentioned that this game was only on a friendly basis and there are no strings attached to it! However what conspired later? Duryodhana wanted to send the innocent Paandavas on an exile to the forest with bitter punishments for no fault of theirs! Did you object Duryodhana’s words? Rather, you only favoured his wicked words and you ended up sending the Paandavas on a bitter exile! Do you ever realize that you had put the Paandavas under an immense suffering for no fault of theirs? How dare you punish innocent people like this? You’re definitely going to pay a heavy price for it! What you’ve committed is not even a mistake, but it is a big blunder! At every moment you keep rejecting those people who advise you the “Dharma” and you go behind the whims and fancies of your stupid son Duryodhana!”

Vidura continues further thus, “Oh King Dhrdiraashtra! You’re trying to cheat those people who follow Dharma by playing your dirty games on them! However please remember one thing – A crow is a crow and a beautiful peacock is a peacock! A crow can never become a peacock! Similarly, your wicked son can never become equal to the greatness of Yudishtra and his brothers with respect to Dharma! You do not realize that your son is bringing about a great downfall not only to himself but also to the whole of Hastinaapura kingdom! I can’t really explain in words about your sheer ignorance! It really pains my heart! So please try and mend your ways as quickly as possible! Even now it is not too late – Please listen to my advice atleast now and try to mend things quickly! Else you’re going to face extreme disaster very soon! You’re directly earning the wrath of Bhagawan Krishna, more than anybody else! Please understand that Bhagawan Krishna is not going to leave you just like that!”

Saying thus, Vidura repeatedly warns King Dhirdiraashtra about the potential dangers that lie in front of him if he doesn’t make an effort to change his attitude and his ways. Of course we know what conspired after this and none of Vidura’s advice went into King Dhirdiraashtra’s ears! However that should not happen to all of us – We can always follow Vidura’s golden words of advice by applying them to our life! We should make a conscious effort in the right direction to mend our ways and this is very important. Hence for today, let us ponder over this point and in tomorrow’s episode, Vidura is going to explain an important accord on what kind of people should we have as our servants! Stay tuned! 🙂

In the previous episode we had witnessed a very important discussion pertaining to Vidura’s explanation on imparting the “Dharma” whenever it is required. We had seen that it is not just enough if we listen to the “Dharma” from other sources, but it is also equally important that we propagate it at crucial times when “Adharma” is trying to lift its head up! In this way we discussed yesterday how our “Hindu Sanaathana Dharma” as a whole is facing a threat of existence from various other religious groups and how the useless & shameless Indian judiciary is dancing to their tunes in defaming Hinduism. Rather than solving people’s problems by delivering verdicts of justice on time, it is shameful to see that the courts in India are involved in unwanted cases pertaining to religious matters (especially Hinduism), which the courts have no due right to poke their nose into! Here the main point is that, we Hindus – the ardent followers of our “Sanaathana Dharma” should stand united with each other, hand in hand to fight down these anti-Hindu elements who are trying to spread venom in the society through the courts and the judiciary. In fact, it is saddening and shocking to note that today’s courts and judiciary system in India are mostly (barring few) made up of those elements that are anti-national, anti-social and anti-Hindu! Hence as people who follow “Sanaathana Dharma” ardently like us, we should unite together wherever we are and whoever we are, to fight down these elements and should try our best to protect our “Dharma”!

Moving on further, Vidura explains the next important point – Here he’s going to lambast King Dhirdiraashtra with the bad effects of playing the infamous game of gambling. It should be remembered by our readers that the entire Mahabhaarata conspiracy more or less commenced with the playing of this infamous gambling game wherein Draupati was insulted in the public courtroom. Vidura says thus,

“Dyuuthametath puraa kalpe drishtam vairakaram drinaam!

Tasmaath dyuutham na se vetha haasyaarthamapi buddhimaan!!”

Vidura now lashes out at King Dhirdiraashtra by saying thus, “Oh King! In the previous time periods and the Yugas, this game of gambling was not accepted as an ethical practice by a king! However you’re trying to prove to the world that playing this game of gambling is something that is ethical! But in yester years this gambling was considered to be an evil aspect and was ignored by all our ancestors and forefathers. I stopped you at the moment you people started to play the gamble. I advised you then and there that this is going to lead to disastrous consequences in the future. These fools by names Bhishma and Dhronaachaarya were just looking on without opening their mouths! You insisted that it was just a friendly game and there were no strings attached to it. You let the gamble game proceed as per the wish of your son Duryodhana! Now look at where this gamble game has taken us to! You’re at the brink of a huge disaster and sadly you don’t even realize that! You’re still reluctant to criticize Duryodhana for his stupidity! What kind of a king are you? I’ve never seen a king who is as ignorant as you!”

Lambasting thus, Vidura continues further, “Oh King Dhirdiraashtra! When I advised you in the beginning of the gambling game, you did not pay heed to my advice. This is because everybody else in your courtroom were favoring the game and you got carried away by their views! It was only me who was against this whole gamble thing and you conveniently rejected my advice at that time! Now see the mess you are in at this moment!”

This is the mess in which all of us are into today! If we’re doing a mistake, many a times we would exclaim that there is nobody to correct me in the right path and hence I’m doing this! But we need to think a little bit here – There is something called “conscience” within our heart that keeps pricking us all the time if we’re doing something wrong somewhere! It is only beyond this pricking of our conscience that we go on to do the mistake whatever we’re doing! Bhagawan has given this “conscience” for this reason only – It is to explain the “Dharma” to us in a subtle way and try to make us walk its path without deviating! But sadly what do we end up doing? We end up ignoring the words of our conscience and go on to commit whatever mistakes we do in life! However, when we would meet with a disastrous consequence later in our life, we would realize that our conscience warned us not to proceed further and we still proceeded with the wrongdoing, and thus we’ve landed ourselves in this mess!

So for today let us think about this important point explained by Vidura. We should learn to listen to our conscience and this is the main take away from today’s episode. This is where King Dhirdiraashtra failed miserably – Even though Vidura had advised him subtly in the beginning, he ignored Vidura’s advice and proceeded with the gambling game and thus he has ended up in this disastrous mess that he is into at this moment! Thus the main lesson for us to learn from this episode is that, we should not walk the path of King Dhirdiraashtra by ignoring people’s advice pertaining to “Dharma” and also by ignoring our own conscience. We should think before performing an action!

With this message thus, we shall wait till tomorrow’s episode to talk more on this point further! Stay tuned! 🙂

We’re amidst an interesting yet an important discussion on Vidura’s advice with regards to listening and propagating the “Dharma” at important junctures. In due course of the previous episode we’ve witnessed Vidura explaining that it is not just enough if we listen to “Mahatmas” and follow the footsteps of “Dharma” in our lives. It is also important that we propagate the “Dharma” when we witness an “Adharma” happening in front of our eyes. At a time when something wrong is happening, it is our bound duty to criticize the wrong happening and to try and resurrect it in the right direction as per the prescribed “Dharma”. For instance, if we happen to come across an unethical happening like bribery or any form of harassment on people in the organization where we work, should we just keep quiet about it or should we fight against the people who propagate such wrongdoings? This is always a sensitive and a debatable topic – Many of us might think that unless and until the problem comes on us, why bother about it! If nothing is affecting us directly and if someone else is getting affected, why go and poke our nose unnecessarily into the matter?

But the question here is that, is this the right approach? What if tomorrow, this same problem comes to us? For instance, if we are in the tenth floor of a multi-storeyed building and if there’s a major fire accident in the ground floor, can I ignore it and sit inside the building by saying that the fire is only on the ground floor and not for us? Shouldn’t we evacuate the building as quickly as possible? What is the guarantee that the fire would not spread quickly to the tenth floor? It can spread within minutes, if it is an intense fire! Similarly, can we keep quiet if a problem occurs to someone who works with us in the same organization? What if tomorrow that same problem occurs to me? Isn’t it a necessity that we push for a corrective action immediately by reiterating the “Dharma” at our work? We should give it a serious thought!

Moreover in the last episode we had concluded by talking a little bit about one of the modern day’s biggest challenges to our Hindu Sanaathana Dharma. In some parts of India, we are witnessing a silent, yet a powerful movement by anti-Hindu groups to aggressively convert many innocent Hindu people into their own religions according to their whims and fancies. This is a time where there is a threat looming large for our Hindu religion’s existence and yet, most of us are insulated to it and rarely raise our voice against those anti-social elements trying to challenge our age-old traditions. Some groups have even gone on to challenge certain important traditions with respect to the constitution of the country and sadly we Hindus are silently falling prey to their “false propaganda”! This is because, we are quiet when we shouldn’t be! We’re not raising our voice and fighting for our “Dharma” when it has to be done!

One good example is the recent issue on the Shabarimala temple. Who are the courts to challenge the traditions of our Sanaathana Dharma? All of us now know the inefficiency of our judicial system, but when it comes to matters like these, the judiciary will “act” as if they’re the most efficient system in the world! My question here is, who the hell is the Supreme Court to question and challenge the age-old traditions of our Hindu Sanaathana Dharma? Our forefather, ancesstors, great Maharishis have given us ways and guidelines to worship Bhagawan and they’ve been epitomes in following those guidelines and to reach Bhagawan’s feet! Hence these things are beyond stupid and baseless questioning. What does the Supreme Court know about the sanctity of the holy Shabarimala temple? What right does the Supreme Court has to promulgamate laws in its own whims and fancies to hurt the sentiments of millions of Hindu people across the world? If the Supreme Court has that much of guts and audacity, why doesn’t it propagate entry of women into mosques all over the country? Why doesn’t the Supreme Court ban illegal slaughters of cows and other animals during the so-called other religions’ festivals? Why is the court interfering only into the matters pertaining the Hindu Sanaathana Dharma? Moreover, who the hell is a court to decide that we shouldn’t burst crackers during Deepavali day? Shouldn’t all of us Hindus unite together to fight down this inefficient judiciary system of ours? Here is where the problem lies – At times of critical need, we just remain mute spectators to the dictatorship of an inefficient and a useless supreme court, which tries to exhibit its superiority! At all other times, the supreme court proves its inefficiency and drags cases on and on for twenty years without a verdict! Whereas, if it comes to religious matters – specially matters pertaining to Hinduism, the Supreme court is up in arms to deliver a shitty shameless verdict immediately! How stupid is it?

Hence the important message from today’s episode is that, at times of crucial junctures wherein our Hinud Sanaathana Dharma is under threat from anti-Hindu elements including the useless Indian judiciary system, we Hindus should step in and try our best to propagate our “Dharma” to the world and save our religion from the clutches of these anti-social elements! It is to be reminded to our readers once more that I’m not trying to derogate the Indian judicial system. That’s not the point here. All what I’m trying to say is that, the judiciary should mind its own business and not poke its nose into religious matters like this, which only tries to challenge one religion and not others!

So for today, let us all lend a serious thought and try to join hands to protect our Hindu Sanaathana Dharma, which is the need of the hour! We shall wait till the next episode to witness more of Vidura’s messages. Stay tuned!

 

In the previous episode we had witnessed yet another important advice from Vidura wherein he talks about the fact that there would be very less people in this world who would be interested in imparting the “Dharma” to us. It should be remembered that Vidura’s existence was in the “Dvaapara Yuga”. If he has to advice in such a way during the “Dvaapara Yuga” itself, we can now imagine how would the situation be in the present “Kali Yuga”! If the number of people who impart the “Dharma” was very less during the “Dvaapara Yuga” itself, it is going to be far lesser in the “Kali Yuga”. Hence it becomes our bound duty to respect those “Mahatmas” and “Gurus” who impart us the “Dharma” and should make a conscious effort to follow and implement the principles of “Dharma” in our every day life. At any point in time we shouldn’t reject their golden words of advice and we should never even think of disrespecting them in any way!

Now having said that, just like how we need to listen carefully to those people who try to teach us the “Dharma”, we also should be ready to teach the “Dharma” to others at critical times of need. If we see something going wrong somewhere, we should never feel shy to explain and demonstrate the “Dharma” at that time and at that situation. Thus we should understand that this is a two-way process – We should carefully listen to those few “Mahatmas” who impart the “Dharma” and at the same time we should also be ready to impart the “Dharma” at times of need.

How feasible is this second point in today’s lifestyle? In the modern day, this is becoming a big issue – If some of our family members or close friends enter into an unethical practice and if we’ve to try and refrain them from entering into it, we need to advice them in a convincing manner that what they’re trying to do is something wrong and is unwanted. But will they listen to us? In the present day, many relationships get broken because of this and hence over a period of time we’ve started to think if it is really worth of giving such an advice! Thus due to the fear of relationships getting broken, we’ve started to slowly refrain from giving advice to people who go off the track of “Dharma”. For instance, if a son is walking the wrong path, parents today aren’t in a position to advise him owing to various reasons – Today we’re in the age of “Social Media” and children (of all ages) are getting addicted to it. At this time if parents sought to give some advice to their son or daughter regarding some issue at home or at school/college, this advice is not going to go well with them! Rather, it is so unfortunate that today’s children tend to take their parents’ advice in an offensive manner of “indulging into their personal space and privacy” and finally the bonding between the parents and children tends to break off! Fearing this, parents nowadays refrain themselves from giving advice to their children and eventually we’re witnessing many people of the young generation resorting to unwanted habits and spoiling themselves!

Thus the important message here is that, when there is a dire need to explain and reiterate the “Dharma” at any given context or situation, we should never shy away from doing so. Just as how it is important for us to listen to the “Dharma” carefully, it is equally important to propagate the “Dharma” at the time of need. It is wrong on our part to shy away from explaining the Dharma, just because relationships would get strained or broken away. We should remember that relationships would come and go in this world and they are just materialistic. “Dharma” is way beyond all these things and as ardent followers of our Hindu “Sanaathana Dharma” it is our bound duty to uphold the “Dharma” at any cost.

Adding on to this point, in the modern day we’ve developed a “closed circuit mentality” within ourselves – Today we think only about the welfare of our family and close friends, but are least bothered about the society at large! Of course in the modern day we’re now living as “nuclear families” and such things are bound to happen. I’m not saying anything against it. But all what I’m saying here is that, “Dharma” is not restricted only to our close family members or close friends. It is common for all people in this world. Hence if something goes wrong outside our close circle of people too, we shouldn’t be having a total “don’t care” attitude always. At times of need, we should stand up to uphold “Dharma” irrespective of whether it is within the four walls of our family or a society at large. If we come across some societal problems and challenges, we should never stay insulated from it. We should perform our part in upholding values and ethics, since we are also an integral part of this society in some way or the other. Nowadays this is becoming a problem at a time wherein “religious conversions” have started to spurt in many parts of our country. This is a time where there is a threat looming large for our Hindu religion’s existence and yet, most of us are insulated to it and rarely raise our voice against those elements trying to challenge our tradition.

How dangerous is this trend? An interesting, yet an important discussion of this point awaits us in the next episode. Stay tuned! 🙂

 

 

 

In the previous episode we had witnessed Vidura’s extremely important advice, which is directly applicable to all of us in today’s scenario – He had explained clearly that we should never discard a person who tries to inculcate the “Dharma” to us, just because he or the “Dharma” is harsh for us to digest! In fact he even went on to explain that there would be very few people in this world who would be ready to educate us in terms of “Dharma”, but on the other hand there would be thousands of people who would be ready to make us deviate from the path of “Dharma”. We should be extremely careful here – We should ensure that we do not lend too much into those people who supposedly use “flowery” and “beautiful” language because this might carry us away into the path of “Adharma” many a times!

This is exactly what happens in the modern day corporate too – We might be brilliant and smart in terms of working and contributions towards our organization, but we should always remember that there would be a group of people who would be jealous of us! Rather than confronting and competing us in the legitimate way in terms of performance, these people would resort to taking “short-cuts” to bring us down! Hence they would approach us and start moving with us like “good friends” and eventually push us into a trap of doing some illegal or illegitimate things that would be in stark contrast to the “Dharma” of our organization. We might be induced into wrongful activities by luring us with money – This is where many talented people across industries get trapped! It’s sad to see that people nowadays are prepared to do anything and everything for money! Little do we realize that money is like a double-edged sword – It is of course essential to make a good living, but at the same time if we start craving for money by doing anything and everything it takes, it is going to push us into the clutches of Hell!

Thus Vidura clearly explains here that if someone tries to make us aware of the “Dharma” and if someone tries to correct us into the path of “Dharma”, we should be ready to listen to that person, no matter how harsh he or she might be! We should remember that “Dharma” is like a bitter medicine – Just like how a bitter medicine is required to cure our body from any disease, the medicine called “Dharma” is essential for us to make our way into “Moksha”.

We also witnessed in the previous episode how many people fell into this trap in the past. We saw how Ravana got carried away with the “Maya” and when Vibhishana tried to advice and correct him, he failed to listen to the valuable advice! This is where we see that if “Yama-Dharma-Raja” or “Kaala Deva” (God of Death) starts approaching us, all the advice that good people around us would give, would never enter our ears! Similar is Vidura’s advice to King Dhirdirasshtra – He says to King Dhirdiraashtra thus, “Oh King! Please listen to my words of advice! Don’t discard them off with haste! Nobody knows if I would be alive tomorrow or not! But my words of “Dharma” would always be alive and if you wouldn’t follow them, these same words of mine would definitely come and haunt you at the time when you’re getting entangled into more and more problems because of your wrongdoings!” Vidura says thus:

“Yo hi dharmam samaashritya hitvaa bharthuhu priyaah priye!”

Thus through the above sloka Vidura stresses that come what may, he would continue to preach the “Dharma” to King Dhirdiraashtra, irrespective of whether he likes it or not! Vidura would continue teaching the “Dharma” irrespective of whether he follows it or not! Vidura would continue educating the “Dharma” irrespective of whether King Dhirdiraashtra pays heed to it or not! Such was the dedication and commitment from Vidura towards his king! Such is the loyalty and dedication of Vidura towards “Dharma” and towards the kingdom of Hastinaapura!

How many people do we find like Vidura in today’s world? Not many isn’t it? Hence if we come across someone who is atleast 10% of what Vidura is, we should make sure that we pay heed to that person in understanding our “Dharma”. This becomes our bound duty! So for today let us introspect on this important point one more time, and let us try to correct ourself if we feel that we’re deviating! Now that Vidura has spoken about the importance of listening to the “Dharma” he is now going to advise us on the fact that we too should never shy away from explaining the “Dharma” to others who are deviating from the path. This is going to be an extremely important point and we shall continue this in the next episode in a broader detail! Stay tuned! 🙂

 

 

 

In the previous couple of episodes we had witnessed an important discussion on those categories of people who go directly to Heaven or Vaikunta or Svarga! There are eight categories, which Vidura talks about as against seventeen categories of people who go to Hell or Naraka! As mentioned yesterday, this shows that there are more people going into the Naraka (Hell) than to the “Svarga” (Heaven).

Saying thus, Vidura also extends an impotant word of caution to King Dhirdiraashtra here. Vidura says categorically thus, “Oh King Dhirdiraashtra! Please understand that there might be innumerable people around you who might talk very nice and sweet with you, but most of the time they would only pass on the venom of hatred and arrogance into you! There might not be many people who would waste their time in teaching and preaching you the “Dharma” in this world!” Vidura conveys this through the following sloka:

“Sulabaah purushaa raajan satatam priya vaadinaha!

Apriyastatu vaktasya vakthaah shrothaa cha durlabhaha!!”

 As mentioned above, Vidura explains to King Dhirdiraashtra that there might be a very few people who would sacrifice their lives to teach us the “Dharma” at any cost. We’ve to make use of the opportunity to learn it as much as possible. However, there would be loads and loads of people everywhere who would just talk sweet and lucrative words, but all these words would only lead us to the path of “Adharma”. If we get carried away by these words, we would definitely fall into one of those seventeen categories of people who would reach Hell!

Vidura specially employs this phrase – “Sulabaah purushaa raajan satatam priya vaadinaha!” – This means, those who try and motivate you with a beautiful and an attractive language that is so pleasing for us to hear (“satatam priya vaadinaha”), would eventually pull us into Hell and not into Heaven! Hence we need to be careful here – If someone is trying to play around with us with his/her sweet language, we need to think twice before trusting that person! In today’s word, the perfect example for this point would be sales people! Normally in any company, sales people are trained to talk in a pleasing and a sweet manner, yet convincingly so that the process of sale of the product becomes a cakewalk! As customers, we might easily get fooled by the “beautiful” and “flowery” language of the sales person and would purchase the product. Only after we start using the product would we realize that it is a low quality one and is developing so many problems! Now if we’ve to call up the so-called “Customer-care” of the company, there would be a very cold response with respect to the after-sales service! This is why many experts often advise us, not to go with just the words of a sales person to purchase a product! Now that we have the technology in our fingertips, we can always search for “reviews” online for a product, go through them and then make a purchase decision.

Thus the message here is that, we should not get carried away by those people who use beautiful language to please us in any way! However we should not ignore those people who might name and shame us for our wrongdoings. This is because these are the people who are genuinely interested in uplifting us from the mess that we’re creating for ourlself! This is exactly what Vidura is doing here too – He’s talking those things as part of the “Vidura Neeti” that prick the conscience of King Dhirdiraashtra and at times, making him irritated. However does that mean Vidura is an enemy to King Dhirdiraashtra? The answer is a “No”! Only those people like Sahuni, Bhishma, Dhronaachaarya, etc. who were only interested in pleasing King Dhirdiraashtra for running their own personal agendas were real enemies! Not one of them condemned any wrongdoing that Duryodhana did in the public courtroom! Not one of them approached King Dhirdiraashtra to advice him on mending Duryodhana’s ways! Not one of them (although they were supposed to be highly educated), came forward to highlight the Dharma at a time when it had to be done! Instead of doing this, they were only talking those things that would please King Dhirdiraashtra, which completely misled him in his duties that he discharged towards the Hastinaapura kingdom! Thus from this episode, just as we said that there would be loads of people who would just try to please us for their personal agenda, we should also realize the hard fact that there would be very less people who would educate us and impart the principles of our “Sanaathana Dhamra” efficiently and convincingly.

Thus we’re seeing here that Vidura is trying different ways an means to educate King Dhirdiraashtra with the requisite “Dharma”, however none of these important words of Vidura entered King Dhirdiraashtra’s ears and heart! He was bound by his “Putra-Vaatsalya” (Excessive attachment and blind affection towards his son)! He was not in a position to accept the fact that his son is an epitome of all “Adharma” put together and he is earning the wrath of Bhagawan Krishna minute after minute!

We witnessed this same situation in the Ramayana too – Vibhishana tried his level best to convince his brother Ravana and to dissuade Ravana from going ahead and behaving wrongly with Mother Sita! In fact, Vibhishana was the only person in Ravana’s courtroom to object Ravana’s evil attitude, while all other ministers were only interested in fuelling his wrong behavior and propelling it even further! Since Vibhishana was an “odd man out” in the courtroom, his words of advice did not reach Ravana’s ears and thus finally Ravana ended up kicking Vibhishana away from his palace altogether! Thus this one person who was genuinely interested in Ravana’s welfare also turned hostile towards him and we witnessed that Vibhishana later joined the Vaanara (Monkey) camp to lend a helping hand to Bhagawan Rama to defeat Ravana!

Thus the message is loud and clear here – We should never discard a person who tries to inculcate the “Dharma” to us, just because he or the “Dharma” is harsh for us to digest! For today let us try and introspect on this important point and we shall wait till the next episode to witness more of Vidura’s important words of advice! Stay tuned! 🙂