In our work environment, should we forgive our managers?

This is an AI-generated transcript and it might not be fully accurate:

So, if we are in a work environment, should we forgive our managers? See, it depends on when somebody does something hurtful. It could be because of various reasons. One is, it is because of ignorance.

That maybe when they gave us some disproportionate work, they didn’t know what we were going through in our life or how much time it would take. Or it could be because of incompetence. That maybe that person is in that role, but they don’t have that skill.

Now, it could also be because of malevolence. Malevolence is where they want to hurt us, where they just want to make our life miserable. Now, there are people who have malice or malevolence, but they are relatively rare.

So, in general, when there is hurtful behavior, hurtful action, the cause can be from any of these. So, as a matter of positive mental attitude, it is best to start with the least negative explanation for somebody’s actions. And that is the meaning of apaishunam.

The Bhagavad Gita says we have hurtful fault-finding towards others. That means, when they do something that hurts us, start with the least negative explanation. Maybe they just didn’t know how much work was involved or how much work I already had.

Or maybe they just had too much on their head and they didn’t think properly or they are just not capable of. Whoever they found, they just dumped some work on them. So, if it’s ignorance, then I think it should be communicated with them and just let the past go.

If it’s incompetence, then maybe, now, what can we do about it? It is that sometimes some people are just, they get or they are given roles that they are not equal to. Then maybe some ways, it’s not that they want to hurt us, but it’s just that they don’t have the skill. So, somehow we can respectfully but appropriately share their load and take off their head the things which they are not competent at.

Or somebody else can do that, then they are not a bad person. But malevolence, when it is there, that’s when it’s a serious problem. So, now, we could say Kaikeyi, she was not ignorant, but here was she incompetent? Incompetent in the sense that she did not understand that mantra had her own agenda and she got influenced by mantra.

Now, see, that’s the difference between the exile that the Kauravas were sent to and Ram was sent. See, Kaikeyi had nothing directly against Ram. She just wanted to protect her son’s interest.

She felt that if Ram goes out of the kingdom for 14 years, Bharat will be able to show his ability and he will win over the citizens and after that Ram comes back also, he will not be a threat to Ram, Bharat’s kingship. The Kauravas, they hated the Pandavas. And that’s why they gave the condition of 12 plus 1 years, one year of avyatvas.

And the idea was the Pandavas were so famous, it would be almost impossible for them to stay incognito. And he would surely find them and then send them again 12 plus 1 years. And that way he would keep them in the, see, he could have at the time of gambling match itself, he could have said that lifelong we will go to the forest.

But even the biggest, the worst pain is caused to others, not just by sentencing them to lifelong pain. It is by giving them hope and then smashing their hope. So, that was the sinister sadistic plan of Durlodhan.

So, that is where it has outlined malice over there. So, I think we have to observe what is the cause and then act appropriately. Okay.