What would Lord Krishna share with Harvard students?!

 

All of you are welcome to join me in this journey!

 

From depths of despondency to heights of committed action

Agitation to tranquility, peace and calm within

Negativity to positivity

An inward shuddering to steadfastness within

Sweating the small stuff to worrying over values and ethics;

 

From being stressed out to higher resilience

Fretting over past and future to living in the present

Controlled by ego and desires to living a life of true bliss

Lassoing the wild horse within known as the mind

Analysis paralysis to intuitive decision making

Clear focus on work but not to the rewards thereof;

 

From chaotic work to a balanced life

Myopic to a long term view of things

Quarterly guidelines to value-based strategic goals

Generating surpluses to holding same in trust for stakeholders

Creating wealth and sharing some of it with society at large

Treating all with due respect and empathy;

 

From aversion to love

‘Me and I’ to ‘We and Us’

I-am-the-Doer to humility

Encouraging dissent and diversity

Communicating with clarity and beneficial motives

Standing up to what you are convinced is wrong;

 

From being selfish to selfless

Reactive to proactive

Passion to compassion

Anger and hatred to love

Arrogance to grace

Always maintaining an inner connection with your true Self;

 

From anxiety to poise

Fear to courage

Restless to peaceful

Resentful to forgiving

Imbalance to balance

Desire-laden to free of desires;

 

From gross to subtle

Being a hypocrite to being true to yourself

Keeping mum to openly defending the good

And destroying the bad

Attachment to detachment

Enjoying life to the hilt;

 

From expectation to acceptance

Passive resistance to vibrant surrender

Intellectualizing to wisdom

Ignorance to knowledge

Unaware to aware of your strengths and weaknesses

Managing affairs by loftier objectives.

 

What I conveyed to my friend Arjuna on a battlefield long time back can inspire you to face mighty challenges while running or managing a business.

From a despondent being, I could somehow succeed in persuading him to becoming a highly charged-up warrior, ready to fight for his rights.

I merely re-packaged the rich lessons of eternal wisdom embedded in Indian scriptures and presented a highly distilled version of the same for use of all of you.

If you wish to deliver miraculous results, keep your saw always sharpened, put in extraordinary effort and have unwavering faith. There is no other way to success.

Who is the driver of the car?!

Those of you who do not take a jaundiced view of the proposition of reincarnation, may consider the example of a brand new shimmering car being allotted to us in the form of a new body at the beginning of each of our lives. The car does not come with any time-limited warranty. Its longevity is determined by the quality of its engine, the love with which one maintains it, the manner in which it is handled while being driven around the sunlit streets of life, and several other factors.

Bhagavad Gita gives us a roadmap of what one can do to utilize this car to its optimum level. The more we inject the fuel of hopes and desires into its system, the faster it may run, though there is a range of speed within which the engine efficiency is the best. Regular application of brakes is a necessity, so one does not meet one’s ruin while driving. One’s senses, one’s mind and one’s desires have to be kept on a tight leash and deployed only in moderation, so the mileage one gets is the best possible under the driving conditions that one faces. The lubricants of skills, knowledge, faith and sincerity help to maximize engine efficiency. The coolant of detachment assists quietly in its own way.

Try and visualize a driver-less car of the future, duly armed with Artificial Intelligence and practically run by a complex array of Programmable Logic Controllers and other technological marvels. It can take one from point A to point B in a far less stressful manner. It can park itself. Assuming that it is a hybrid model which works on conventional fuel as well as also on its battery, whenever brakes are applied to keep its sensors and desires under check, a part of the kinetic energy gets utilized to charge the battery as well.

Now, if the supreme analytical skills of this car lead its ‘mind’ to believe that it is indeed the real driver and not the real person who owns it and decides its destinations from time to time, the car could be said to be living in a delusion of its own. Indeed, the soul would be the real driver!

This indeed is the tragedy of CEOs and managers who believe that they alone are the doers as well as the enjoyers of the delightful journey called life. A sense of conscious detachment then becomes necessary for one to realize one’s true place in the overall scheme of things.

Life is a unique opportunity for all of you to use the same and move up the ladder of spiritual evolution. Pray do not waste it while you are busy chasing materialistic goals.

 

(Note: A version of this article was published in New Race, a journal brought out by the Institute of Human Study: https://sacar.in/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/New-Race-November-2019.pdf)

(Related Post:

https://ashokbhatia.wordpress.com/2015/09/04/management-lessons-from-the-life-of-lord-krishna)

 

Read Full Post »

When Life hurls big rocks at one (Part 2)

In its concluding chapter, Bhagavad Gita goes on to extol the virtue of surrender to a higher power. It does not specifically state that it is useful only when a CEO is facing a monumental challenge in her career or life. However, it is my belief that an attitude laced with liberal doses of surrender, duly backed by the personality attributes listed in the previous chapter, becomes the most crucial enabling factor which facilitates successful handling of such challenges.

तमेव शरणं गच्छ सर्वभावेन भारत |
तत्प्रसादात्परां शान्तिं स्थानं प्राप्स्यसि शाश्वतम् || 18.62||

Surrender exclusively unto Him with your whole being, O Bharat. By His grace, you will attain perfect peace and the eternal abode.

Much like a Senior Vice President who gets promoted as a CEO after the seniors notice a potential in her to shoulder a higher responsibility, coupled with a match between the value system of the incumbent and that of the business, and a deep sense of loyalty (read surrender) to the organization, Lord Krishna also stipulates the condition under which His grace would help a person to attain perfect peace – exclusive surrender. A conscious realization that it is not one’s own efforts alone which get success in life, and that it is one’s destiny also which plays a crucial role, helps one to surrender in such a manner. 

There are no free lunches in life, as the wise men say!

Challenges and evolution

Each of the demeaning experiences faced by yours truly and shared in the previous part led to some inner growth. A public rebuke made me learn the value of sensing dangerous turbulence on the flight path in advance, and punching the eject button in the cockpit before things spun out of control. Likewise, the kidnapping incident taught me the importance of having some acquaintance with the law and order and regulatory agencies in the country. As an additional perk, each incident revealed the true friends and foes of those around me at the time. An enriching string of experiences, one would say in retrospect.

When a pink slip gets dished out, one finds an opportunity of reassessing one’s strengths and weaknesses and act on them. A fall from grace eventually ends up increasing the depth of one’s inner reservoirs of patience, equipoise and fortitude.

When Kunti seeks challenges as a boon!

In one of the post-war episodes narrated in the Srimad Bhagavatam, when Krishna is about to depart for his kingdom of Dwarka, Uttara, the bereaved wife of Abhimanyu and the daughter-in-law of Arjuna, comes running to seek His protection for the son in her womb who has been killed by a mighty weapon unleashed by Ashwatthama. Krishna then brings the child back to life, at which time Kunti, the mother of the Pandavas and an aunt of Krishna, prays thus:

विषान्महाग्नेः पुरुषाददर्शनाद्  असत्सभाया वनवासकृच्छ्रतः ।
मृधे मृधेऽनेकमहारथास्त्रतो  द्रौण्यस्त्रतश्चास्म हरेऽभिरक्षिताः ॥ 1.8.24॥

My dear Krishna, you have protected us from a poisoned cake, from a great fire, from cannibals, from the vicious assembly, from sufferings during our exile in the forest and from the battle where great generals fought. And now You have saved us from the weapon of Asshwatthama.

विपदः सन्तु ताः शश्वत् तत्र तत्र जगद्‍गुरो ।
भवतो दर्शनं यत्स्याद् अपुनर्भवदर्शनम् ॥ 1.8.25॥

I wish that all those calamities would happen again and again so that we could see You again and again, for seeing You means that we will no longer repeated births and deaths.

Apprehending that she and her children would subsequently be missing being in touch with someone of the stature of Krishna, Kunti seeks a blessing from Him – that her family is always surrounded by some trouble or the other. The Lord is obviously surprised and bemused at someone seeking a negative blessing!

Of Challenges, Deprivation and Humiliation

Shri Ram Chandra Maharaj, affectionately referred to as Lalaji Maharaj by his followers the world over, was the original Master of the spiritual organization which is spear-heading the practice of Heartfulness Meditation globally these days. He has stated in one of his messages that there are three factors in one’s life which lead to spiritual evolution: Illat (Challenges), Quillat (Deprivation) and Zillat (Deprivation).

What is really implied here is that one needs to learn to accept challenges – major or minor – in the spirit of ‘illat’, ‘quillat’ and ‘zillat’. In other words, to have a little less money than necessary; to have a little less than good health; and to always have critics around one. Those who are on the path to an inward growth would do well to receive such brickbats and rocks as fragrant bouquets which life bestows on one.

The real examples quoted earlier in this context aptly justify this sobering thought.

Negatives support us better!

Swami Vivekananda, in his notes on Karma-Yoga, has the following to say:

‘Good and evil have an equal share in moulding character, and in some instances misery is a greater teacher than happiness. In studying the great characters the world has produced, I dare say, in the vast majority of cases it would be found that it was misery that taught more than happiness, it was poverty that taught more than wealth, it was blows that brought out their inner fire more than praise.’

Perhaps, if Mahatma Gandhi had not been kicked out of a train for traveling first class at Pietermaritzburg in 1893 in South Africa, the history of Indian continent might have been quite different!

The argument here is not that one should willingly court challenges and negativity in life. It is merely to state a basic truth in life – that challenges have an upside too.

The rhinoceroses of challenges

Challenges come in all sizes, hues and degrees of seriousness. Each challenge faced by one in life eventually results in speeding up one’s progress on the tricky path of evolution. One gains maturity and experience. One learns to be grateful when one is feeling unduly elated, and graceful when feeling totally down. One learns to be more careful and patient.

Challenges are blessings which bring about changes which uplift and enrich one. Our Guardian Angels would never desert us. Instead, they plan their furloughs in such a way that while they are having a rollicking time on a distant planet, one gets precisely the kind of challenges which enable us to become more humane, more pragmatic and more professional in our dealings with people and with situations.

One’s fight with mighty challenges in career and life could be decisively won by using the firepower of the tools in one’s arsenal – A relentless drive to keep upgrading one’s knowledge base and skill-sets, and to have faith in a higher power. An attitude of surrender enables one to march on in life, with one’s chin up, a smile adorning one’s visage, and a steely resolve to make the approaching rhinoceroses-like challenges to wilt and retreat into their own comfort zones.

(Sources:

The Spider’s Web, Vol. 3, Chapter “Attitude”, by Shri P Rajagopalachari;

Karma Yoga: The Yoga of Action, Chapter “Karma In Its Effect on Character”, Swami Vivekananda, ISBN 81-85301-89-1

Illustrations courtesy www)

(Related Post: https://ashokbhatia.wordpress.com/2019/06/13/when-life-hurls-big-rocks-at-one)

 

Read Full Post »

Some Blogging Lessons from the ‘Bhagavad Gita’

ashokbhatia

Had Lord Krishna been around, this is how he might have advised a clueless and gloomy blogger Arjuna:

What you have already blogged, you have blogged well,

What you are blogging, you are doing fine, you can tell,

What you will blog, will also get blogged well,

Live in the present, your heart-felt ideas would eventually sell.

Never beseech someone for a ‘like’, a ‘reblog’ or for a ‘comment’,

Let your soul never be in torment,

For writing what you are passionate about alone you are meant,

Read more, get inspired, get cracking, never get bent.

At times, you may get upset for not having been ‘Freshly Pressed’,

Well, it is not the end of the world, do not feel unduly stressed,

Escaping a deluge of ‘likes’ and ‘comments’ instead leaves you feeling blessed,

You are not in a short sprint but in a marathon, you have already guessed.

Be…

View original post 611 more words

Read Full Post »

Some Blogging Lessons from the ‘Bhagavad Gita’

Had Lord Krishna been around, this is how he might have advised a clueless and gloomy blogger Arjuna:

 

What you have already blogged, you have blogged well,

What you are blogging, you are doing fine, you can tell,

What you will blog, will also get blogged well,

Live in the present, your heart-felt ideas would eventually sell.

 

Never beseech someone for a ‘like’, a ‘reblog’ or for a ‘comment’,

Let your soul never be in torment,

For writing what you are passionate about alone you are meant,

Read more, get inspired, get cracking, never get bent.

 

At times, you may get upset for not having been ‘Freshly Pressed’,

Well, it is not the end of the world, do not feel unduly stressed,

Escaping a deluge of ‘likes’ and ‘comments’ instead leaves you feeling blessed,

You are not in a short sprint but in a marathon, you have already guessed.

 

Be contented, know that pain follows pleasure,

Keep up the frequency, even though you blog at leisure,

Your faith and passion in what you blog is the only measure,

Let each post of yours be a fragrant flower which one can treasure.

 

Write from your heart, do not copy-and-paste,

Time spent savouring a temporary surge in viewership and ‘likes’ could be a waste,

Your sins could soon catch up with you, leaving you repenting in haste,

Well thought-out juicy comments alone dish up a success you can taste.

 

Do not worry for awards and rewards which make you raise a toast,

Be more anxious for the quality of what you post,

Write for posterity a message that would never be lost,

Receive criticism with equipoise, those alone shall teach you the most.

The effort you put in to blogging is alone your right,

The result may or may not come, even though you push with all your might,

Continue to blog in a detached manner, hold on to your path tight,

Simply enjoy the journey, be happy and scale the desired height.

 

Life will keep happening, ups and down will keep coming,

Resolve to remain steadfast, view them with an attitude which is welcoming,

Free from fear, free from anger, free from desire, keep blogging,

Like a tortoise, withdraw within yourself, ultimately winning.

 

Which idea really does belong to you?

In Blogosphere, you are apt to find somewhere a similar view,

You just propose your own perspective, fresh as a drop of dew,

The reality, as you see it yourself, presented anew.

 

Just like your indestructible soul,

The spirit with which you blog shall survive even a black hole,

Let the novelty of ideas put forth by you remain your goal,

Others may imitate and flatter you, but they make you play a worthy role.

 

Fire shall not kill your ideas, water shall not sully those ever,

Air shall not dry, ether in cyberspace shall support those forever,

Like a wave in the universe, these shall continue to travel, dying never,

These would never decay, built upon further by those who are equally clever.

 

Like your soul, your ideas are also unborn,

You and the universe you inhabit are neither divorced nor torn,

Like a well-tuned antenna you catch, your mind sounds a horn,

You manifest these, but believe you alone are the cause for their being born.

Grow attached to your blog posts and you may become addicted,

Disappointment and anger will follow, your mind getting confused and conceited,

Lessons learnt from your own experiences getting forfeited,

The power of discrimination lost, the very purpose of life defeated.

 

Smart bloggers bring a fresh perspective, all the time aiming for a perfect post,

Doubts they double-check, keeping the post simmering, achieving a delicious roast,

Text they spell-check, the inner glow of satisfaction they host,

Read thoroughly, hit the ‘publish’ button, and raise a self-toast.

 

Most of their posts are wedded to the welfare of others, rich values these sustain,

From undue ridicule, criticism and offensive content their posts normally abstain,

Howsoever controversial the topic, a high degree of self-control they retain,

Their outpourings are merely to amuse, educate and entertain.

 

Be humble, be harmless, have no pretension,

Be upright, tranquil, steadfast, blogging will never give you any tension,

Master your ego, relish the joy of expression and retention,

Be aware of the weakness in mortal nature, keep your senses in wilful detention.

 

This is the supreme knowledge, above all other,

Purified, made plain, easy its virtue for you to gather,

Its practice easy, you may resolve to follow it rather,

It is the blogging truth eternal, imbibe it, do not bother.

Read Full Post »