How is the Gita relevant to the present day leaders – Chaitanya Charan

Transcript

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So how is the Gita related with leadership? The Gita is actually a talk between two leaders How is it 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 are 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 if you just think of it from the story perspective it’s dramatic now here is this 10 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 lawfully 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 Krishna earlier 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 time 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 now virtuosity can refer to both it can refer to virtues it can also refer to expertise Arjuna had great virtues he had virtues of discipline virtues of self-mastery many incidents 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 were 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