The Indian Dharma

In the previous episode we had witnessed Vidura’s yet another important explanation on leaders being approachable to their subjects. Thus the message from yesterday’s episode was that, leaders in order to be successful and revered, should first develop the quality of being open to all of their people – Be it employees of an organization or cadres of a political party, or team members of a sports team, etc. The moment this person is approachable, trust starts building and if the leader backs it up with his swift actions, he is going to be revered and successful.

Now moving on further, Vidura explains today that we should always look at the positives from everybody around us. Even if someone is scolding or talking ill about us, we should look for the positives in that and try to correct ourselves. Thus on an overview, Vidura explains here that even if something that we come across in life might be bad or detrimental, we should analyze that thing or the situation to extract the goodness or the positives from it.

For instance if we have to obtain “Saalagrama” of Bhagawan Vishnu – This “Saalagrama” can be obtained from the fast flowing Ghantaki river at Nepal. This “Saalagrama” is nothing but a variety of stone that is considered to be Bhagawan Vishnu himself. Now if we’ve to obtain this “Saalagrama” stone, we would see in the banks of the Ghantaki river that there would be huge piles of stones washed and stored aside on the banks. Not all of those stones would be the “Saalagrama”. We need to wade through the stones and find out which exactly is the “Saalagrama” stone and take it.

Extending this discussion further, it is a global rule that a precious item would always be amidst innumerable unwanted items surrounding it. Again for instance, how do we obtain precious metals like iron, gold or silver? In the modern science of Chemistry, we talk about how these metals are extracted from “Ores” that contain these precious metals in them. Normally these metals would not exist as independent elements. They always exist in the form of a “compound” and we need to “separate” the precious metal from the compound solution. This is why we have several processes involved in the “extraction” of the metal like for instance, fractional distillation, heating the metal ore to over 1000 degree celsius, etc.

Thus from this we can understand that even precious metals require a strenuous process of “extracting” them from their ores. In fact, if we take the example of diamond, which is one of the most precious stones that we see today, even this diamond is nothing but carbon. In Chemistry we describe this phenomenon as “Allotropy”. Allotropes are nothing but different forms in which an element can exist in this earth. Not all elements that exist in this world has this ability of having allotropes. However, Carbon is one unique element that has the capability of having different allotropes. “Graphite” and “Diamond” are believed to be the two allotropic forms of carbon. This diamond that we see as a precious stone is nothing but carbon, and this is why if we heat diamond beyond a certain temperature, it reduces to ashes!

Thus, just because this diamond is nothing but ashes, do we neglect diamond altogether? Just because gold is amidst so many impurities, do we neglect the precious element called gold? Similarly, just because the truth or “Dharma” is bitter to digest, can we neglect it completely from our living? Mostly we would witness that the precious truth called “Dharma” would be amidst a beautiful storyline in our Sanaathana Dharma literature. It is we who has to explore them, do an in-depth analysis to find out the truth and thereby follow them in our lives.

This is exactly what Vidura is advising King Dhirdiraashtra here – He says thus: “Oh King! Please try to look into the good aspects in whatever others speak. Even if a mad person talks some rubbish, atleast one out of the thousand rubbishes that he talks might be good, isn’t it? We should always look for that one good message amidst all the junk!”

“Apyunmathaath pralapathaha baalaacha parijalpathaha!

Sarvataha saaramaadadyaath ashmabhya iva kaanchanam!!”

Thus from the above sloka, Vidura clearly explains that just like how precious metals like gold, silver, etc. is always found amidst innumerable unwanted other elements, precious messages of “Dharma” would always be present even in a mad person’s junk talk. Thus, irrespective of whoever talks whatever matter, we should always take the positives out of it. Thus we should develop the “Viveka-Gnyaana” to understand, differentiate between the good and the bad in whatever we see and listen to in everyday life. Irrespective of who talks what, we should be able to grasp the good messages from it.

Hence, the message is very clear here. So let us try to introspect this important message of Vidura and figure out ways how to implement them. We shall talk more about this in the next episode as we move on to the next point. Stay tuned! 🙂

In the previous episode we had witnessed yet another offshoot from the main discussion on some of the “Charismatic” leadership qualities. Here Vidura explains in such a way that these are the qualities that are to be imbibed by any ruler, if he should be hailed to be a successful person. Hence, as a righteous king, one of Vidura’s key advices is to avoid unwanted talks and gosipps about others. This, of course as discussed yesterday, has two primary implications – One is that the king is wasting his precious time by talking unwanted stuff. The second implication is that, he would end up losing trust amongst others. This is applicable not only to kings, but also to all of us in the modern day. The message here is that if we aim to be successful and revered by our employees and the society at large, we should make sure that we do not talk ill of others unwantedly and especially in that person’s absence.

“Yasmaath trasyanti bhoothaani mrighavyaadhaan mrigaayiva!!”

Now moving on to the next important quality of a “Charismatic Leader”, Vidura explains that a king should be approachable to all his people at any given point in time. Not even a single person should feel afraid or scared to meet their leader, just like the deer, which feels scared while seeing a hunter. A leader should be kind enough to warmly welcome each and every one of his subjects at any situation. People should be able to raise any issue with their king with ease. People should have that trust in their king that he would be the person who would stand up to their problems and resolve them swiftly.

This is exactly what Vidura advises King Dhirdiraashtra, “Oh King! You should always make sure that people can come to you freely at any point and at any situation. They should never ever be scared to come near you. But when will people come to you? Firstly you should exhibit a pleasing appearance. Secondly, you should create that atmosphere of “trust” amongst your people and this trust would automatically attract them towards you! Thirdly, you should back this trust up by your actions – You should prove to the people that your actions are aligned in such a way that you walk the talk of righteousness!”

How applicable is this to the modern day? Today’s leadership theory too emphasizes this same point in a phenomenal way – Leaders should always be approachable to their people. This means that leaders should go down to the level of their people to interact and understand their concerns. We can see this in the corporate setup today. For instance, when I was doing my PhD, I was interviewing a few airhostesses from our national airline, Air India. They were comparing their experiences with the top management over a period of years and how things have changed today in the organization. There was one airhostess who shared a very interesting accord in this regard. She says that when the new CEO, Mr. Ashwani Lohani took over the administration of Air India in New Delhi, things started to change for good and in the positive direction. I was curious to probe her more on this and she explained that this person, Mr. Lohani was a great leader – He used to interact with people personally at all levels irrespective of whether they are ground staff, baggage handlers, airhostesses, etc. across all destinations wherever Air India flies to. He used to sit with his employees one on one too if required, to understand their problems and needs. This generated a huge shift in the mindset of employees and that trust factor crept in. Employees started to feel confident that the top management is hearing their concerns. Of course this was backed up by swift actions to eradicate problem-creating activities with stringent rules and regulations. “On-time” performance began to be the prima facie motto of the airline organization and employees were adequately rewarded for maintaining punctuality. Thus employees of Air India lauded Mr. Lohani for his exceptional work and the main reason here is his approachability to his employees.

This is exactly what we too discussed in one of the sixteen “Kalyaana Gunas” discussed in the Valmiki Ramayana. Our readers might be able to remember that the Vaalmiki Ramayana commences with this point wherein Valmiki Maharishi asks a set of sixteen questions to Sage Narada. The first out of the sixteen questions was “Gunavaan” or “Sousheelyam”. We saw this in Lord Rama as he accepted Guha – A person from the hunter community as his friend. He accepted Sugriva – Leader of the monkey community as his brother. He also went on to accept Vibhishana – Leader of the Raakshasas as his own brother! Thus Lord Rama exhibitied this important characteristic by transcending down to the level of these people and proved to the world that he was an approachable person for anybody at anytime to pour out their problems and worries.

Hence the message from today’s episode is that, leaders in order to be successful and revered, should first develop the quality of being approachable to their people – Be it employees of an organization or cadres of a political party, or team members of a sports team, etc. The moment this person is approachable, trust starts building and if the leader backs it up with his swift actions, he is going to be revered and successful.

So for today, let us introspect this important point of leadership and let us try to put it into practice in whatever domain we are! We shall wait till the next episode to find out more! Stay tuned! 🙂

In the previous episode we had witnessed yet another important aspect that is essential for a righteous king, as explained by Vidura. Of course in the context of the Mahaabhaarata, Vidura explains all these aspects to King Dhirdiraashtra. But in today’s context, we can assume the term “king” to all modern day leaders, administrators, etc. The explanation is the same, but only the context varies.

Here Vidura explains as to how do we capture the attention of people in a pleasant way? It should be a combination of exhibiting a pleasant face with a smile, but at the same time we should also make sure that we do not keep talking a lot. We should always talk straight to the point and stop with that! This is what would make the opponent feel that he/she could listen to more of our talking and spend more time with us. Thus we should talk only what is to be spoken. We should make sure that we talk less, but rich in content. We should always employ good and pleasing words. On the whole, the words that we employ while talking, our facial expressions and our body language are extremely important to be a successful leader.

In today’s episode we shall extend this same discussion with respect to employing the right words and right substance while talking to others. Now it is time for an examination within ourself! What is that examination? Let us try to talk something within ourself secretly! It might be about anything or anybody. However, if we should talk this same thing in the presence of someone, will we be able to do it? Now here is the test – If we are able to talk what we spoke secretly within ourself verbatim to others, then we can conclude that we are honest to ourself and also to others. However if we are unable to talk exactly the same substance (that we spoke secretly within ourself) to others, it means that there is some problem.

So what is that problem and what does this exam infer? This examination is meant to check if we are not unnecessarily talking ill of someone to someone else! If we aren’t able to talk the same thing what we spoke secretly to others, it means that somewhere down the line we are talking something about others that is not warranted. This is what is called “backstabbing” others – The action of criticizing someone in a tracheous manner despite pretending friendship with them.

To elaborate this important point a bit more, we should make sure that we would be able to talk something about somebody irrespective of that person’s presence or absence in that particular spot. For instance if I’ve to talk something about my friend, I should be able to talk the same thing about him irrespective of his presence near me or not. If this is done, it means that we are transparent and straightforward. There might be some situations wherein I would talk ill about my friend, scold him, etc. in his absence, however if that friend comes in front of me all of a sudden, I would suddenly change the topic and talk something nice to him. This is where the problem lies – We are wasting lot of time in just gossiping about others and talking ill about them in their absence! However if they suddenly appear in front of us from nowhere, we are caught red-handed and we suddenly change the topic to something or someone else. If this is frequently happening in our day-to-day life, it simply implies that we are wasting our precious time by talking unwanted and useless stuff about others. Moreover, it also becomes evident that we are lying and we aren’t true and honest to ourselves and also to others!

This is exactly what Vidura is explaining here – He advises us to avoid such things in life. Backstabbing is one bad habit that takes away most of our constructive and productive time. We’ve to talk only if something very important is there for discussion. If the talk is going to be of somebody out of the context, it is better to avoid and refrain from. This paves the way to be honest and straightforward. The moment we start gossiping about others, we would immediately start losing our respect amongst the group. The trust factor is broken. People would feel scared to open up to us freely and if this happens, how can a leader succeed? In one of the previous episodes we had discussed that a leader should be a neutral person and shouldn’t take sides. If this same leader is going to gossip about someone to somebody else, it clearly means that he is taking sides! It shows his biased nature!

Hence, as a righteous king, Vidura’s advice is to avoid unwanted backstabbing and gossips about others. This has two primary implications – One is that the king is wasting his precious time by talking unwanted stuff. The second implication is that, he would end up losing trust amongst others. This is applicable not only to kings, but also to all of us in the modern day. The message from today is that if we want to be successful and revered by our employees and the society at large, we should make sure that we do not talk ill of others unwantedly and especially in that person’s absence.

Here we need to note one sub-clause – If we say that we shouldn’t talk ill about others, it doesn’t mean that we criticize others’ wrongdoings in front of our eyes. Of course we should do that – If we feel that someone is doing something wrong, we should definitely stand up, rise to the occasion and criticize him or her for his or her mistake. But this should be done on their face and in front of them only. This criticism should not be at the back of that person. Thus the consolidated message from today’s episode is that, we should not talk ill about others in their absence. However, if there is a mistake that we find in others, we should be able to tell them and criticize them in front of them. This shows that we are honest and straightforward.

Thus Vidura questions King Dhirdiraashtra – “Oh King! You are now venting yourself out to me. But if Yuddishtra or Bhagawan Krishna were here at this same time, would you do the same? I’m sure you wouldn’t do that! You are asking these questions just because I’m the only person here at this time. This is because, you are scared that Yuddishtra would come to know that you are struggling. You do not want this to happen. Isn’t it? This is why I’m advising you King Dhirdiraashtra – Please keep your mind clear. Be transparent in what you say and what you ask! You should be able to talk the same thing without any fear, irrespective of the other person being present here or not!”

This is an extremely important advice by Vidura and hence for today let us ponder upon this important lesson from Vidura, before going on to the next lesson, that is to follow in the next episode! Stay tuned! 🙂

 

 

In the previous episode we had witnessed Vidura’s important explanation on how people misuse their office for their personal gains. He is advising King Dhiridraashtra not to walk that dangerous path. In the modern day, we can see that the root of corruption starts from greed for power and money. People tend to misuse their office for performing illegal activities to earn “quick” and “more” money. However when the tide changes direction, they get caught. Sadly the reality today is that, these people who get caught like this, never even realize that they’re being caught for their wrongdoing and they still resort to the same mistake again and again! So it is important to realize that we should never misuse our office for any wrongdoing. This is against the Dharma and we should avoid such illicit activities.

Moving on further, Vidura continues his explanation thus:

“Chakshushaa manasaa vaachaa karmanaacha chathurvitham!

Prasaadayati yolokham tam lokaha anuppraseedathi!!” 

Here Vidura continues the discussion in an interesting dimension here – He explains that a king who exhibits his righteous path through his thinking, unconditional love towards his subjects, the way how he articulates his words and various welfare activities that he performs are regarded extremely high by the people of the kingdom. The entire country hails such a king as one of the greatest in history and his rule would be hailed as one of the brightest spots of the country.

For instance, in the present day all of us live amidst a family at home, surrounded by neighbours of the next door, next compound, same street, etc. In our surrounding area, we might know many people and in turn they would know us as well. If we walk on the street and come across someone known to us, do they stop and talk with us for 3-5 minutes with a pleasing smile or do they turn their back and walk away without even looking at our face? This is an important test for us here. If people come forward to talk with you with a pleasant face, it means that we are approachable to them and there is a good vibration around us that makes them come to us and talk. Moreover, if someone comes up to us to talk, he/she should feel happy about it and should feel that they could have spoken with us for some more time! Whereas if we are always with a glum face exhibiting anger everytime, who will come near and talk?

Hence Vidura advises thus, “Oh King Dhirdiraashtra! This is an extremely important ‘Raaja-Dharma’. You should have a pleasant facial appearance towards everybody, along with pleasant words. Only if you are pleasant in appearance will people approach you for anything. Whereas if you always exhibit a glum face like this everytime, people would feel scared to come near you for anything! You would be completely isolated. Your facial appearance should be in such a way that the people should be ready to talk with you or look at you for more and more time, rather than making them go away without even looking at you!”

We can see how much of emphasis Vidura is giving for what we call in the modern day as “Body Language” and “Facial Expressions”. This advice of Vidura is not only for leaders or kings or administrators, but for all of us in common. If we do not have an appealing and a pleasing facial expression, people would feel completely disconnected from us and would only try to move away from us. Thus the message from today’s episode is that we should have a pleasant appearance and people who come to us should feel that they could spend more and more time with us, rather than running away from our vicinity.

Moreover, even if people come to talk to us for a longer time, we should be able to restrict our talking with them for a limited time. In other words, we should make sure that we talk very less and directly to the point. While talking, we should try and avoid unwanted gossips about someone or something. This would only bring down our level of respect amongst the others.

Thus on the whole, how do we capture the attention of people in a pleasant way? It should be a combination of exhibiting a pleasant face with a smile, but at the same time we should also make sure that we do not keep talking a lot. We should talk straight to the point and stop with that! This is what would make the opponent feel that he/she could listen to more of our talking and spend more time with us. Thus we should talk only what is to be spoken. We should make sure that we talk less, but rich in content. We should always employ good and pleasing words.

Hence for today, let us realize these important aspects of human life. We shall elaborate more on the “talking” aspect in the upcoming episode. Stay tuned! 🙂

In the previous episode we had witnessed Vidura’s interesting and important explanation on a modern day concept in Human Resources Management called “Nepotism”. This term is used to indicate a situation wherein a leader acts in a biased manner by inducting people from his closed circle (family members, friends, etc.) into the organization without judging their real capabilities to be in the respective organizational positions. This is a dangerous phenomenon because it devalues merit in a way and as a result, existing employees feel dmotivated and eventually would quit the organization owing to lack of due recognition for their contributions to its development.

This concept of “Nepotism” can be seen in Mahabharata too, wherein King Dhirdiraashtra has been totally biased towards his own sons and against the righteous Paandavas. This is exactly what Vidura is targeting here – He drives home the point by saying that a righteous king should always take a neutral standpoint towards any issue. He should be very careful not to take sides. If he does so, the people are going to get hurt and eventually they would overthrow the king.

Similarly in today’s world we see innumerable examples of people in different walks of management – Be it in political parties, organizations, etc. In many political parties for instance, if we see the leadership lineage in the past decades we can see a clear pattern – The leadership would only be passed on to the children of the leader who is in power. This is what we call “Dynasty”. I’m not saying that dynasty regimes are wrong. There are innumerable family businesses that even today run extremely well. But the problem comes when this concept is applied blindly. For instance we see one of India’s largest national political party which believes in the concept of “Dynastic politics”, wherein the leadership batton is passed on from the father to his daughter and from the mother to the son. I’m not having a problem with this – But the only issue here is, whether the son is a capable person to be a leader or not. If we look at his capabilities today, this “first son” of that political party unfortunately doesn’t possess even one quality of a good leader! This is the main reason why this party has gone into shambles and struggling to get up from the floor!

To continue with this important point of discussion on “Nepotism”, Vidura explains clearly that just because we are in a top position today, we might end up doing lot of activities that are against the Dharma. But down the line if tomorrow if we aren’t in that same position anymore, there are chances that our successor would start probing into all the irregularities that we have done in our previous tenure. Vidura pokes King Dhirdiraashtra again with this important point. He explains thus, “Oh King Dhirdiraashtra! Today you are in this throne and you are a proud king! But what if tomorrow you are no more in this throne? Please realize that the position in which you are is highly unstable. If tomorrow somebody else becomes the king of Hasthinapura, that person would definitely start investigating all your wrongdoings and this would cause endless misery for you! So please correct yourself and your son and mend his ways now! Just because you are the king, you are just blindly favouring your wicked son Duryodhana. Please stop this!”

How applicable is Vidura’s advice in the modern day world! We see this happening in front of our own eyes, isn’t it? How many cases of corruption do we see with almost all of the political parties today? How does this corruption begin? Just because of the greed for power and money, we tend to do all wrongful activities today by misusing our office and funds. This would be very easy and pleasurable today. But if tomorrow when someone else replaces us in the same office, and if that person senses some wrongful activities that had happened in the previous tenure, he/she is going to launch an investigation and we would eventually be caught! This same story has recently happened in one of the prestigious government universities in the state of Tamil Nadu in India wherein a person who was the “Controller of Examinations” had been misusing her office to allegedly take bribes for changing students’ marks in the answersheets. How criminal an act is this! All these instances only make the common people lose faith in our Indian academic system.

Thus the message from today’s episode is that, the root of corruption starts from greed for power and money. People tend to misuse their office for performing illegal activities to earn “quick” and “more” money. However when the tide changes direction, they get caught. Sadly the reality today is that, these people who get caught like this, never even realize that they’re being caught for their wrongdoing and they still resort to the same mistake again and again! So for today let us realize that we should never misuse our office for any wrongdoing. This is against the Dharma and we should avoid such illicit activities. We shall wait till the next episode to explore more into Vidura’s teachings. Stay tuned! J

In the previous episode we had witnessed Vidura’s excellent explanation on a contemporary concept in modern day leadership theory – Charismatic Leadership. Vidura clearly explains how do leaders develop that “Charisma” within them. In this context he says that a king should be compassionate enough towards his subjects who come and meet him. Only then his subjects would hail him as a good and a righteous king. Although at times the king might be a successful person, but if he is without this compassion towards his people, it transforms into a dictatorship rule and this is not advisable. If this happens, the people would be dissatisfied and eventually the kingdom would face law and order problems.

Similarly applying Vidura’s explanation in today’s management context, a leader should exhibit warmth, love and compassion towards all his employees or subjects. Such leaders are hailed and regarded extremely high by their followers. In fact, people even go to an extent of following such people blindly. They get attracted to the leader’s unconditional love and compassion towards them and this is how “Charisma” is built. Such leaders who score extremely high in terms of their personal “charisma” are termed in today’s leadership theory as “Charismatic leaders”.

“Su pushpitaha syaadhaphalaha phalitastyaath duraaruhaha!”

Now Vidura moves on and continues to emphasize an allied point here. He uses another analogy to drive home this important point. We shall first look into the analogy and after this I shall explain the point behind it.

Here goes the analogy: Assume there is a tree. It produces lot of beautiful and blossoming flowers. However there are no fruits that germinate in that tree. Many a times although this tree doesn’t produce tasty fruits, people would admire the tree for its beautiful flowers and hail it. However, if another tree nearby is capable of producing nice tasty fruits, however it is way too tall for people to pluck those fruits, people would still admire the tree for its fruits by saying that, “Oh! I’m not tall enough to pluck those attractive fruits!”

Now with this analogy Vidura explains and advises King Dhirdiraashtra thus, “Oh King! Irrespective of whether you perform well as an administrator or not, is still acceptable and can be pardoned! However, why are you using such insulting words against the innocent Paandavas? Why are your words in such a way that they instigate fire? Why don’t you take care of the words that you use? If you’ve to earn a reputation amongst your subjects that you are a righteous king, first of all bring a pleasant smile on your face. Speak good words. Perform some good actions. Please act as a neutral person, and this is an extremely important characteristic of a righteous king. If the king is biased towards one party and rejects another, how can he be true to all his people? Oh King Dhirdiraashtra! By your actions so far, you’re only proving to the world that you are totally biased towards your son Duryodhana who is born crooked and wicked. However, you are ignoring and neglecting those Paandavas who are none other than your own brother’s sons! They are kind-hearted gentlemen and because of that, you are taking them for a ride! This is not good on the behest of a righteous and a neutral king! Thus a king should always be having a neutral point of view, analyze the situation with a neutral eye and then take a decision accordingly. If a king earns a reputation of being biased, he loses trust amongst his people and eventually would be overthrown in no time!”

How important is this advice in today’s context! In the modern day management, we talk of something called as “Nepotism”, wherein a leader of an organization might favor those people who are his kith and kin for the job. In other words, if a leader recruits people not based on their merit, but on the basis of the closeness to him or her, it might be detrimental to the organization.

How? We’ve to analyze this in two ways – One way of looking at it is that, if existing employees come to know that some other top level employees who are newly recruited are the “favourites” of the CEO or any other top level person, they lose the trust on their leader. This is because, these employees have toiled hard and worked for the organization for many years and awaiting a legitimate promotion. In this scenario if suddenly a new person from outside comes and fills up a top level position without any prior experience, but only because of his/her closeness to the top management, employees would be demotivated and naturally would start to revolt. This might create a chaotic situation in the organization and possibilities are high that the organization would eventually collapse.

Another way of looking at it is that, if a new joinee in the top level is a “favourite” of the CEO, but without adequate experience to be in that position, how will he/she handle tough situations and take tough decisions? Won’t the organization get into trouble because of this “inexperience”? Leaders should thus think about these shortcomings due to “Nepotism” and act accordingly.

Thus from today’s episode, the important message for all leaders is that, “Nepotism” is bad and detrimental to the growth of any organization and hence should be avoided. Care should be taken so that, family members or close friends are not given an undue upper hand in any position in the organization. Of course if they are really talented people, they should follow the due procedure of recruitment and selection and then get to that position with due respect. So for today, let us think about this important aspect of nepotism and its detrimental effects. We shall wait till the next episode to find out more of Vidura’s such beautiful explanations! Stay tuned! 🙂

 

 

In the previous episode we had discussed another extremely important point with respect to Management science wherein Vidura explains that we should choose tasks that require easy and a minimal strain, yet we should put our 100% effort into it to make it more and more successful! We considered an example of a car manufacturing production line wherein we witnessed that the capacity of production should not be in a “touch-and-go” with minimal profits that can be earned by the company. Rather, the capacity should be designed in such a way that even if the production line runs to 50% of its capacity, the company should be able to start making profits and revenue. However the company should not relax itself with this minimal amount of profits. The production line should always be operated in full capacity so that the company can earn more and more profits. Of course as years progress by and depending on the demand for the number of cars, the production line should be periodically augmented with extra capacity. Thus the message here is that, we should be able to choose tasks that are easily executable, however we should give in our 100% effort into the tasks so that we gain maximum success out of it.

“Ruju pashyati yat sarvam chakshusaa anupibanniva!

Aaseennamapi thooshneekam anu rajyanthi tham prajaaha!!”

Here Vidura explains the next important point as to how should a king conduct himself when his people come to meet him. Vidura explains here that a king should be an embodiment of compassion and unconditional love towards his people at all times. His looks should be compassionate and so should be his words. Words once poured out, cannot be taken back! And a king should be an epitome of employing a sweet way of talking to his people. These two characteristics, Vidura explains, is a primary requirement to be a king or an administrator. Irrespective of whether the administrator is a non-performer or a performer.

Here Vidura is giving special emphasis to the looks and the words of an administrator because, he is a person who is responsible for the well being of everybody under him. If the administrator is not going to be pleasing to approach for his people, there is no point in being in that responsibility, irrespective of whether he is good at work or not. This point is not only applicable for a king (in the modern day), but also for those who are administrators at various levels – Be it at the national level or a CEO of an organization or a captain of a sports team. If the leader exhibits a dictatorship towards his employees or subjects, nobody is going to approach him for anything and eventually the leader would be isolated and thrown out!

This is why in the Ramayana, when we were exploring the sixteen different “Kalyaana Gunas” of Lord Rama during the beginning of the blog series, we laid special emphasis on the characteristic called “Gunavaan” or “Sousheelyam”. In fact, Valmiki Maharishi’s first out of the sixteen questions posed to Sage Naarada was this particular characteristic. Valmiki Maharishi asks Narada thus:

“Kon vasmin saampradham lokhe gunavaan… Kasya veeryavaan..”

Thus a leader’s first and foremost important characteristic is love and compassion. If this is not there, nothing else will fall in place. Through the above sloka Valmiki Maharishi also emphasizes that a king should be a combination of compassion and valor (Veeryavaan). Both of these characteristics go hand in hand. Of course it is not enough that an administrator or a leader only keeps expressing love and compassion at all situations and to everyone at the same time. When the situation demands, he should also be able to show his power through other means as well, so that people wouldn’t sit on his head! 🙂

Hence, today’s episode conveys an important message that a leader should be an epitome of compassion and love towards his employees (if it is an organization) or to his people (if it is a country or a state) and receive them with all his warmth, rather than being a dictator. This is one major reason why some leaders have a huge following while some do not. If we take instances of spiritual leaders (Mahathmas), we see scores of people coming towards them and they receive these people with all their love and compassion. This is what builds up the “Charisma” in these people and this is why they are called “Charismatic Leaders” in Organizaitonal Psychology and Behavioral sciences. This is exactly what Vidura is explaining here. The moment love and compassion comes in, people would start following their leader blindly and would be ready to even sacrifice their lives for their leader. Such is the power of love and compassion in this world.

So for today let us introspect this important point and let us appreciate the significance of love and compassion. Let us realize the change that love can bring about in this world and as leaders let us take a conscious step forward to inculcate this characteristic within us and try to create a change. We shall wait till the next episode to move on to the next point explained by Vidura. Stay tuned! 🙂

In the previous episode we had witnessed yet another important point explained by Vidura to King Dhirdiraashtra – If we feel that we are getting angry or frustrated for unnecessary reasons, let us consciously try to cut down on it. This would enhance both or physical and mental health and ultimately we would be able to obtain peace of mind. If we’ve to achieve this, we should first stop poking unnecessarily into others’ matters. The more we poke into what others are doing, the more we get anxious. Expectations would grow and flare up. If this expectation doesn’t go in line with what happens on the ground, we tend to get angry. The moment we get angry, we start yelling at people. But if this yelling creates no positive impact on anybody or anything on ground, isn’t it a waste? Let us together think about it as we move forward in life.

Now moving forward to the next important point, here Vidura explains that a person should undertake a task that requires minimal effort to obtain an enormous positive outcome. Vidura explains thus:

“Kaaschdarthaan narah praagnyaha laghu moolan mahaa phalaan!!”

From the above sloka Vidura clearly brings out this point – A person should undertake those kinds of tasks that would require little strain, but would be able to obtain high results. This is a tricky statement here and our readers should not get confused. I shall try to explain it in a lucid manner – We should choose those tasks or activities that are easier to perform, however once we’ve taken up the task, we should put in our maximum effort so that we attain the desired success out of it. There is no compromise on the effort portion here. What he means here is that, we should take up the work that we would be more than capable of performing; yet we need to put in our 100% effort to complete it successfully.

We can see the application of this point directly in today’s organization or industrial set up – If we have to set up a factory to manufacture a product, we should design the manufacturing line in such a way that it can produce products at a much lesser rate than its production capacity and still the company can make profits. For instance let us consider a car manufacturing company – Every car company would have a production plant that can manufacture around 500 cars per day (this number is just for an understanding purpose) and this would be the maximum production capacity of the factory. The situation should not be in such a way that the company would make profits only if it compulsorily manufactures 500 cars a day. Rather, the company should design the manufacturing capacity in such a way that even if the manufacturing line operates in just 50% of its capacity, the company would be able to make profits. In this example, the company should be able to make profits even if it manufactures just 250 out of the 500 cars that the plant can produce. However, the company should not restrict with this 50%. If the profits should be bigger, it should try and operate the plant at maximum capacity (500 cars per day) to obtain bigger profits.

Thus we can see here that there is no compromise on the effort part. The production line should always run to full capacity. However, the company should be able to generate considerable amounts of profits even if the line runs to half of its’ capacity! What an explanation by Vidura and how true is this in the modern day!

We can apply this concept to many other infrastructure projects that are happening all over the world. Why do we for instance build world-class roads, flyovers, highways and expressways with eight or ten lanes, huge Greenfield airports, etc.? It is to make the infrastructure ready to handle the projected increase in the amounts of cars on the road or the number of flights and passengers for the next 10-15 years! Thus we can see that the infrastructure should be robust. However with the number of cars or flights that the system handles, the project would start giving very good returns to the government in a very short duration of time.

Another example that can be compared to drive this point home – For instance, while driving on the highway our car stops midway due to some mechanical trouble. What do we do? We have a small jack that we fit to the wheel. Once we rotate the pulley, the jack slowly lifts the car up from the ground. We might wonder how such a heavy car is lifted so easily! We are just taking a small effort by rotating the pulley. But the jack is what lifts the car easily, rather than we trying to lift it personally!

This is exactly what Vidura is trying to explain here – “Oh King Dhirdiraashtra! Splitting the kingdom for the Paandavas requires just a small effort and for a king of your stature, it is an easy job. But if you are able to do this easy job perfectly, the whole of the Hasthinaapura kingdom, inclusive of the Paandavas, Lord Krishna himself and also the people of the kingdom are going to hail you as one of the most righteous kings in history!”

Thus the message from today’s episode is that we should choose tasks that require easy and a minimal strain, yet we should put our 100% effort into it to make it more and more successful! So for today let us ponder over this point, and try to introspect whether we are able to choose such jobs and actions to obtain enormous success. We shall wait till the next episode to witness Vidura’s next point of explanation. Stay tuned! 🙂

In the previous episode we had witnessed an extremely important point pertaining to modern day leadership and management, that Vidura has beautifully explained to King Dhirdiraashtra. He has asserted his point of view that for any mission to be undertaken, we should analyze and identify both the short-term and long-term advantages and disadvantages. We need to weigh them and focus more on the long-term goals to achieve sustainable success. Of course, short-term success is also required, but this short-term success should be in such a way that it doesn’t affect the long-term perspective of the mission. This an extremely important lesson for modern day leaders in any walks of life.

Now moving on further, today Vidura is going to explain yet another interesting point – For every action, there should be a reason or a purpose behind it. For instance, if a person feels happy, there would be a reason for it. Similarly if someone feels sad, there would definitely be a reason behind it as well. In the same lines, if one gets angry there should be a purpose behind that anger. Now here is an important aspect that we need to focus – There should be a purpose behind every action that we undertake and every emotion that we exhibit from within us. For instance if we trace back to the Ramayana, Lord Rama exhibited his happiness and this happiness resulted in the people of Ayodhya lived happily under his rule (Rama Rajya). Similarly when Lord Rama expressed his anger and frustration because of losing Sita to Ravana, his anger resulted in the destruction of all the “Raakshasas”.

Thus exhibition of happiness and anger should serve a definitive purpose in this world and result in a constructive change. We say this especially for anger – One should exhibit his or her anger only if he or she feels that this anger would ultimately result in a constructive change. For instance in our daily life, we would see our parents or teachers/professors getting angry at some of our actions. Why are they exhibiting their anger towards us? It is for the good reason to correct us to the right path. That’s why we would see that the anger in our parents and teachers would decline sharply once they see that we’ve realized our mistake. In fact, they would be the happiest people on this earth to see us successful in life.

If anger and frustration that arise in us doesn’t fulfill any purpose, what is the use of getting angry? Sometimes for instance while would read the newspaper, we would come across news that some politician looted money as part of a scam. Yes, we would feel really angry and frustrated that these politicians are none other than third-rated criminals. It might be true that they are what they are! But what is going to change on the ground as a result of our anger? The sad reality is that in the present day, none of us, common people can question these politicians as to why they’re involving themselves in corrupt activities. We use the term called “Democracy” but sadly we still are slaves put under siege by certain politicians who have their personal agenda to fulfill, more than that of the taxpayers’. Given this situation if we’ve to get angry, there is nothing that is going to change. So why to waste our time in unwantedly getting tensed? Why to spoil our health by unwantedly raising our “Blood Pressure” levels? Why can’t we mind our own business and move on with our life? Let us think about it.

This is exactly what Vidura is mentioning here – If there is happiness or anger, there should be a reason behind it, else it is not beneficial both for the individual as well as for the society at large.

“Prasaadho nishphalo yasya krodhashchaapi nirarthakaha!

Natham bharthaaram icchanthi shandma pathimivasthriyaha!!”

Through the above sloka Vidura drives home this point with the help of an analogy – A woman would not like to marry a person who is impotent, because there is no use in such a marriage happening. Similarly, anger or happiness would be effective only if it can create a constructive change in the existing situation. Else, there is no use of getting frustrated or excited too!

So for today let us think over this important point of Vidura and introspect within ourselves. If we feel that we are getting angry or frustrated for unnecessary reasons, let us consciously try to cut down on it. This would enhance both or physical and mental health and ultimately we would be able to obtain peace of mind. If we’ve to achieve this, we should first stop poking unnecessarily into others’ matters. The more we poke into what others are doing, the more we get anxious. Expectations would grow and flare up. If this expectation doesn’t go in line with what happens on the ground, we tend to get angry. The moment we get angry, we start yelling at people. But if this yelling creates no positive impact on anybody or anything on ground, isn’t it a waste? Let us think collectively today! We shall wait till the next episode for the next advice of Vidura! Stay tuned! 🙂

In the previous episode we had witnessed an important message through Vidura’s explanation that as responsible citizens of our country and keeping in mind the development of our country in the positive direction, let us all pay our taxes correctly without any forging. Let us not get our country into a “Cache 21” situation wherein the rich only get richer and poor only get poorer! We cannot blame the government everytime for its failures, if we are not willing to pay our dues correctly. Thus we should realize that we should always ready to contribute to our nation building in every legitimate way possible.

For instance, if everybody of us start forging our taxes and encourage the black economy to thrive, what will happen to the country’s finances? Won’t it collapse? Even if it collapses, what would be our immediate reaction? We would still question the government for its inability to protect the country from going bankrupt. However, little would we realize that we are also responsible for our country’s sad state of affairs! Thus the main aim of focusing on this point in depth is to create the awareness amongst all our citizens to honestly pay the tax dues to our government, for the benefit and upliftment of our country and our people! Similarly, governments need to be proactive in checking for those people who try to get away without paying taxes. At the same time, the government should make sure that on the name of taxes, it doesn’t end up harassing the honest taxpayer with truckloads of taxes.

Now moving on to the next point, here Vidura explains the significance of “long-term planning”. Why is long-term planning essential for a king or an administrator, or in general, a leader? Let us witness:

“Kinnumesyaadidam krithvaa kinnumesyaada kurvataha!!”

 Here Vidura explains that before undertaking a task, a leader should think and analyze as to what is the purpose for which this task is undertaken, what is the benefit that he would get out of this task and what are the positive results that can be derived by investing time and money in this particular task. At the same time, a leader should also think about the disadvantages of undertaking the task. Such an analysis is extremely important for a leader before undertaking any kind of mission or an activity.

With this, Vidura once again pokes King Dhirdiraashtra by saying thus, “Oh King! By continuing to support your son Duryodhana, you are not thinking about the long-term welfare of your family and your kingdom. The short term pleasure of seeing your son as a king is carrying you away and is marring you from looking at the long-term dangers that are in front of you!”

How applicable is this in the present day? In today’s management arena we talk about two important strategies – Short-term and Long-term. For every decision or action, we would look for both short-term and long-term implications. As a leader, whatever decision needs to be taken for the betterment of the organization, needs to be backed up with both the short-term and long-term advantages and disadvantages. There should also be a balance between the short-term and long-term benefits for any action.

For instance, recently the present government of India brought about a economic reform called “Demonetisation” wherein the currency notes of 500 and 1000 rupees were abruptly withdrawn from the banking system. Subsequently, new bank notes were issued on a step-by-step basis. This was an aggressive step taken by the government of India to put a check on those who were having truckloads of high currency notes as black money. It was a historic moment for the country and it took everybody by surprise and shock. Many of those people who were having stashes of black money in terms of cash, were left completely clueless as to what to do next. Of course, two years after this bold move, many of us keep debating about this bold move by the government.

Now if we have to analyze the short-term and the long-term implications of this move – During the short-term period for the first one or two months, there was an utter chaos wherein all people were running to banks and ATM’s in search of cash. There were strict restrictions or curbs imposed by the government in terms of the amount of cash that each person can withdraw from the bank. But that was just for a short-term. It was done so that few people do not hoard cash unwantedly and create an artificial shortage of cash for others. However as the money supply from the Reserve Bank of India was stepped up within a few days, the situation gradually became normal and subsequently the restrictions were taken off! On the whole, in the short-term there was suffering and a setback for people in terms of cash shortage.

Whereas if we look at the long-term implications of this move, there are two important aspects here – One is that, majority of the illegal wealth was completely flushed out of the system and it was a cleansing act. In other words, this one bold move by the government cleaned out the country’s economy that was polluted with dirty cash for the past 70 odd years. Secondly and most importantly, this move instilled a fear amongst those people who were once hoarding so much of cash as black money. Also because this move was promptly backed up by a series of searches by Income Tax sleuths, money hoarding reduced considerably and the entire economy was routed through the banking system. This implies fair and legitimate transactions duly accounted by the Income Tax department according to various compliances. Here we can clearly see that the long-term implications are much more beneficial compared to the short-term sufferings that people had to undergo. This was the reason why this move by the government is hailed a success.

Thus the message from today’s episode is that, whenever a decision has to be taken, it should be weighed with both the short-term and the long-term implications, before rolling it out to the implementation stage. This is an extremely important message to leaders in every domain – Right from politics to sports to being a CEO of an organization, etc. Hence for today let us ponder over this important message and introspect our approach towards decision-making! We shall wait till the next episode to explore the next of Vidura’s explanation. Stay tuned! 🙂