Spiritual Management

[chkasarma]

It\'s a good one to share, if this topic was covered earlier, please feel to free delete this post

A Professor of Strategic Planning is taking a class in one of the B-schools and the students are seriously attentive to the lecture.

The Professor was narrating an event from the epic – Mahabharata.

When Arjuna & Duryodhana came to Lord Krishna to seek His help before the famous Kurukshetra war, what were the options given by Krishna?

"Do you want me to help in my Personal capacity or have the strength of my army of 10,000 soldiers; each one as strong as me? Arjuna immediately came out with a choice of Krishna for his side.

Duryodhana was happy as Arjuna did not opt for the army of soldiers and felt that it was a foolish option to ask for an individual as compared to an army for assistance. Krishna also made it clear that he will not use any weapon in the war, but he agreed to be the chariot driver for his beloved devotee Arjuna. Both Arjuna & Duryodhana left with a happy note.
This is a typical case study for the strategy management students and the Professor asked the students to analyze the case in detail and offer their comments.

There was a pin-drop silence in the class room and majority of the students are working out and tried to offer their individual opinions.

"It was a wrong choice by Arjuna and no one will opt for a chariot driver against an army of ten thousand soldiers".

"Both Arjuna & Krishna are good friends and in a war a friendly advice will be very valuable. Hence Arjuna is right in his choice".

"Perhaps, in case of extreme emergency, Krishna may resort to use his weapon, Sugarcane Charka and kill hundreds of enemies in one stroke".

"Probably Arjuna did not have the estimate about the power of manpower".

None of these explanations satisfied the professor. So, he started his own analysis.

It should be understood here that Krishna is a great strategist. At the same time He is a good crisis Manager as well as a Diplomat. Above all, He is a well wisher of one and all a profound philosopher, and saviors of justice.

Whether it is a Kurukshetra war or a corporate war, no one likes to loose such Great Personality. Exactly at this juncture, Duryodhana made a mistake in deciding to opt for the army. Arjuna has wisely decided to go with Lord Krishna and that decision has paid him in full and won the war. Krishna is not merely a simple formula like one plus one is equal to two, but He is equal to infinity.

In the mean time, the bell rang and the whole episode was forgotten. Here every student is Arjuna and the professor is like Krishna. The classroom is a typical scene of Mahabharata.

One may miss a great pizza or a burger, but one cannot afford to miss to read Mahabharata. One has to meticulously go through the entire epic volume, understand and assimilate the content. One cannot but appreciate the management book that has come into circulation several centuries ago. One has also to prostrate with folded hands before the author of such a great work Sri Vedavyasa. All the management topics like Time Management, Leadership, Motivation, Mind Control, Stress Management, Human Relationships etc are dealt in a lucid manner that are very much essential to the present day Corporate Managers. As such, the modern Management Gurus are quoting several instances from the Mahabharata to the Management students in their routine talks. Topics like "Spirituality for the Global Leaders" have been introduced as an elective subject in IIM Bangalore. It is heartening to note that lot of encouragement is being given to such topics. Even, several workshops are being organized at various Management institutions integrating both Management & Philosophy.

Swami Sukhabodhananda, &. Jaggi Vasudev etc., are being invited by the corporate heads to deliver talks on the management aspects from the great epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata.

To be more practical, is it possible to link up business with philosophy? The answer would be 'yes'.

In fact there are three major aspects in Management worth mentioning here. They are

a) Analysis of the situation:
•       This is a mental exercise.
b) Emotional reaction:
•         This is an expression of the individual as soon as a news is broken. It happens when the reaction impinges on the heart.
c) Philosophical Approach:
•         This approach is yet to take off but the corporate managers have already started to think in these lines.

 The management courses have given major thrust on the analytic approach. However, for the benefit of the future managers (current Management Students) it is rather difficult to teach the subjects like creative thinking, stress management, balanced (composed) reactions, honest approach etc. But a number of incidents from Ramayana & Mahabharata can be taken up as case studies. This will enable the management students for their mental growth with practical examples from the epics and also increase the ethical values.

 This kind of approach has come into existence since a decade and even several books are being published in the recent past like Management Tools in Bhagavagita &c.

 When we look at the various characters in Mahabharata, from the management angle, Krishna is a great Chief Executive.
 
"Protect the right and attack the wrong" is his punch word. He is basically a follower of the righteous path. Yudhistara is an excellent Executive Director. He is a man of principles and bound by values. He never shirks from the truth.

Bhima is a Manager full of emotional reactions. His focus is always to reach the goal rather than the process of achieving the end result.

Arjuna is an eternal student. Learning is his passion and an ardent devotee of Krishna, the Chief Executive.

Duryodhana is highly skillful but ill equipped with tact. He always used to depend on other's advises.

Karna is a highly efficient & capable warrior but strongly believes and follows his master Duryodhana and as a result went into a negative path.

Draupadi is a typical character, who always reminded the goal or objective of Pandavas. She is like a Powerhouse and whenever the Pandavas used to relax and compromise she was the one, who used to provoke them by reminding the insults done by the Kauruvas in a full open meeting where all the Pandavas, Kauraas and other seniors were present. Her objective is to destroy the enemies completely.

Abhimanyu is a young and energetic Middle Level Manager but unfortunately, he moves forward without any strategy or an appropriate exit path. In this way, every character in Mahabharata can be translated into the present day corporate cadres. In some universities, lot of research is going on these subjects.

[chkasarma]

Coming to the story of Rama, there is a famous saying "Ramo Vigrahavan Dharmaha" meaning, that Rama is a personification of Justice. Rama is a born Leader, an efficient Corporate Head, an obedient son, a good brother and above all a romantic & beloved husband. In a situation of oscillating circumstances, one can certainly get a solution when they read Ramayana. Infact this is an advice given by Swami China Jeer Swami to the management students and practicing management experts. He added that Ramayana is flooded with many Management Principles and H.R. related policies. The Sage Valmiki has brought out excellent management rules long before the management gurus like Peter Drucker, C. K. Prahlada, Arindham Chowdhary, Stefen Cove etc. Professor Piramel expressed that there is no management book parallel to the 'Sundarakanda' an important chapter in Ramayana.
 
Any organization has to prepare the executive and his team before a critical mission is entrusted.
In Ramayana too, Rama has prepared Hanuman (his representative) by revealing the inherent strength in him. Rama also inspires Hanuman that he only can accomplish the given task and that gives Hanuman, an unlimited strength to go out of bounds and cross the ocean to reach Lanka. Valmiki also gives a vivid description, as to how Hanuman has empowered himself before he got ready to cross the ocean. But then once he entered the Lanka, he prepared a "Plan of Action", to enter the fort of Ravana, face heavy mysterious security hazards there, search the Mistress (Sita) whom he never saw earlier, without damaging the reputation or respect of his master Rama.

Whether, in the office, or in a group, one should remember that he is a member representing a company or an institution, one has to always remember to safeguard the reputation of his parent organization where ever he works. This was the underlying principle conveyed by the epic writer Valmiki through Hanuman. This is aptly applicable to the present day corporate culture, which was accurately archetechured by Valmiki in Tretayuga itself. While Hanuman is deeply engaged in locating Sita, one can clearly see a "Positive Thinker" in Hanuman, which is one of the Prime management principles to be noticed by the present Hi-tech Managers. At one stage, Hanuman losses his enthusiasm & courage, but he immediately, re-charges himself and attacks the problem with a different style of strategy and approach.

In fact, one of best- sellers "Who moved my cheese" by Spenser Johnson also conveys a similar philosophy.
If at all, Hanuman did not venture to tread into Lanka, he wouldn't have got the estimation or his opponent, and the strengths & weakness of the enemy with whom a war is round the corner. He also wouldn't have the idea or the extent of Ravana's strength.

Once again, a similar theory is conveyed by Bill Gates in his book "Business @ the speed of thought" in his own style. In order to achieve or accomplish higher goals, one must also take higher risk. Only then one can aspire to be a Business Leader.

When Hanuman has burnt the entire Lanka, Vibhishana went against the will of his brother Ravana and joined the enemy camp or Bharata has successfully ruled the kingdom of Rama in the absence of the latter, it is all due to the inspiration and courage derived from Rama himself. Rama is a center of Inspiration.

Corporate Mahabharata:

The Mahabharata has been looked as an epic by the saints, as a history textbook by the historians, as Political Reference book by the Political stalwarts, and as a Modern Management Hand book by the senior corporate managers. The book highlighted the theory-how to avoid a confrontation, rather than to face it. The Kurukshetra war did not turn around overnight. The Kaurva seniors like Bhishma, Drona, Vidura etc have made very effort to avoid the conflict by talking to Duryodhana, but all went in vain. Even, the efforts for a probable compromise by the Lord Krishna were also gone cold. These efforts are all part of the Crisis Management. The losses, pathetic stories after the war are well described in the epic. Even the corporate wars will have a similar effect and one should always attempt to overcome such a situation tactfully as advised by the famous saint of the present age "Swami Sukhabodhananda". Take the example of the differences between the Ambani brothers, which was amicably resolved by Kokilaben to a large extent. This is a welcome settlement, failing which the results would be callous. Now both the brothers are independently trying to expand their empires and register a healthy growth.

Recently there was an interesting book published with the caption "Bhisma @ Management and governance". Bhishma, popularly known as Bhishma Pitamaha, is an encyclopedia of Management commitment and logic. He has rich experience but lying helplessly on the bed of arrows after the Kurukshetra war, waiting for the inevitable end of his life. The wealth of knowledge and experience will simply fritter away without use to any body. The situation is aptly described in the "Shanti Parva" & Anusasanika Parva" of Mahabharata, which are the most important chapters suggested for reading during crisis situations. Lord Krishna, knowing the value of the knowledge possessed by Bhishma, thought that, it would be worth while dissipating the knowledge to others, gave him the necessary strength and comfort so that the knowledge can be passed on to the serious individuals who are keen in learning directly from the mouth of Pitamaha, out of which, Yudhistir is the top in the list. The issues like, governance, management of finances, maintainance of dipromatic relationship, Taxation and so on, are all well covered in Mahabharata. Just as our Vedas give a deep insight to the subjets like Mathematics, Astronmy, Engineering etc., the art of management is also our property unfortunately. The present day modern corporate managers have no time to read and understand the great epics and they also do not have the patience to absorb the underlying principles from these epics.
Hence a humble attempt is made to address these budding managers, who will be certainly the future corporate CEOs, to convey that characters like Krishna, Yudhistira, Bhishma, Arjuna, Duryodhana, Karna etc are all potential case studies and valuable inferences can be drawn from these cases.

Philosophy in Gita: -

Arjuna has renounced his bow and arrows, and surrendered himself saying that he cannot kill his own kith and kin in the proposed war. He, rather, insisted to escape from the war. Lord Krishna did not provoke him for the war, reminding the atrocities done against Pandavas by the Kauravas. But he has only advised Arjuna to follow the path of right action of Dharma. That is the greatness in Gita.

In one of the surveys conducted, by a management consultancy group, it was revealed that majority of the CEOs have answered that the most inspiring sloka in Bhagavadgita was

"Karmanyeva Adhiraste Maphaleshu Kadhachana, Makarma phalaheturbhu Mate sangostya Karmani" Sl.47, Ch.2

That means one has the right for the prescribed activity but never in the result. One should never be motivated by the results of actions nor should there be any attachment in the activities on performs. In other words, all living entities have the right to perform actions but none have the right to claim the results. An aspirant of the higher target must know that to hanker or yearn for reward for one\'s actions will only lead to emotional attachment but not in actual achievement.

Another important sloka from Gita is also as inspiration to number of CEO's and that is the last one in Gita.
 
"Yatra Yoegeswara Krishno Yatra Pantho Dhanurdharaha, Tatra Srirvijayor bhutihi Dhruva neetirmatirama" Sl 78, Ch 18

That means – where ever there are Lord Krishna the supreme knowledge, and Arjuna - the most skilled personality, Victory is bound to be there. Krishna is an embodiment of knowledge (Jnana) and Arjuna is symbol of skill. Hence, wherever there is knowledge and skill, success is inevitable.

Any CEO is supposed to be a knowledgeable person and the employees are the representatives of skills. If knowledge is there, success just will follow. But this is only to a certain extent. But once the knowledgeable CEO is supplemented by skillful group of managers, success is bound to be there with the organization.

Harshad Mehta is a typical example, where the knowledge is present in abundance, but the skillful supporting staff is missing. In case of Narayana Murty & Azim Premji, the knowledge or wisdom is complimented by highly skillful organization, which contributed to the organizational growth in leaps & bounds. The CEO of an organisation should be as close as possible to the state of perfection as described in Gita as "Stitha Prajna".

Only then, the CEO can withstand the severe fluctuations of the business performances. Many times, the marketing wizards will be subjected to severe pressure for winning a particular contract, failing which, the company life will be at stake. On such occassions, the Gita slokas referred here will be a source of relief and retain the strength to continue the business with rejuvenated energy. In many cases, the results are not in our control and we need to do the job to the best satisfaction & ability and then leave the result to the Supreme Lord.

This is a "Detachment Approach theory" as taught to us in Gita. The same philosophy has been renamed by the Western Management Gurus such as "Theory of Motivation" and "Theory of Inspiration", which are followed in to by the present day corporate. Yes. Long ago the Indians defined the Management Principles, and taught the world how to run an institution successfully. But what is the extent that has been assimilated by us. If we take about 100 top organizations in the world, the Indian CEOs are nominal. The day our Indian managers rise to the Global levels, and run the organizations successfully, as per international ethics, we feel that the dreams of our Pitamaha have been fulfilled to the full extent.
 

[gauranggroups]

@chkasarma,

It\'s really a nice thread! Good work from you!! Keep it up!!!

This is in response to your first post of this thread. I agree with everything, but would like to make only two corrections in it.

1. Lord Krishna\'s weapon is \"Sudharsana Chakra\" and not \"Sugarcane Chakra\".

2. Abhimanyu\'s case shouldn\'t be viewed as he has gone without any strategy and hence he died. It should be viewed in a different angle. The motive for his attempt was bigger. It was to save Yudhistra, in turn to save the entire war. Hence he sacrificed himself. The same thing can be related to save a company, you can sacrifice few Middle Level Managers. Or if you view him as a trading commodity, to save / obtain a bigger thing, you should be ready to sacrifice / spend a smaller thing.

[chkasarma]

Hi Gaurang,

Thanks for your comments. Well, I have found this great piece of note online, so I thought to share as it is  and overlooked the misspellings. Thanks for bringing up to my notice.

It seems,this was a lecture given in IIM and these is the analysis of that professor.Perhaps, the actual point making about Abhimanu in the in the article is , he went in without a proper backup or an exit plan to come out. Of course, as per the story,  he was saving others and left with no choice, since, apart from Arjuna, he is the only one who knew how to enter in to Padmavyuham but,  did not know how to come out and still took a chance to save  others.

However, completely agreed with you and your analysis is perfect

(BTW I love Sugar canes :love: ...LOL  )

[JayTee]

abhimanyu and karna were rakshas, who were born to destroy others.
karna was the same rakshas, who fought with Nar+Narayan in Badri for thousands of years in his past life and was left with his last \'kavach\', which came to him naturally by birth in next life.

krishna knew about abhimanyu\'s past life, so he didnt let arjun know about abhimanyu\'s attempt to break padmavyuh and his death

[chkasarma]

@JayTee,

What is the past life of Abhimanu?? It\'s more or less the same thing with Ghatothgaja, the son of Bhima, who was killed by Karan\'s special weapon, which which was originally saved to kill Arjuna.

[Star Dust]

Whilst as an unborn child in his mother\'s womb, Abhimanyu learned the knowledge of entering the deadly and virtually impenetrable Chakra Vyuha from his maternal uncle Krishna. Ved Vyas explains that from the womb, Abhimanyu listened to Krishna describing ways of penetrating the Vyuh to his mother Subhadra. Krishna  explained to Subhadra in detail the technique of attacking and escaping from various Vyuhs (an array of army formation) such as Makaravyuha, Kurmavyuha, Sarpavyuha, etc. After explaining all the Vyuhs, he explained about the technique of cracking Chakra Vyuha, and entering it. When he was about to explain how to exit from the Chakra Vyuha, ironically Subadra had fallen asleep and Krishna stopped explaining ways to exit from this Vyuh further. As a result of this, Abhimanyu whilst in his mother\'s womb, did not get to learn how to escape the Chakra Vyuh. This event played a key role in the death of Abhimanyu sixteen years later. Why did Krishna stop explaining the Vyuh and why did he not teach Abhimanyu how to escape it during his military training in Dwarka?

Incarnated as Abhimanyu , he was in his previous birth known as Kalayavan, the King of Magadha, who was an asura or demon and  with the help of  other Kings such as Jarasandha and Shalva invaded Mathura with an army of thirty million Rakshasa soldiers against Krishna. He was undefeated and unmatched in battle due to the boon given to him by Lord Shiva that no Yadava could kill him in battle, but he was at the same time  also merciless and cruel. Coming to know about the protection given by Lord Shiva to Kalayavana, Sri Krishna, somewhat dejected, shifted to Dwarka from Mathura.  

Kalayavan knew that Krishna is the only person who could defeat him in battle and by accepting this challenge he set out to invade Krishna\'s kingdom. When the two armies faced each other in battle, Krishna dismounted from his chariot and began to walk away, followed by Kalayavan. After a long time Krishna, followed by Kalayavan entered  a dark cave. This cave at the time was inhabited by the  Rishi  Muchukunda who had been meditating there for  generations.

King Muchukunda, a king of the Solar dynasty and son of Mandhata had on the request of Lord Indra gone to Devaloka [ Heavens] along with his forces and defeated the Asuras (demons). Indra wanted to bless him with an award for the service, which he had rendered. Muchukunda, feeling very tired, wanted to be shown a place, where he could have sound sleep and meditate, because he had not slept for a long time. Indra led him to a cave on earth and told him that anyone who disturbed him in sleep, would be reduced to ashes by his very look.

The person, on whom the gaze of the Rishi  fell was doomed to instantaneous death. Kalayavan in a fit of anger and unable to see in the dark attacked the Rishi Muchukunda mistaking him to be Krishna. The Rishi opened his eyes and his gaze fell on Kalayavan who was immedaitely burnt to death.
After the invasion, Krishna left Mathura to build  Dwaraka in the middle of the sea at the same time taking with him all his people to settle in that city.

Having taken birth in the Kuru clan, Abhimanyu was unaware of his previous birth and enmity towards Lord Krishna and during his childhood, was brought up in Dwaraka , his mother\'s city. His military training was under the guidance of Pradyumna, the son of Krishna, and also under the guidance of Arjuna the mighty warrior who was his father. Lord Krishna guided Abhimanyu throughout his life while fully  aware of the fact that Abhimanyu was still capable of killing him. Arjuna arranged his marriage to Princess Uttara, daughter of King Virata, to seal an alliance between the Pandavas and the royal family of Virata, in light of the forthcoming Kurukshetra War. The Pandavas had been hiding incognito through the final year of their exile, living without discovery in Virata\'s kingdom of Matsya.

The Mahabharat war lasted for eighteen days. On the thirteenth day, Dronacharya\'s third day of great leadership as Commander in chief of the Kaurava army dawned in full splendour. The Samshaptaka princes again challenged Arjuna to battle and he accordingly went to attack them, where they were arrayed to the south of the main battlefront of Kurukshetra. The battle that was fought between the Samshaptakas and Arjuna was the fiercest that ever had been seen or heard of till that day. Dronacharya began forming the Chakra Vyuh whilst the Kaurava forces unitedly attacked Yudhishthira. Yudhishthira found himself in a fix as he knew that only Arjuna, Krishna, Pradyumna and Abhimanyu could penetrate the Vyuh. Drona rearranged his army in lotus formation and attacked Yudhishthira fiercely. Yudhishthira, Bheema, Nakula, Sahadeva, Dhrishtadyumna, his father Drupada - all of them tried to break the formation of the Kaurava army, but in vain. The Pandava army was in distress.

Abhimanyu was still adolescent, but had already won recognition as a mighty man-at arms even as the equal of his father and uncle in battle. Yudhishthira called Abhimanyu and said to him:
\"Dear son, Dronacharya is attacking our army greatly. Arjuna is absent and, if we should be defeated in his absence, he will be grieved beyond measure. No one among us has been able to break Drona\'s array. You know you can do it and no one else. I ask you to take up this task.\"

\"I can do it,\" replied Abhimanyu. \'I know how to get into the Chakra Vyuh formation but I do not know how to escape it\'.

At this point, Bhima as well as Yudhishthira proposed that they will follow behind him along with the rest of the Pandava allies so to smash the Kaurava army and hoping that Arjuna will quickly return, they began the offensive attack. Abhimanyu thought of his father and Lord Krishna. Feeling encouraged by what had been said by Bhima and Yudhishthira, and impelled by his own gallant nature, he undertook the adventure.

Abhimanyu\'s charioteer was full of sympathy for his daring and with a heavy heart the charioteer drove forward. Abhimanyu pierced  the Chakra Vyuha and entered inside, right in front of the unequalled archer Dronacharya.  The Pandava brothers and allies attempted to follow him inside the formation, but they were effectively cut off by Jayadratha, the Sindhu king, who made use of a boon from Lord Shiva to enable him to hold off all Pandavas except Arjuna for a day. Abhimanyu was left to fend for himself against the entire Kaurava army. Duryodhana and others were shocked and astonished at the prowess of this young warrior.    A fierce battle followed where all the Kaurava warriors attacked Abhimanyu together which was contrary to the rules of war and it is here that the rules were first broken. Abhimanyu fought valiantly until he met his end in this Chakra Vyuh. It is also said that he was killed by Karna by stabbing him with his sword from the back which is another violation of the rules of conduct of the Mahabharata war.

someone also told me long back that muchikunda later took a break for meditation and that cave where Kaalayavan was killed is somewhere in andhrapradesh, india.
later muchikunda moved to another forest and because of him, a river was formed and it was named after him as muchi..which later on became moosi(at hyderabad).

[chkasarma]

@Star Dust

Thanks for the great story with good explanation and for the interesting story behind our (Stinking) Moosi Nadi. :thumbup:

[Shree]

A nice post Stardust. This was new to me the link between Kalayavan and Abhimanyu.

regards
shree

[rudra]

Three Corrections...

1) Kalyavan was NOT the King of Magadha, he was king of some country in persia - beyond current Afganistan.

2) Jarasandh was the King of Magadha.

3) Kalyavan was not a rakshasa, he was just a non Arya

Regards,
Rudra