Introduction to Gita leadership course, How the Bhagavad-gita is a guidebook for leaders

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So the Gita apart from its philosophical depth also has principles that can apply to all walks of life and we will be having 10 sutras based on the Bhagavad Gita, before that we will start today with an introduction of how the Gita is relevant for a leadership context and then from there we will move forward to discuss other things we will start with the sutras thereafter so the broad principle is that each of us we in the challenge of living we need as much as many resources as possible for moving ahead for doing the for making wise choices and for making the best that we can do in our lives so from that perspective let’s look at how the Gita addresses the issue of leadership broadly speaking the Gita’s overall mood is that every one of us is in a situation where we can maximise our contributions through the wisdom that we have and the more wisdom we can get whatever role we may be playing we can improve the role that we play so I will be using this as a powerpoint also as a whiteboard intermediately so today I will start with the introduction of how the Gita is relevant as a book for leadership so the Gita stimulates inner growth and then that’s the first point I will discuss and why inner growth is important that we will discuss when we will address the point of the essence of leadership and then the Gita has a talk between leaders and then the Gita’s approach to leadership and then based on that we will go to an overview of the ten sutras which we will thereafter start discussing so during this today’s session will be broadly in two or three parts depending on whether in the introduction the first sutra and second sutra we cover after each section we will be having some time for question answers and there will also be some exercises which I prefer if you the exercises you do in writing and then you share your reflections because writing stimulates deeper thinking we will have an exercise after each session also or in the course of each session let’s look at it one by one now so the Gita many think of it as a philosophical book some think of it as a religious book there are different ways of looking at the Gita and different thinkers when they have approached the Gita they have found different kinds of meanings in it so here Aldous Huxley is considered to be one of the most prominent modern intellectuals and he says that the Bhagavad Gita is the most systematic statement of spiritual evolution and it’s a statement of endowing value to mankind it is one of the most clear and comprehensive summaries of perennial philosophy ever read ever revealed hence it’s enduring value is subject not only to India but to all of humanity so he makes several points it’s universal in terms of geography it’s universal in terms of the content it’s perennial philosophy and it’s universal because it is systematic and spiritual so now when he talks about spiritual evolution now why does it matter in our lives why does it matter if we are playing the role of leaders because spiritual evolution is enables us to become our best to manifest everything that we are capable of becoming so the more we evolve evolution will discuss what it means basically but in a sense evolution means that many of us think of growth in terms of career growth ok I have this position and I will get that position leadership means we acquire bigger and bigger positions of influence that’s when we become leaders that’s one aspect of it a far more important thing for a leader is not just outer growth in terms of position but also inner growth in terms of maturity when we talk about leadership even contemporary thinkers acknowledge that leadership is not done best by pushing people so lighting a fire beneath them means that if somebody is sitting complacently you light a fire within them you threaten them and they feel so alarmed that they have to jump and do things that’s sometimes called the carrot and stick policy make people jump by giving them rewards or by threatening them with punishments so that is external motivation and that’s sometimes required however if a person evolves spiritually then they become motivated internally building a fire within fire within means it’s the fire of a noble aspiration a fire of wanting to do something worthwhile a fire of becoming everything that we can become so that inner fire is lit by spiritual evolution and we’ll talk about this inner fire later in terms of direct spiritual terms of purification and self actualisation but at this point even for a person to themselves become a leader or to inspire others to follow them so actually lighting a fire internally in terms of transforming oneself to become an inspiration that is critically important and then this brings us to a question it’s quite common that are leaders born or are leaders made that so this is called the nature versus nurture debate and this is there almost in every field of life especially in the field of leadership so are leaders born yes there’s one school of thought which says that yes that the qualities that are necessary for leadership they come genetically at birth that’s you could say genetic determinism another school of thought is no leaders are made qualities necessary for leadership can be developed by training and practise and it is this presumption that’s why we have schools of leadership and that’s why we have courses and we are having this also so if somebody is simply born and unless one is born with certain qualities if one cannot be a leader then there is no need to train or no use of training actually for others and now the reality as in many cases is somewhere in the middle that yes how we are born does make a difference and some people may have more talents than others they may have more qualities than others and if they have those qualities may give some people a head start over others but just because they have a head start that doesn’t mean that they cannot that others cannot catch up or that training and practise cannot improve them so everybody can benefit there is a starting point which will vary for different people depending on the qualities that they have but everybody can improve in their leadership skills now if you want to consider leadership broadly speaking there are two aspects of leadership there is public leadership and there is personal leadership so public leadership means how we lead others in the outer world and so qualities such as charisma and eloquence they that can help one they are important they can help one to lead others that’s public leadership now personal leadership is qualities such as self-awareness and self-mastery that enable one to subordinate one’s own impulses to one’s purposes so the idea here is that each one of us when we function qualities such as self-awareness and self-mastery that enable one to subordinate one’s own impulses to one’s purposes we’ll discuss about this now if we see in the Vedic context the word Maharaj is used for both of these things one is for somebody is a public leader one who can control others and lead others that’s a Kshatriya who is a king but the word Maharaj is also used for a person who has inner self mastery who is a personal leader and in today’s world also most people when they think of leadership they think of public leadership however we’ll talk in one of the future sessions in detail but if somebody is a public leader without having personal leadership abilities that means they don’t have self-awareness they don’t have self-mastery then they can abuse their powers terribly they can be manipulated by others and they can do far greater harm than ordinary people so public leadership is important in its own way but personal leadership is even more important so now when we talk about our leaders born or made so in the context of this public and private leadership what we understand is that some qualities like charisma and eloquence those certain abilities may be there from birth they may be more genetic and less developable for everyone but the qualities needed for personal leadership are actually developable for every single person in that sense each one of us can become a personal leader every one of us has the potential to grow and develop our self-awareness, develop our self-understanding our self-mastery and then whatever position of influence we have that we can use to a better degree we can use it more optimally and that brings us to the important point that leadership is not a matter of designation it is more a matter of disposition disposition means does one have an attitude to take responsibility does one have an attitude to do what it takes to set things right, some people might be appointed as leaders but if those leaders are negligent if they are irresponsible, if they are autocratic then they are not going to do much good they may do even a lot of harm so leadership is more a matter of disposition than of designation it’s more a matter of inner attitude and that’s where personal leadership is important personal leadership is the foundation of public leadership in the Greco-Roman tradition there is this story of the king called Nero so now we may have we may have a few decades ago when roms were common there was a Nero burning rom some kind of programmes were there that actually came from this king Nero and what is this this king was infamous he was so irresponsible that he was just ruling he was on the throne but all he was concerned was his own pleasure so there was a massive fire in his kingdom so the saying is that Nero fiddled while rom burned so he was the king of rom but he was fiddling he was playing a fiddle he was just having some music having some fun and his whole kingdom got burnt and eventually the consequences came upon him he had no kingdom he himself was destroyed when everything was destroyed around him so somebody who does not have personal leadership skills a person who does not understand how to take responsibility for oneself that person can’t take responsibility for others so in that sense anybody can become a boss as you can see in this image over here a boss just makes others do work but if that boss is not having the tendency to take responsibility oneself they cannot be a very inspiring leader they cannot be a very sustainable leader and a leader is not the one who sets one’s own example who has personal leadership skills who has self mastery and then they can demonstrate that to others now some of us may feel ok I am not a leader I have a small job or I am a housewife I am just a young person with some small career I am not a leader well if we have a holistic understanding of leadership the understanding is we all are leaders because what do ultimately leaders do if it is not a matter of simply being in a position it is a matter of influencing others so John Maxwell is a leadership consultant and he says that we all influence others far more than what we think we know broadly there are two categories of people introverts and extroverts so the difference between them is broadly speaking that introverts when they come to a party or a get together they come with a smile and they leave with a grim face when will this get over on the other hand extroverts they come to a party they may be upset about something they may come with a grim face but they will leave with a big smile on their face they love to be with people so generally we would associate leadership qualities with those who are extroverts they are outgoing they talk with people, they interact they can influence others more but what he is saying over here is that sociologists have found is even people who are introverted they are living in the world and each one of us is one unit in a network of relationships, network the network of society that we all are a part of and in this network we all influence others we influence each other simply by who we are and what we do so we influence people in our family we influence people in our professional circles in our office, in our workplace we influence people in our other social circles so influence doesn’t have to be spoken out loud aggressively even if there is a class going on and one person is sitting attentively and hearing a talk then everybody this is a person sitting attentively, others feel inspired on the other hand if one person is lethargic, distracted sleeping, others get put off by that so we radiate influence around us so in that sense we don’t have to be appointed leaders by someone else, this study of leadership is not necessarily for people who are officially appointed as leaders in particular positions but all of us do influence others, in that sense we all are leaders and of course in our homes we may be parents then we are leaders for our children so we are leaders in some way or the other so now we talk about personal leadership but the principle is a personal leader no longer remains a personal leader a personal leader influences others because just by being who they are they automatically influence others, so they may not have the position for public leadership but they do influence others now next point in our discussion that ok we got some basics about leadership right now personal leadership, public leadership so how is the Gita related with leadership the Gita is actually a talk between two leaders how is a talk between two leaders now of course within the tradition the Bhagavad Gita itself describes that Krishna is the supreme divinity come on the earth, simultaneously if you look at Krishna’s life trajectory he rose from obscurity and against adversity he is he was persecuted right from his birth, there was death threats out for him, not just death threats, you could say death warrants, death commissions and formidable people out to kill him and although he was born in an influential position he was, he had to be sneaked away just to survive so he rose against adversity he rose from obscurity Krishna’s coming from Vrindavan to Mathura is if you just think of it from the story perspective, it’s dramatic now here is this ten year old boy coming from a village for the first time to a city and he is able to overthrow one of the most terrible tyrants of those times and he became extremely powerful and yet significantly after Krishna showed that he was, one’s quality of leaders is, at least in that context was that, leaders have to be valiant, they have to be courageous, they have to be able to fight and overcome their opponents, so he overcame Kamsa but then even after that Krishna chose not to become the king so he was offered the position of royalty he was offered the royal throne by the Yadus and yet what did Krishna say? Krishna said, no this belongs to King Ugrasen Kamsa had unlawfully taken it from him so let us return it to him I will be his servant so Krishna was a leader but as a leader he chose not to have a position and despite not having a position that did not mean that he didn’t make a contribution he was among the most vigilant and vigorous protectors of the Yadus he protected them when they were in Mathura he protected them when they were in Dwarka so as a leader earlier I said leadership is more a matter of disposition than designation so Krishna himself is demonstrating that here how is he demonstrating it? by assuming the role of a leader without taking any of the privileges, without seeking the position of being the king so he kept contribution above position so the Gita is spoken by a leader and it is also spoken to a leader so Arjuna he was of course born in a royal dynasty the Kurus were one of the most powerful kings of those times and just by being in that position Arjuna had responsibilities of a leader but sometimes there are many people who grow in wealthy powerful, prosperous influential families but they don’t have any qualities so then it’s like sometimes by dynasty some people gain power but they are incompetent and they make a mess of things Arjuna was not like that he was born in a royal dynasty but he had virtuosity virtuosity can refer to more two things, it can refer to virtues it can also refer to expertise Arjuna had great virtues he had the virtues of discipline the virtues of self-mastery there are many incidents that demonstrate that when he resisted temptation, when he stuck to duty but also virtuosity also refers to expertise expertise means in one of the skills that are vital for a warrior for a leader in those times that is archery Arjuna excelled to become the top most archer so he was he was a champion among champions, there are many great archers but he was by far the best among all of them and in that sense the Gita is a discussion between two leaders it is one leader having a crisis asking another leader and the second leader is giving guidance, is giving inputs about how to deal with that crisis now when you talk about how does the Gita approach leadership so is the Gita listing out the duties of a leader not exactly the Gita has a very pragmatic approach to leadership leadership sometimes it can be made into a big abstract thing, there can be a mystique surrounding leadership well, if you want to demystify leadership, the essence of leadership is actually decision making leaders leaders are essentially people who make decisions for their team at critical times, they also set a vision they make a plan about how to pursue the vision so you could say a significant aspect of leadership is decision making Gita provides guidance for making sound decisions so sound decision means they are well reasoned, well executed and well motivated how do I analyse situations so that I can take a good decision, then how do I go about implementing the decision and most importantly, why am I taking that decision so that sound decision making is what the Gita teaches and this is what we will be discussing, so well reasoned well executed and most importantly well motivated so how does one take decisions that are sound, that is the core theme of the Bhagavad Gita and in that sense, it offers wisdom for all of us, because small or big, we all, whatever be our social roles, we all have to make decisions and the sounder decisions we make, the better, the brighter our future can be so the Gita doesn’t demystify leadership by putting it into some kind of mystique around it it simply focusses on decision making with this understanding let’s have a quick look at the leadership sutras 10 which we are going to discuss, so the first point is that a leader is a learner a leader never thinks that I know everything and for learning the Bhagavad Gita offers us a very important insight that it’s not just simply we are seeking to learn the universe is a university which is here to which exists to teach us which exists to help us learn so how to have that attitude of being a learner and how to maximise one’s learning that we will see from the Gita’s wisdom as well as the Gita’s setting then, now leadership is often equated with success who is a great leader? one who is successful in a company nowadays they make the company fortune 500 they get a lot of funds and they get a lot of mileage that’s true, that’s however only one aspect of success so when we are focussing, when we are dealing with situations, we need a more broader and deeper understanding of success so what does success mean? that redefinition, that’s what the Gita offers us at the second point then when we face problems when we face reversals when we face threats how can we stay calm at that time? we will talk about this, be concerned not disturbed, how the Gita’s self-understanding can help us to not become detached in the sense of becoming irresponsible but not to become so attached as to become start hyperventilating start breaking down because of emotions so be concerned not disturbed and then for that purpose before we can deal with external situations we need to deal with the inner provocations so what is the what is it that sometimes sabotages us from within? in that connection we will discuss mind the mind and then when we are functioning in the world there is a system if we work in a job, if we work anywhere there is a system of accountability so there is outer accountability where we are accountable to someone and somebody checks ok in this many hours what work did you do in that many hours what work did you do but rather than waiting for others to hold us accountable a leader is one who holds oneself accountable so assume accountability like assume leadership so assume leadership assume accountability so this is connected we will talk about how the principle of karma can apply in today’s corporate settings also and then we will talk about second set of five sutras these are word shape words watch your words our words play a vital role in our decision making and what those roles are and how we can optimise how we can optimise the use of words Bhagavad Gita gives some very sound guidance for maximising the potential of our speech we will discuss that then when we face problems it is one thing to be internally stable but second is how do we view the problems so life determines our problems we determine their size that’s the how our perspectives can affect what we deal with and then the Gita offers us a much more inspiring vision of work and it’s not that work is something we have to do to earn a living or work is something we do to become famous and all those could be purposes but a far deeper far more inspiring purpose is work as worship so this is often considered to be a teaching of the Gita but here you will see a difference it’s not work is worship but it’s work as worship so we will discuss the difference between the two in due course then retreat within to treat without sometimes we face overwhelming problems and at that time we need to have an inner source of strength so when we talk about inner evolution we need to know what is it that will help us evolve so what are the what are the shelters that we can go to when we face storms in the outer world so how to retreat within that we will be discussing and then finally the Gita gives us a vision that can a vision of the world as being ultimately motivated by love that can help us overcome the greatest of discouragements so never lose heart we may encounter failure we may have to give up certain avenues of pursuit but we don’t have to lose heart and this is not just a directive but the Gita actually gives us a vision by which we can avoid becoming so discouraged as we lose heart so these are the broad 10 sutras that we will be discussing as we move on this journey of leadership and by the end of this journey we will have equipped ourselves from the Gita to become far better personal leaders and thereby to become far better public leaders in whatever position or whatever role we may have or we may get in future so I will quickly summarise and then you can have some questions and then we will have some exercises also so first is I discussed today about how the Gita is a book how the Gita is a book which which is offering us guidance for leadership so in that connection started by when we talk about leadership what does it mean the Gita is a book of spiritual evolution that is about bringing out our best and real leaders are not just those who push people and force people by lighting a fire under them but those who light a fire within who inspire people to become their best and in that connection are leaders made or are they born so we discussed combination of both if you consider leadership as personal leadership and public leadership some of the virtues for qualities for public leadership may be inborn even they can be developed however the qualities for personal leadership they are far more developable for every one of us and even if we don’t have any official position for being a leader still each one of us is influencing others even introverted people influence about 10,000 people over their life course so in that sense we all are leaders and the Gita focus on personal leadership how by providing us guidance for decision making and the Gita is a book for leadership guidance because it is a discussion between two leaders Krishna is a leader who is in today’s term we could say a self made person he rose from obscurity and against adversity and then he had the opportunity but he didn’t take a position he just took the responsibility so leadership is a more matter of disposition than position and Arjuna was born in nobility but he also had great virtues and abilities by which he took a leadership position in his kingdom and then when we apply the Gita’s guidance as we take sounder decisions each of us can become a better leader so thank you very much are there any questions at this stage so what does the devotees can unmute themselves if they want to ask any question yeah so I have a question I can see a question here from Pranshu what is charisma well charisma basically it’s not a quality that is so easily definable but essentially it refers to a set of qualities that make people that make a person attractive to others not just physically attractive but a person who has some kind of mystical combination of qualities by which others are pulled toward that person others become captivated by that person so charisma is is a quality which say personal magnetism or charm it’s a quality that arouses enthusiasm and devotion toward that person among others ok so how to overcome the habit of becoming perfect let’s come to that in due course I think we will discuss that when we talk about redefining failure redefining success rather so there are a lot of questions which we will come to in due course karma and dharma are very important concepts when we talk about work as worship that’s the time when we will discuss this it is a gradual succession and how are we influenced by the qualities in others or what other qualities influence us well it depends each of us we are especially receptive to certain we are especially receptive to certain influences so depending on our upbringing depending on our psychophysical nature so it will vary which qualities will influence us most so it’s quite individual it’s not something which is universal so Hare Krishna Prabhuji Hare Krishna yes so Prabhuji but the Bhagavad Gita talks about bhakti and attaining Krishna then how can you say it talks about leadership ok good question so the Bhagavad Gita talks about attaining bhakti and attaining Krishna how does it talk about leadership there are broadly you could say different ways of approaching the Gita so when I say different ways what does it mean it means that every book is a set of statements the set of statements contain contain a set of values a set of teachings and they have a flow which leads from one conclusion which leads from point A to point B which leads people to become illuminated so now in the Bhagavad Gita itself Krishna gives a principle of reciprocity reciprocity means that as all people approach me so I reward them accordingly so if somebody comes to the Bhagavad Gita for learning about bhakti and Krishna that’s what Krishna will give it to them if somebody comes to the Bhagavad Gita to learn about Karma Yoga or how to work better in the world the Gita will give that kind of knowledge to them if somebody Prabhuji I got this question because I have attended your Bhakti Shastri course on Bhagavad Gita on YouTube and on that I could not see I could not see you explaining anything about leadership in the Bhagavad Gita and I cannot understand how can it talk about leadership because in the course I have attended Gaurang Darshan Das Prabhu course two times on Bhagavad Gita but he never said that it talks about leadership yes that’s a good point thank you for clarifying the context of your question yeah so I was answering that let me complete the answer that different people Krishna says as all people approach me I reward or reciprocate with them accordingly so depending on the consciousness depending on the intention with which a person is approaching Krishna can reveal different inputs to the person so yes now if he is going to study Bhakti Shastri there the topic is very clear it’s a course for those who are seriously interested in growing in Bhakti and for them we will present the Bhagavad Gita also in a way by which we learn about Bhakti the most so there the focus is very clear now does the Bhagavad Gita not have anything else to teach so we have this principle that somehow or the other fix the mind on Krishna so we have to know which level we are approaching the Gita at so if say let’s consider example of a temple now we say that we should have a relationship of pure devotion with Krishna that means we go to the temple so that we can learn how to love and serve Krishna but does that mean that anybody who doesn’t have that pure motivation should not be allowed to come to the temple not at all in fact if we see Prabhupada himself and not just Prabhupada before that within the tradition the temples were arranged in very gorgeous magnificent ways decoration was beautiful and the temple structure was imposing and what is the reason for that that even people who are materially minded they like to see big things like to see impressive things and then what happens they okay this temple is supposed to be architecture is so good this temple structure is so impressive let’s go and see it and somehow or the other they come to a temple now when they come to a temple they are not coming with a pure motive they are coming with a mundane motive but this is accommodating the principle whatever motive you have whatever way you can just connect with Krishna somehow or other fix the mind in Krishna so just as in a cultural way we accommodate people who come from different cultural interests so we don’t stop them from coming we facilitate them now we can have attractive architecture we can have attractive we can have impressive sizes and dimensions so now Krishna doesn’t need a huge temple Krishna has the biggest most impressive architecture in the spiritual world when we make these in this world it’s to attract people to come to and now we may say oh people are interested only in the architecture they are not interested in Krishna so let’s remove Krishna from the altar let’s hide Krishna and let people come and see the architecture and go if we do that that would be horrible disservice that would be offensive it is Krishna’s temple so people come for any motive but they get to see Krishna and they get to learn about Krishna so just as culturally we facilitate people who may not have the purest of motives for connecting with Krishna the same can apply with intellectually with respect to personal skills with respect to various avenues so if we consider the Bhagavad Gita itself to be like a temple then yes at the centre at the sanctum sanctorum the Gita is about Krishna and there is Gita is talking about how to become devoted to Krishna at the same time there are different ways in which one can approach Krishna and just as different spiritual leaders can come up with different kind of structures to attract people so in the Delhi temple we had animatronics exhibition now the Bhagavad Gita doesn’t talk about animatronics in the traditional temple there was no animatronics but a particular class of people who may not be attracted to come to see the deities they will come to see the animatronics and then they will get to see the deities also so the the resourcefulness of a tradition is seen by how it can open doors and create pathways for more and more people to come to that tradition so yes people are interested in the wisdom of in the wisdom of leadership the Gita gives guidelines for living the Gita gives guidelines for how to become more responsible, more self-aware develop greater self-mastery and that can help one to become a better leader so in fact Krishna directly is telling Arjuna that you have to act responsibly as a leader so that is at one level Krishna is telling Arjuna you are a leader therefore act responsibly as a leader because others will emulate you now if we extend that if you extend that principle as I explained in today’s class that each one of us is a leader in some way or the other each one of us is influencing others so then let us we are leaders in any way and if we can learn the wisdom of the Gita by which we can become better leaders we can influence others in a more positive way then that’s healthy that’s desirable and the idea is that when we are talking about leadership the leadership principle that are going to be drawn from the Gita are not mundane principles they are principles that may serve our mundane needs also but they are principles that will transform us internally that will help us to grow so that we naturally evolve spiritually so while gaining a better understanding of the Gita we also serve our needs in the outer world so the whole idea is that the Gita is a versatile book the Gita is an elastic book now that’s how people can people who are not interested in Krishna people who are not interested in Bhakti does that mean that for them they will never find anything in the Gita no the Gita has wisdom that speaks to everyone that is the meaning of that all people are on my path our doctor can read the Gita and if they actually read the Gita under the guidance of an expert Gita expert who also knows medicine and who knows Gita’s wisdom they can learn to become a better doctor by studying the Gita now we may be mothers we may be wives we may be daughters we may be having different roles the Gita doesn’t directly talk anything about motherhood or daughterhood or spousehood there is a word like that but by learning the Gita we can actually become better if we are a child whatever role we are in we can play that role better by learning the principles of the Gita so similarly we can become a better leader leadership is also a role in the world so in this way the Gita has an ultimate purpose for those who are not interested in the ultimate purpose the Gita doesn’t reject them the Gita accommodates them and provides them that is the inclusiveness and the reciprocity of the Gita so the scripture shouldn’t be used for fruitive purposes Prabhupada said yes if somebody is coming to just see the architecture of a temple and we think oh they are just coming for architecture so let’s cover Krishna up let’s not show Krishna over there because they will feel offended by that no if that is done that will be offensive on our part so we are going to talk about leadership we are not going to hide Krishna we are not going to deny Krishna’s teachings we are not going to deny the role of bhakti, the significance of bhakti in the Gita so it is important for us to show the relevance of the Gita even for people who don’t find it relevant so most of the presentations of the Gita which we have are for people who are either devotionally minded or devotionally inclined then the presentations of the Gita we have direct teaching of the Gita but at other times we can have a more inclusive teaching of the Gita for those whose spiritual interest has not yet been kindled ok Hare Krishna Prabhuji Thank you so much for your wonderful inspiring classes always I hear them Prabhuji my question is that certain service that we take up means that we have to take a role of a leader just to serve others so at that time sometimes what happens Prabhuji is that we lose confidence in ourselves we lose confidence and we feel oh I know I am supposed to serve but will I be able to do justice or will I come across will my message come across right just before we are supposed to give a class or a session so what can I tell myself Prabhuji just before the class at that point to how can I you know gain confidence sometimes this happens not always so what can I do to increase my confidence to serve better that’s true I think we will address this a little later especially when we talk about be concerned not disturbed and mind your mind but two things I would immediately say is that first thing is that when we are facing a particular situation generally fear apprehension or any kind of negative emotion comes up when that situation becomes too big in our mind if I want to speak to one person or two people I might not become nervous but I want to speak 20 people if I want to speak 200 people and nervousness will increase now we may say that situation actually is bigger yeah it is bigger situation but it’s how our mind perceives it when our mind makes the situation to be far so big I am so small how can I deal with this so when we learn to see that actually we are not responding to situations we are responding to our mind’s perception of the situations so that is a very critical difference and I will discuss about this more when we talk about the mind and when our mind’s perception situation is distorted then that creates negative emotions within us so ultimately even if I am talking with 20 people or 2 people or 200 people there is no mass of people there are individuals who are there just treat it as treat any big occasion as just a small occasion on a bigger podium so I am just talking to one person at a time and I look at the next person and I keep speaking so that is one way to avoid the situation from overwhelming us by remembering that in principle it’s just our mind making it too big second is to shift the focus this is where the Bhagavad Gita will talk about that principle will help a lot but that is where the Gita talks about how focus more on what the work is going to do for you inside then what the work is going to do outside that means in every situation we are in if we strive then we can be on the path of improvement we can be on the path of growth and the success of our work is not just what we do externally the very beautiful conclusion of the Gita is that Sanjay speaks the Gita to Dhritarashtra and Krishna speaks the Gita to Arjuna now Arjuna’s heart is transformed by hearing the Gita Dhritarashtra’s heart is not transformed by hearing the same Gita from Sanjay but the Gita describes that Sanjay is joyful why Sanjay is joyful because he is not focused on why is Dhritarashtra not convinced, why is Dhritarashtra not understanding he is focused on remembering the message of Krishna, remembering the form of Krishna and he has become more internally connected and that’s how he is successful so external success is not in our control and sometimes it will come, sometimes it will not come if we try our best we increase the probability of that success but the Gita helps us to see that the internal success is far more consequential, far more enduring and that is always in our hand, that’s up to us okay thank you so much Hare Krishna yes Krishna Hare Krishna Babuji, Babuji thank you for the very wonderful leadership sutras my question was that I have been a leader in the past and I have made many mistakes being a leader as well, this is just I am confessing actually now because of the past experiences as a leader where I have made some mistakes now when I come to a new place when I am actually shifted to a new place over here, now I am very very sceptical about actually taking leadership position thinking that what if I redo those mistakes again secondly is that what if I do new mistakes and this is the only reason that from past 4-5 years I haven’t taken up any leadership position over here just being scared that I might make mistakes and this will basically we want to help people and not yeah so if we have had if you have had bad experiences as a leader in the past and that may stop us from moving forward now yes that’s why when we discuss the second sutra of redefining success we will discuss more about this at that time but again suffice it to say that one key principle the Gita says is that when we don’t get when what we call as failure we see it as feedback not as failure ok that means I expected a particular result not that I didn’t get any result I got a result different from what I sought so what can I learn from this so in one sense the Gita’s teaching that we at our core are spiritual we are different from our physical situations now that gives us a greater level of objectivity to deal with our situations so then we can look at it as maybe like a social scientist or a sociologist ok they were in this situation and this time this person succeeded and this person didn’t succeed so why did that happen so sometimes it could be because some things which we could have done right and maybe at that time we were not thoughtful enough or we did not know enough, we did not have enough knowledge we did not have enough skills that’s why we didn’t do it right in future we could do it right sometimes it may be because we were put in roles that we were just not compatible for and that’s why we didn’t do it maybe that role is not meant for us now leadership can also be in different areas so it is not that only Kshatriyas are leaders even among the Vaishyas there is a hierarchy of Vaishyas and among Vaishyas there are leaders among Shudras also there are leaders among Brahmanas, Brahmanas are intrinsically leaders for society but even among Brahmanas there are leaders so even among leadership roles we may be more suited for certain kind of roles and less suited for certain kind of roles so basically we have to see whether the failure was because of inability or incompatibility if it is inability then maybe I can work on that inability if it is because of incompatibility this is just not my kind of work then the Gita also helps us to understand that we are finite beings, we are not God so we may not be perfect at everything and we accept that and then we focus on the area that we are better at so we will discuss this more in the session on redefine success thank you Prabhuji thank you very much there are several questions now in the chat box also I will take one more question directly related with this topic and then we will move to the next session so in today’s world they say that personal leadership doesn’t matter, I see only public leadership that matters well I am not too sure about that see some things the value we realise when they are absent that means if you see some of the biggest corporate disasters that happened whether we consider the collapse of the Andron scandal or India Satyam computers or whether we consider the 2007 recession it all began with leaders lacking personal integrity so because of that they tried to make quick money and they caused big disaster for their entire company so yes, in terms of social visibility it is public leadership that matters that’s what is seen the most, somebody has charisma somebody has eloquence, somebody draws people and when they enter into a room, heads turn and pay attention to them, that is the kind of leaders who seem to have a lot of power, that’s in terms of visibility however leadership is not just a matter of visibility leadership is also a matter of sustainability that a person may have a great amount of success for a short while but they will collapse later, if they don’t have values that will sustain them, so when you talk about personal leadership, personal leadership it may be a gradual way to significant influence it may not happen as dramatically as if somebody has public leadership qualities but if somebody is consistent, somebody is disciplined, somebody is self-aware, then gradually incrementally they will rise, it may not be a dramatic rise but those dramatic rises can sometimes be like comets, you rise up and then you come down so that’s why it’s important to recognise that personal leadership is the foundation for public leadership in the visibility in social visibility, yes public leaders are those who matter but in terms of sustainability it is personal leadership that makes any kind of public leadership sustainable so there are several questions in general about leadership which will be addressed in our future sessions so here before we go to the next session we are a little short of time but what we will do is, I’ll give two exercises one for today and one for this sutra and the other for the next sutra and we can when we meet next time if you could reflect on this, write something on this and then we’ll start the next section with your reflections about it so I’ll send this reflection by writing also to you but the reflection which we’ll discuss based on this chapter is that, have you ever experienced the importance of personal leadership in a leader around you, somebody might be the presence of personal leadership was important or the absence of personal leadership was important, important in the negative sense or important in the positive sense if it is present, so we all notice public leadership but have you had any experiences that personal leadership made a significant difference, so we’ll send this question writing to you after the session but there will be some thoughtful reflection