On seeing prince Bharath coming towards them with a mammoth army, Lakshman assumed that Bharath is coming to wage a war against them. But Lord Ram rejected Lakshman’s emotional inference and instead convinced Lakshman against taking hasty decision giving rational logic.
There is another story where an emotional decision led to losing a very important war. This story is from the epic Mahabharatha. A new story:
One who did not fight the Kurukshetra War
It is widely believed that the kauravas lost their war against the pandavas mainly because two warriors who were expected to fight on their side decided not to fight the Kurukshetra war. Kauravas could have possibly won the war if these two would have fought for them.
Who were these two great warriors who changed the fortune for the kauravas. One was Balram and the other Vidura. Vidura was a great warrior, and a warrior would never shy away from fighting a war. ‘What made Vidura not to fight the war’?
Vidura was the intelligent minister and advisor to the Hastinapur king Dhritharasthtra. He was a great warrior too. He had a great weapon, his bow GOVARTHAN, gifted by Lord Vishnu. One who wields GOVARTHAN cannot be destroyed by any weapon, not even by Arjuna’s Gandiva. Bhishma, Karna and Dronacharya also had divine powers but Lord Krishna was aware of their vulnerabilities and Krishna built strategies to defeat them exploiting their vulnerabilities. But Krishna could not find any weakness with Vidura. He was worried about the arduous task of defeating Vidura in case he decides to fight for the kauravas. The opportunity to neutralize came during Krishna’s visit to Hastinapur for peace negotiation,
Duryodhana ensured a warm welcome for Krishna (extraordinary archery welcome from Karna) when he visited Hastinapur. Krishna preferred to stay at Vidura’s house as he was afraid of Duryodhana’s spies.
Why did Krishna decide to stay with Vidura? Apart from the fact that Vidura was a dependable devotee, Krishna used that opportunity to build a trap for Duryodana.
Duryodana was not happy with Vidura hosting Krishna and hence abused him with harsh words accusing him of being disloyal to the king in the peace negotiation the next day.
Dhritarashtra, Bhishma and all the elderly present at the king’s court were stunned. They tried to pacify Duryodhana, but he was violent and aggressive. He used the cruelest words against Vidura referring to his birth and said that his belly was depending on the royal food ofDuryodhana but his heart was beating with love for the pandavas.
Vidura was a wise man and remained patient until he heard Duryodhana abusing his mother. He burst out like a thunder, taking out his bow and arrow, aiming at Duryodhana.
Krishna cleverly intervened and played a trick. Turning towards Duryodhana, he said, “Do not provoke Vidura like this. If you do, he might break his bow and declare that he will not fight on your side”
Duryodhana, however, was still indignant and arrogant and said it did not matter if Vidura decided against fighting and that he can win the war without the support of Vidura.
Enraged Vidura was unable to digest further insult. He declared, “Krishna, you guided me on the right path and reminded me of my power of archery. I will fight no more.” Saying this, he strung his bow and broke it with a thunderous noise accompanied by a flash of lightning, Vidurathanked Krishna and walked out of the durbar.
Don’t lose valuable contribution from competent and intelligent Viduras in your team because of poor Emotional Intelligence.
What is Emotional Intelligence?
Emotional Intelligence is the ability to understand, appreciate and manage your feelings and emotions and that of others with whom you have a responsibility to relate.
Emotional Intelligence helps us express our emotions, develop and maintain relationships, cope with challenges, and make effective decisions. It has also been proven to be a key driver of job performance, effective leadership, success in life, and our overall well-being.
Research shows that successful leaders and superior performers, like Lord Ram, have well developed emotional intelligence skills. This makes it possible for them to work well with a wide variety of people and to respond effectively to the rapidly changing conditions in the business world.
Having learnt the importance of Emotional Intelligence, let us go back to Chitrakut.
Lord Ram refused to accept the request of his brother Bharath to return back to Ayodhya. Ram ordered Bharath to take over as the king and gave him very valuable advice on leadership then and there, Leadership deliberation in the forest! What a great ambience to learn few leadership lessons! Leadership lessons from Lord Ram comes in 100th sargam of Ayodhya Kandam. Is it incidental or specially designed by Valmiki to highlight the importance of Leadership skills. Let us first understand the leadership lessons from Lord Ram.
Corporate Governance in Classical Literature
‘Rules of governance’ have been adequately covered in both Ramayana and Mahabharatha.
Mahabharatha covers governance in three different places as espoused by three different luminaries. Vidura Neethi talks about the virtues of a good king. Yudhistra met his grandfather Bhishma in his deathbed to learn from him the principles of governance. This is known as Bhishma Neethi. Kanika is another counsel for the king Dhridharasthra and he advocated different set of governance guidelines to Dhridharashtra known as Kanika Neethi. Whilst Vidura Neethi and Bhishma Neethi are gospel truths, Kanika’s message is his interpretation of governance policies to suit to the interests of his boss ie Dhridharashtra!
Though these messages are essentially words of advice for ruling a kingdom, many of these are leadership lessons as well. Let us look at Rama’s advice to Bharatha in the backdrop of serene Chitrakut. Lots of advice. There are about 68 slokas of advice and it is not possible to cover all the 68 slokas here. I shall cover some important messages here.
Excessive Sleep – A disease
कच्चिन् निद्रा वशम् न एषि कच्चित् काले विबुध्यसे |
कच्चिन् च अपर रात्रिषु चिन्तयस्य् अर्थ नैपुणम् ||
2–100–17
Meaning – “I hope you do not fall a prey to excessive sleep and do wake up at appropriate time. I hope you contemplate about the adroitness of action when sleeping.”
This is line with a famous subhashitam (Good Morning Quotes) in sanmskritham.
काक चेष्टा बको ध्यानं, श्वान निद्रा तथैव च ।
अल्पहारी गृह त्यागी, विद्यार्थी पंच लक्षणं ॥
Meaning – Hard work like a crow, Concentration like a Crane, Alertness even during sleep like that of a Dog, Eating scantily and Staying away from comfort zones are the 5 essential qualities for a good student.
This subhashitam is for the students but these qualities apply for everyone.
Lot more leadership lessons from Lord Ram but in the next episode.
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