bhagwad gita and me

8/14/2019 Bhagwad Gita and Me

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Manoj j joshi. i/c Director

B H A G W A D G E E T A , M A N A G E M E N T and M E

Since the early childhood the Bhagwad Geeta has been an inseparable part of my life,however, how I looked upon it and the role it played in my life has been ever changing, as the

time passed., as the age progressed.., and as the maturity developed.

Like almost all the Hindu families, I was also brought up in a family where in a child is

taught to believe Bhagwad Geeta as a Divine Sacred literature without much of the

understanding about the content of it. I remember asking my grand father that why this bookis kept in the place of worship along with the photos and statues of Gods and Goddesses,

unlike the other books which were placed on book shelf.

As time passed and information started flowing in from the multiple sources the mind started

analyzing the sacred book from its own understanding with few things confirming theearlier beliefs, while the others creating questions against it.From the movies in those days it was found that the other place of that holy book was in the

court of law also, where a witness was invariably asked to take an oath after keeping his right

hand on Geeta that whatever he will speak will be truth and he will not speak anything except

the truth and after that only he was allowed to give his statement. My innocent mindassumed that it was really a good technique to make people speak truth so easily.

It also looked very interesting that when someone dies, if you do the readings of Geeta the

departed soul will go directly to the God... in heaven.On one side the enchantments of various Shlokas of Geeta were started creating interest in

knowing further about it, as some of the parts were in curricula at the school; but on the other

side a few things confused the beliefs that the Lord Krishna was not a peace loving leaderand he was the route cause of Mahabharatas Kurukhetra war which was the most disastrous

of its kind in that time.

I came across the writings somewhere that the German poet Pallae after reading BhagwadGeeta was so delighted that he went on dancing for quite sometime keeping Geeta on his

head. Also came across the information that Germans studied the Geeta, and other such

Indian literature as an input to their modern inventions and knowledge base.

My higher education and the professional career were in the technical area, and during that

time there was no much opportunity to explore further into Geeta. However, a few

interactions with my father perpetuated the various inputs as he was a very regular student of

Chinmayanada Geeta classes and also had a good collection of Geeta related knowledgebooks from Ramkrishna Math, Swami Vivekananda, Achayya Vinoba Bhave and others.

When I entered into field of practicing management and then in the later part in management

education, my relations with the Bhagavad Geeta were totally renovated and I started putting

a little more efforts in understanding this great ancient Indian work. I started gradually

realizing the importance and value Geeta , but at the same time the greatest truth I realizedthat the more I tried to understand it, I could find only one major thing that is, how much


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more I still need to know and how ignorant I am about such a treasure of knowledge which

was so near to me all my life.

We are not doing the justice just by considering it as a religious book which can be read at

latter part of retired life. Knowledge of Geeta was not just of use for Arjuna in the battle

field or a Sadhu in Himalaya or a solitary Cave, but it is also meant for a Businessman forevery and any decision he makes, for every professional when he is trying to satisfy the

needs of his customers against all odds, for every one making moves in the stock market, for

a person in politics who is confused and has lost his human hood in game of power play,and a common man and woman running their day to day household. Battlefield of

Kurukshetra is seen as symbolic of inner conflict in man between the one hundred forces of

evil and the limited forces of good.

For many years as a practicing manager in Industry, as a professional consultant and a

teacher in management, as a member of society in general and as a member of my small

family I have tried to find solutions to many problems in Indian context by referring to the

formal management education related to the American , European and Japanese management. Geeta talked about all these centuries ago, and that too easily adoptable to our Indian

traditional ways.

Swami Vivekanada , S.K. Chakraborthy , M.P.Bhattathiry, Subhash Sharma, and many

others have identified several practical applications of various management principles as

addressed in Geeta . Only a representative few are as follows:-

There is an important distinction between effectiveness and efficiency in managing.

Effectiveness is doing the right things and Efficiency is doing things right. Managers must develop Gyana Chakshu (the third eye) the type of wisdom, vision,

insight, and foresight. Inner resources (divine virtues) are much more powerful then

outer resources (capital, material, plant, machinery etc.) In this context the Bhagavad Geeta expounded thousands of years ago by the Super

Management Guru Bhagawan Sri Krishna enlightens us on all managerial techniques

leading to a harmonious and blissful state of affairs as against conflicts, tensions,

lowest efficiency and least productivity, absence of motivation and lack of workculture etc common to most of the Indian enterprises today.

The modern management concepts like vision, leadership, motivation, excellence in

work, achieving goals, meaning of work, attitude towards work, nature of individual,

decision making, planning etc., are all discussed in the Bhagavad Geeta . It may be noted that while Western design on management deals with the problems at

superficial, material, external and peripheral levels, the ideas contained in the

Bhagavad Geeta tackle the issues from the grass roots level of human thinkingbecause once the basic thinking of man is improved it will automatically enhance the

quality of his actions and their results. Utilisation of Available Resources .The first lesson in the management science is to

choose wisely and utilise optimally the scarce resources if one has to succeed in his


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venture. During the curtain raiser before the Mahabharata War Duryodhana chose Sri

Krishna's large army for his help while Arjuna selected Sri Krishna's wisdom for his

support. This episode gives us a clue as to who is an Effective Manager. Yoga means excellence at work. Seek to perform your assigned duty in an excellent

manner, perfection in work and quality of output. This leads to TQM (total quality

management).Quality of a product or Service is primarily a function of quality of themind or consciousness of the doer, and only the secondarily of quality circles or

statistical quality control. Attitude towards Work-Work Commitment: The popular verse 2.47 of the Geeta

advises non- attachment to the fruits or results of actions performed in the course of

one's duty. Dedicated work has to mean 'work for the sake of work'. If we are always

calculating the date of promotion for putting in our efforts, then such work cannot be

commitment-oriented causing excellence in the results but it will be promotion-oriented resulting in inevitable disappointments.

Not merely a theory of Motivation but a theory of Inspiration. Work is worship: because the best way to approach the divine through secular life is

to offer each piece of work - mentally- in as complete, perfect, humble and pure inform and spirit as one offers a flower or a fruit or a sweet to the God this can

stimulate the work ethics in the healthiest way.

Renunciation and Detachment not or not from the duties and responsibilities , but

of/from selfish results/ rewards and egoistic demands in the work place , of/from the

lower , unregenerate ego and its vanities. Work Results: The Geeta further explains the theory of non- attachment to the results

of work in Ch.18 Verses 13-15 the import of which is as under: If the result of sincere

effort is a success, the entire credit should not be appropriated by the doer alone. Ifthe result of sincere effort is a failure, then too the entire blame does not accrue to the

doer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

When I look back to my past life I really feel how much life I have wasted in not exploring

this treasure so far and when I look ahead it seems a difficult challenge to explore andimplement the same for practical use of Industries and Business.

My objective of writing this is:-

For the students to explore the treasures of the traditions right form today and make a perfect

effective blend of it with your modern knowledge; andTo the parents to sow the seeds of our rich traditions in children and do your best to prevent

them from the possible brain storming against the culture.

We should always be open to accept good thing of other cultures, however, in theprocess ensure that our better traditions are not washed away.

bhagwad gita and me

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