jabdakhata

Is Selflessness Practical? The selflessness of the business leader is also driven by another consideration. Any business model is a temporary endeavor. A temporary endeavor cannot result in a permanent or a lasting benefits, it can only cause a temporary outcome for all including the leader whose tenure is also temporary. Therefore for the sake of temporary gains if one puts ethics behind one would be having a long term personal integrity and reputation at stake. As Sri Krishna would have said in Gita -  akirtim chapi bhutani kathayishyanti te avyayam sambhavitasya chakirtir maranatatirichyate "People will say things of disrepute about you for eternity. Those who are of great repute, to them disrepute is worse than death" The leader who is selfless would never try to influence business outcome by following unrighteous means. In this case the leader is detached from the outcome and instead focuses on the means as well as compassionate enough to take ...

Ethics through the prism of “Selflessness” Project Management Institute (PMI) definition of ethics says that Ethics is the discipline of  “how to do it best.”   In Bhagavad Gita we surprisingly find a similarity  – “Work without attachment and desire is the art of doing things in the most efficient way”. By definition, the three components of ethics are: (a) Disposition - one's, customary manner of emotional response or temperament; (b) Character – moral strength, integrity, and fortitude; and (c) Attitude – a state of mind or feeling with regard to some matter. One or more of them are needed to comply with ethical norms and ensure successful business outcome and character is undoubtedly the most important one. But how are these components, esp. that of character, cultivated and inculcated? As discussed earlier, the key drivers behind unethical behaviors are fear, greed, weak monitoring (environmental) and passion. If we critically analyze we’ll fi...

Ethics is the backbone of leadership and forms one of the cornerstone of the philosophy behind good management. Ethics is not something which is rigidly defined. It has got a fairly flexible boundary and different project situations and even different cultural norms permit different ethical behavior. Therefore is there any thumb rule by which we can ensure ethical behavior under all circumstances? One of the key pillars in leadership is ethics and integrity. If we critically examine the term ethics in leadership context we find that it’s a term that is not very rigidly defined. It deals with the ideal behavior under different situations. Codes of ethics vary greatly in terms of the types of the activities and actions they cover and the degree of enforcement.   Wherever there is a conflict of interest there is a question of ethics and integrity. Broadly the key drivers for ethical problems are threefold – Fear, Greed and Passion. The first one is well known, fear is basically ...

It was left to Guru Nanaka and others to work out the philosophy of Vedanta on a practical level, but their work did not get universal acceptance. Instead they became sectarian and hence the broadness of the ideal did not get the necessary visibility. We’re fortunate to get a few selfless souls in the seventeenth and eighteenth century like Rani Bhavani in Bengal, Ahalya Bai Holkar in Maharastra and other exceptional people who took up service of living gods. But they were too few. Masses in general were submerged in great degree of ignorance and the advent of the new age found reaction in the form of social reform movements. Such reform movements wanted to cut the very roots, rather than cleansing the shrubs and growths around them. Uprooting the gigantic social tree was a Herculean tasks and hence these movements could not gain much traction, although they did help in paving the way for what was to come. Opening the gates of free and rational thinking was necessary before peop...

Service to mankind as a gesture of compassion is a hallmark of Christianity. The service is provided because this is what according to Christianity is expected of mankind by the father in the heaven. The service and compassion would also bring people closer to heaven and to Christ.  This was also the characteristics of Buddhism.  The notable difference between the two approaches is that Buddhists took up service merely for the sake of compassion and not for any heavenly rewards. However the concept of Seva that was formulated by Vedantic ideology and that was promoted by Swami Vivekananda in particular and few other great men in general, is very different from the concept of service. In ancient India “ishta purti” activities were undertaken as a sacrifice, in general desiring heaven by householders and royal sages. However there are instances where sages performed activities of services for the sake of it, because it was a social norm and best practice, because it was expect...

There is a certain Mr. Khan Who always blazes his gun He claimed one day In a vociferous way That assault on women is fun He justified his stance And did much song and dance Till the assaulters he supported were on run SHAME!!!

A lot of people on internet claims themselves to be liberal and yet I find that they are for or against some opinion or the other. That let me to think, what does the term liberal truly mean? Are all these folks “liberal” as the publicly claim themselves to be? Can we be liberal and yet unwilling to accept something? It does sound like an oxymoron. Liberalism by it very definition should mean respect for all, even hostile opinions and ideologies. The term Liberal is used in a very liberal sense. It should ideally mean an all-encompassing, all subscribing ideology that excludes none, has contempt for none and that is vast enough to assimilate and absorb even the meanest and vilest into its fold. That definition would certainly not fit our armchair liberals who are fighting a perceived battle with so called “intolerants”, “jingoist”, “nationalists” and others who do not share their opinion. It certainly does not mean those who use different yardsticks for judging one set of people ...

Not all are lost. There is still a sizeable proportion, notwithstanding the stance at the leadership and academia level, who eulogize Vivekananda and his ideologies and stand for it. Prof. Sankari Prasad Basu was one of the leading Vivekananda scholars, who did in India what Mary Louis Burke did in America, through his seven volume magnum opus Vivekananda and contemporary India (Bibekanda O Samakalin Bharatbarsha) and 2 volumes of Nivedita Lokamata on Sister Nivedita’s work and contribution towards Indian independence and Indian Renaissance. Other scholars, poets and literary figures include such names as poet Subramania Bharati, noted grammarian Suniti Kumar Chatterjee, historian Ramesh Chandra Majumdar, social activist Anna Hazare, social activist Begum Sufia Kamal, scientists Basishwar Sen and Satyendranath Bose, philosophers and leaders Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, C.R Rajagopalachary, and many other eminent persons, who did leave indelible imprints through their own work and in...

Here are some facts and figures. “CIC pulled up NCERT because it reduced the content on Swami Vivekananda and Netaji Subhas Bose in its history books. The content on Swami Vivekananda, which originally stood at 1,250 words in the Class 12 history books, has now been reduced to only 37 words. Additionally, in the history books of Class 8, mention of Vivekananda was removed from the syllabus altogether (indiatoday.in, Jan 2016). The CIC order also mentions 36 other Indian revolutionaries who played a part in the freedom struggle against the British rule, but have not been given space in the textbooks. 37 history book pages were reserved for cricket and the history of fabric. (ibid)” Seems like a joke, but this is alarming. And precisely this has kept happening with school, college and university education in the past 70 years. It had happened during British Raj, but then education was mostly in the hands of Nationalist leaders who, even while working under tremendous pressure from Brit...

Mary Louis Burke, also known as Sister Gargi, a nun of the Vedanta Society, who is better known for her painstaking labour of two decades on research and new discoveries on Swami Vivekananda in America and the consequent work in 6 volumes, once made a very important comment in her introduction to one of the editions of Swami Vivekananda, New Discoveries. She said that if India forgets the teachings of Vivekananda, she will do so at her own peril.  Incidentally the warning bugle was sounded a hundred years back by a noted revolutionary, Jatindranath Mukherjee, popularly called Bhagha Jatin. Jatindranath was one of the architects of an international conspiracy to wage an armed revolution against Britishrule taking the advantage of the first world war. He was one of the most dangerous men sought by British, but his activities were unknown and his audacious plan would have succeeded in rattling the empire had it not been for a treachery of a Chek spy in America. Jatin and his men...

Alexander the great has been widely acclaimed for his conquests throughout the world. Western historians who wanted to have their own hero deified him and greatly exaggerated some of his achievements, esp. his achievements in India have been inflated by some of the Western scholars and their Indian stalwarts based on dubious historical records maintained by Greeks and also derived from their fertile imagination based on their own sense of superiority. However some other accounts of contemporary history exists which gives a completely different account of Alexander’s conquests, esp. that in India. After defeating Darius of Persia, Alexander set his eyes on India. Magnificent stories of India were prevalent at that time, of her vast treasures and golds and the strange behavior and customs of the people living beyond Indus, whom the Persians called as Hindus (people living beyond Indus or Sindhu). The stories of the gold attracted the Macedonian king. It would greatly help him in ex...

The prevailing situation of disharmony and dissension seems to be one created by vested interests of all hues. Before India got independence British policy of divide and rule had firmly taken roots among political classes and the new leadership who saw its vast potential in furthering their own design. The divide and rule was exploited by opportunists who sought power over anything else. Policies were partisan, favoring one group over other, further creating chasm. Of late that division seems to have increased multi fold. Its not at all coincidence that more India is trying to shed its baggage of the past, more it is being highlighted as to how nefarious its record is in maintaining harmony. In fact India is being portrayed by media in the same league or perhaps worse than Pakistan, Russia, China, and Sub Saharan Africa in ethnic cleansing and human rights violation. Terrorists who are on the verge of hanging for their crimes or who are killed on the battlefield in a legitimate encou...

Education has a lot of positive connotation in our mind. When a find a person to be educated we're psychologically reassured about the credibility of a person. Higher the educational qualifications, higher is a person's credibility, so much so, that a Masters degree holder or an MBA from reputed institutes, a doctorate in science or literature or engineering, occupies a very high place in our mind. They are very bright prospects in job markets, always on demand in various fields including matrimonial alliances, and are assumed to be of impeccable character. But is education synonymous with character?  Of late we see that there are many cases in which educated youth are engaged in activities which are condemnable in the strongest term, like assault on women, murder, terrorism, drug peddling, robbery and many such heinous crimes, which shakes our faith in the country's education system. It leads us to question as to are we creating demons or men from the system that we ...

More I read about the character Yudhisthira in Mahabharata, more I am amazed. Perhaps everybody should read the entire Mahabharata atleast once in life just to know intimately about these characters and gain something from them. Its true that Yudhisthira had his weaknesses. He was probably  not a great warrior, was a bit addicted to gambling, although to be fair to him he was merely performing the dharma of a kshatriya by responding to the challenges of Shakuni. Also in Mahabharata war he was a late bloomer. He was defeated and disgraced by Karna who let him go thinking of his promise to mother Kunti, and he vented his frustration on Arjuna. By the grace of Sri Krishna Yudhisthira survived Arjuna's foolhardiness. That was the only instance in the entire Mahabharata where we saw him losing his cool. That was also the only situation where he expressed candidly his fear regarding the outcome of war, esp. the many sleepless nights he spent thinking about how to defeat Karna. However ...

One of the greatest assertions of this age is Jato Mat Tato Path (As many thoughts so many ways). Once we begin to think deeply on the meaning of this apparently harmless statement made by Sri Ramakrishna one hundred and fifty years back one gets amazed by the significance that it conveys and the immense possibilities if one actually wants to actualize this statement. This one statement has the potential of reconciling all differences, ensuring world peace and universal brotherhood in social and spiritual realm. But this one also holds immense potential in material life. The key here is respecting every opinion and thought without evaluating them at their face value and judging them by their merits without any prejudice. In this way apparently irreconcilable problems become reconcilable, and differences cease to exist. All differences stem from ego and selfish interests or conflict of interest. When I have a different opinion from others I would definitely like to think that mine one...

There is a vehement opposition in some quarters whenever there is a proposal to introduce or teach sanskrit at a school level. Some say its a dead language and there is no point in pursuing it further, others view it as a sinister attempt to impose upon non Hindus a legacy that is rooted in Hinduism. Still others say that it is too difficult for modern students. Others say that it has no practical value. And there are some who would interprete this as a political gameplan to deliberately make minorities feel unsafe and alienated. The question is, is it such a bad idea to revive a language which was long noted for its beauty and in which every other important language of the world finds some distant echo? Also from a pure utilitarian perspective, isn't it worth an attempt to see what jewels are there in store in our ancient and medieval literature most of which are infact written in sanskrit, rather than reading the vastly changed and often wrong English translations and therefo...

Swami Vivekananda stated in one lecture that the whole of creation is an undifferentiated mass of energy. There is no space for anything else outside the creation to be included in the creation. The entire creation will fall apart if an attempt is made to get any smallest particle from outside the creation (universe) to be put into the creation. The universe is like a pitcher filled to the brim and any mass not generated within creation, if placed within it will collapse the universe. This is because energy has filled the universe to its brim. Modern science proves that matter and energy are synonymous. Therefore universe is full of particles of matter and hence can be compared to one solidified mass. There cannot be any space left in a condensed solidified mass and any attempt to disrupt it will only result in its collapse. Circular Motion- Swamiji said that the linear motion is only apparently linear, but in actual practice all motions will take place in a perfect circle if the...

Swamiji discoursed eloquently on the following topics which were basically scientific thoughts based on spirituality. 1. Theory of Continuity: Swamiji claimed that the entire creation is a continuity, without any gap. The gross matter viewed by us has a subtle component and that subtle becomes subtler. In this way the subtlemost components intertwine with each other and thus form a continuous mass which ensures that we are all connected with each other. There is no discontinuity anywhere in this universe.  We must remember that this theory was discussed much before quantum mechanics came in picture and there was not even faintest idea about Higg;s Boson, Quantum consciousness and so on. The inter connectivity at various planes is the reason of our empathy for others and compassion for others, as on a subtler plane we are connected with others and thus perceive their pain. The greater is the ability of a person to take her mind to the subtle plane, greater is the ability of p...