If someone less competent grows more because of shows off, how do we deal with that situation?

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See, if somebody is not that competent, but they are well connected, or they have connection with the managers and that is how they are getting more promotion or growing or they are basically, they are showing off and they are getting more than what they merit. So, how do we deal with this situation? See, in life, basically, whatever game we play, we have to understand the rules of that game. And by saying there are some spoken rules and there are some unspoken rules.

So, we cannot be naive. In this world, the material world is such that we may say, do not judge a book by its cover, but everybody judges the book by the cover, isn’t it? So, everybody looks at appearances. And that is why, if we are in a field where appearances are valued, then we have to play that game.

See, the Pandavas were virtuous and we can see the Kauravas were so vicious and in public, Duryodhana tried to dishonor and disrobe Draupadi. You know, after somebody does something so horrendous, the whole of society should be ostracizing such a person. But when eventually the war was supposed to happen, 11 Akshahunis supported Duryodhana.

Only 7 supported Yudhishthira. Were there so many evil people that they supported Duryodhana? Well, not entirely. What happened was, the Pandavas were disconnected from the world because they were in the forest.

And the Kauravas were connected with the Kshatriya world. There were always weddings and other events that they would attend. And Duryodhana told his side of the story.

We say, what is the side of the story that is there to tell over here? He did such a thing, something so terrible. But what he said was, he gave his own side of the story. He said that I didn’t force Duryodhana, Yudhishthira to gamble.

Yudhishthira gambled on his own. And he spun the whole story. Do you really think that a man who would put his own wife on stake should become the king of the world? He twisted completely around.

Says Yudhishthira is completely undeserving of being the king. Therefore, it will be a catastrophe if such a person becomes the king. And that is how he got so many supporters.

So, my point is, he set a particular narrative and people were won over by that narrative. So, if we are in a particular arena, we have to learn the rules of that arena. And just because we are good, now we can say good, there is good in terms of morality, but there is good also in terms of ability.

Ability to do what we are expected to do in that particular field. Now, of course, there have to be boundaries. If everybody in the office is doing politics and we say, I won’t be doing any politics at all, you might just get sidelined.

Now, politics, what does it mean? Politics could mean networking, politics could mean knowing who are the power groups over here and being aware and maintaining good relationships. Now, politics can mean also being backbiting and rumour mongering and there is a dirty side to politics. Now, we may not want to get involved in that.

But my point is that wherever we are, we need to recognise how things work over here. We cannot just change the system immediately. Maybe the way the system is working is bad right now.

But who can change the system? It is only somebody who rises to the top in the system, they can bring reform. Those who are at the bottom, unless they revolt, they are not going to bring any reform. So, in that sense, whatever is required, we need to do.

And it is true that people who have an attractive appearance and who have pleasing manners, that means you can just talk sweetly, they do get a big advantage in the world. But that does not mean that they are necessarily able to do good work. But that is the way life is.

We cannot change the nature, we have to work with that reality. We had a question? Thank you Prabhu for such a wonderful talk. So Prabhu, when