“Mahabharata to CORPORATE life”

Indian mythology is the asset of Indian Culture. It’s full of mystery, lesson and attraction too. I personally love it and am eager to learn it at length. In this blog I am writing some learning from Incidents which we can apply in corporate life. I will try to connect both scenarios. any persons may have different prospective for the same. It is to the best of my knowledge.

Glimpse of Mahabharata – The Mahabharata tells the story of two sets of paternal first cousins;

A) 5 sons of the deceased king Pandu (called Pandavas) &

B) 100 sons of blind King Dhritarashtra (called Kauravas)

They became bitter rivals, and opposed each other in war for possession of the ancestral Bharata kingdom that was “Hastinapura”. It is situated near Ganga river in north central India.This epic is written by Veda Vyasa.

"Kurukshetra"

Incident-1: Initially at the time of formation of opponent team for upcoming war. Both team members went to Lord Krishna for help. Duryodhan (Kauravas) was first to reach the place. Lord Krishna allowed him to choose what he wanted.

He had two options-

(a) Only Krishnaji or

(b) Whole set of army

Duryodhan chose (b) option and we all know the result.

Learning for corporate life- If we have to choose between

(a) Capable person in every dimension (Valuable) &

(b) Technology (Materialistic )

Just wait for 15 seconds and think-“What you will do?”

I will choose (a) option because capable person will be the real asset. If not initially,  within few months or years that person will be able to manage technology as well. Technology itself can not do anything. We need a skilled person to utilize it properly. It is created by human; human is not made by technology. I will go always for valuable option rather than materialistic option.

Incident-2: Gandhari, the wife of Dhritarashtra and the mother of Kauravas is a very interesting character from Mahabharat. Married to a blind man, she thought she should not enjoy any luxuries of life that are denied to her husband, and blinded her eyes with a cloth. The learning: Kauravas have only aggression, not calmness.

Kunti, the mother of Pandavas was always there for her children.

Learning for corporate life- In corporate language we can represent it in Yin-Yan concept. It includes each perspective like aggression and humbleness etc. One survey says that if a panel (Board Of Directors) includes female candidate then the possibility to get success automatically rises dramatically. This mindset is given by nature itself. In any decision everything should be included like competitiveness, passion, CSR (Corporate social responsibility), humbleness and amiability.

And one thing more, we should not blind ourselves after striking with any problem. We should fight against it or should take the right way to manage it.

Incident-3: Dhritarashtra (blind king and father of Duyrodhana) wanted to know every update of Mahabharat. Sanjay had the capability to see beyond limitation. He had supernatural eyes (Divya-Drishti). He used to tell whole scenario for Dhritarashtra.

Learning for corporate life- If you are CEO or Higher authority of any company. You need not to divulge in technicality so much. You just can outsource employee who can do it better than you. You need not to be a part of every micro point.

Incident-4: Cheer Haran of Draupadi was attempted in the court of Hastinapur and the witness to that were all the Pandavas and the Kauravas and other ministers and servants. Duryodhana, being inspired by his wicked uncle Sakuni, arranged for a game of dice between the Pandavas and the Kauravas and invited the five Pandavas to play. In the game, Yudhisthira lost everything including Draupadi.

Same incident in corporate- Phaneesh Murthy was the Head of the sales and marketing and Director on the board at “Infosys”. Reka Maximovitch (Reka) alleged that Phaneesh had sexually harassed her and unlawfully terminated her employment.

Learning- Mahabharata incident leads to the war and Infosys incident ruined brand equity all together. If you will not respect women then you don’t have any scope to get success.

Incident-5: Abhimanyu (Son of Arjun-Pandavas) learned the knowledge of entering the deadly and virtually impenetrable Chakravyuha from Arjuna as an unborn child in his mother's womb.  When he was about to explain how to exit from the Chakravyuha, he realises that Subadra is asleep and stops expounding on the Chakravyuha further. As a result, the baby Abhimanyu in the womb did not get a chance to learn how to come out of it.

He knew how to enter? But he did not know how to exit.

He fought and lost his life at a time of war.

Learning for corporate life- If you don’t know that how to tackle this software then don’t go for that although your competitors are doing that. If you are not comfortable with JAVA then be on DOT NET. I agree that Java has certain upgraded features which Dotnet doesn’t have. Take project according to your caliber so that you can manage all crises.

Incident-6: In Pandavas everybody has their own capability and they are known for it till date. Yudhishthira , Bhima &Arjun are known for truth , power & aim respectively.

Learning for corporate life- Earn in your strength. Don’t copy others. Everybody has his/her own strength and weakness.

Incident-7: In Gita Lord Krishna said that “Karma karo phal ki ikcha mat karo”

Learning for corporate life- “Try your best and leave the rest” It is my philosophy of life. It is thoroughly applicable in corporate.

"Gita Saar"

I tried my best to connect all dots as per my understanding.

But one thing I want to add that – “Competition is a good thing but envy or war is a bad idea. It will destroy everything for sure. Everybody will have to lose something. It is lose-lose situation although you may emerge as a winner.”