LEAD acronym – 4 Leadership Sutras from Bhagavad-gita

[Talk to managers at GIT auditorium, Belgaum, India]

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Jai Krishna. I’ll just get the computer here for a minute. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Okay, good. Thank you. Sorry about that.
So I have a book on Ten Leadership Sutras from the Bhagavad Gita out of which I’ll speak four today. And they’ll be centred on this acronym LEAD. L-E-A-D.
So I’ll take four points. Learning, expanding, appreciating and determining. We all are leaders in our own capacities.
Whoever it may be, right from our childhood, we’ll see some children become leaders, others follow them. Somebody will become class monitor. Somebody may become sports team leader.
And even if no one, even if a person never takes up a leadership position, just by living in the world, we influence others. C.S. Maxwell is a leadership consultant and he quotes that even the most introverted person in the course of their life affects between a thousand to ten thousand people. So leadership is not just a matter of designation.
It is a matter of disposition. We may or may not be appointed as leaders. But we all do influence others in small or big ways.
And if we have the disposition of leadership, then the designation will follow sooner or later. And even if it doesn’t follow, still we will be doing the contribution that a leader can do. If we have the disposition of a leader.
And how can the Bhagavad Gita offer us some guidance for leadership? Because the Bhagavad Gita itself is a book between two leaders. Arjuna and Krishna are the two conversants. Arjuna was a member of the royal family, the foremost archer of his times and both by lineage and by merit he was a leader.
Krishna of course the tradition considers him to be God but at the same time while he was descended in the world, he was what we could call a self-made leader. He was born at the thrust of a conspiracy because of which he had to be secreted away and he lived in obscurity in a pastoral village. And then by his resourcefulness he overthrew the tyrant who had imprisoned his parents and then he instead of taking the kingship himself restored it to his grandfather.
So Krishna although he established himself to be the most powerful warrior of his times but he never took up the position of kingship. Krishna demonstrated through his example of how one can make contribution without seeking designation. So Krishna was always a leader but he never took the designation of a king.
And the Bhagavad Gita is a discussion between two leaders. And leadership has many aspects to it. The most fundamental, the most decisive aspect of leadership is decision making.
Decision making can be with respect to visual casting, it can be execute, with respect to executing, it can be with respect to course adjusting when circumstances change. So we are all, if we look back at our lives, we are all determined by the decisions that we made, the choices that we made. And for leaders this is even more consequential because their decisions affect not just one or two people, it can affect hundreds, thousands or even millions.
Now the Bhagavad Gita is about decision making. Arjuna is faced with the prospect of a devastating war against his own family members. And he thinks, how can I fight against them? Thinking thus he becomes confused.
And Krishna doesn’t just give Arjuna a simple instruction, fight. Krishna actually gives Arjuna not just a decision but the framework for decision making. Arjuna’s question at the start of the Bhagavad Gita is also not about should I fight or should I not fight? He asks in 2nd chapter 7th verse of the Bhagavad Gita प्रिज्जामितों धर्मसं मूडः जेता He says, I am bewildered and I ask you, what is dharma? Now the word dharma sometimes is translated as religion.
That is one understanding of dharma. The word dharma essentially, if you look at it etymologically, it comes from the root dhru, which means to sustain. So dharma is that activity which sustains our existence.
Which helps us to act according to our nature. So when seen in this inclusive way all search for knowledge is a search for dharma. Even science is actually a search for dharma.
Dharma is not just religion. Dharma is the order of nature. The innate characteristic of nature that keeps things in their orderly position.
So science, when Newton saw the fruit falling just a few months ago I was in London, I was invited to Cambridge University to give a talk on science and spirituality. So along the way I passed by the tree where Newton is said to have seen the fruit falling. Of course it is not that same tree.
It’s most likely a descendant of that tree. But that place is like a pilgrimage place for scientifically minded people. And now if you look at Newton, millions of people have seen fruits falling.
What distinguished Newton was, he asked the question what made this fruit fall? What is the natural order of things because of which this fruit falls? And it was his brilliance that he came up with the answer and postulated the theory of gravity. But more significant is the question. The question was a search for the natural order of things.
So similarly the Bhagavad Gita starts when Arjuna is asking what is Dharma? He is asking what is the natural order of things? What is it that I am meant to do? What is the role that I am meant to play? Not just on this battlefield but in life at large. So the Bhagavad Gita is about universal questions. And Arjuna exhibits this mood of learning at the start of the Gita.
And learning isn’t just should I fight or should I not fight? What is the basis on which we make decisions? And Krishna also as an expert teacher transforms Yeah, go ahead. We need to learn to learn from life. So what the Bhagavad Gita certainly demonstrates is that the universe is like a university.
That means every situation that we face is an opportunity to learn. Often our academic education focusses on helping us to learn facts, figures. It’s important for whatever profession we are doing.
But we also need life skills. How to respond to different situations where life stands our way. And that is not learned in a classroom.
That is learned in life. So the whole universe is like a university where we all can learn. And the Bhagavad Gita is describing a historical incident that took place thousands of years ago.
But it is also describing something more. It also represents what can happen in our own hearts. So just as Arjuna learned from Krishna, so similarly we all can learn through life.
Now there is the Bhagavad Gita explains that there is a manifestation of the Divine within the hearts of all of us. In fact many of the greatest inspirations that have led to some of the most dramatic breakthroughs in science, they have happened through inspiration. And inspiration refers to a moment of insight when a person just gets the answer.
It is not that the person is thinking, thinking, thinking. One, two, three, four, five steps. Suddenly the answer comes up.
So since classical times of Greek, we have the example of Archimedes. He got a Eureka moment of all places when he was bathing. Just insight came to him.
So there is an inner guide within us who is supremely wise and whatever we face in our life, we can learn if we have that open minded vision. So when we strive to learn from life, the Bhagavad Gita demonstrates great improvisation. Nowadays in the field of education there is a lot of emphasis on experiential learning.
Don’t just teach by giving talks, but give experiences. The Bhagavad Gita itself is a model of experiential learning. Krishna and Arjuna were present in a battlefield and Krishna by his expert presentation and his profound presence, by his presence and presentation transformed the battlefield into a classroom and there he gave instructions.
There he shared wisdom that has illumined millions of people for millennia. So the Bhagavad Gita’s setting demonstrates that there is no restriction for learning. Arjuna is a leader who is ready to learn right in the middle of the battlefield and Krishna is a leader who is ready to teach right in the middle of the battlefield.
There can be few situations which demand as urgent action as a battlefield. Arjuna and Krishna demonstrate the universality of the principle of learning. If we cultivate this disposition of learning then whatever situation we go through in life the situation will come, the situation will go, the problems will come, the problems will go.
But if we have a disposition of learning then we will find ourselves growing internally. We will not just go through life but we will grow through life. We will grow in wisdom, we will grow in insight.
We will grow in our inner capacity to improvise and implement based on what we have learned. So the first characteristic of a leader which the Bhagavad Gita demonstrates right from the setting and its starting context is learning. And the best leaders are actually the best learners.
They learn and then they apply. That’s how they are able to lead others. Go ahead.
The next is expanding. So now normally when we talk about expanding we may think about if I have a company, I would expand my company. I have a college, I would expand.
I have a new branch, a new expansion of my college. We talk of expansion primarily in terms of externals. Yes, external expansion is important.
But external expansion needs to be founded on inner expansion. It’s like if we build a big building and we don’t have very strong foundation for it, then the building may grow a lot but if storms come the building may collapse. If some weathering happens, the building may not have the foundation to sustain it.
So Einstein said that strive not to become a man of success, strive to become a man of value. When we grow internally, when we develop the values that sustain growth, then automatically the externals follow. So the Bhagavad Gita doesn’t talk, although Arjuna is about to fight a war, the Bhagavad Gita does not talk with Arjuna about any martial skills.
How to fight with this enemy, which weapon to use, nothing like that. Although Arjuna is an archer and he has to fight a war, the Bhagavad Gita focusses on Arjuna’s inner development, expanding his conceptions. So what is the expansion of conceptions? We talk about expansion of our conception of ourselves and the work we are doing, the success that we are meant to achieve in our life.
Go ahead. The Bhagavad Gita’s first lesson is that our destiny is bigger than our biology. That means that we are not just our bodies.
The body is the external vehicle that we have and inside the body we are spiritual beings. The Bhagavad Gita refers to this by the word Atma. Now, we may wonder, how does this make a difference? Whether I am the body, whether I am the soul, how does it make a difference? The difference it makes is in terms of how we perceive life.
And, we can see life either as a 100-metre sprint or we can see life as a 100-kilometre marathon. If we see life as a sprint, 100 metres, we just run as fast as we can, 100 metres, and then either we win or we lose. And it’s all over by then.
And that’s how many people live life. They just burn themselves out trying to achieve one thing or this thing or that thing, and then they may achieve it, but then it’s completely become drained. Many people in their youth they lose their health to gain wealth.
Let’s take a very stressful excessive work. Hard work is good, but hard work is different from workaholism. Workaholism is actually compulsive obsessive work.
Cancer is basically growth, but it is growth that is disproportionate and therefore destructive. The cells are growing in the body, but normally there should be proportionate growth. All parts of the body go proportionately, then the body grows properly.
But cancer means one cell or one set of cells grows so disproportionately that they start destroying other aspects of the body and ultimately destroy the body itself if they are not checked. So if we don’t have an expansive and inclusive conception of life, then we focus on one aspect, and we may grow in that, but that growth will be cancerous. So for example, some people become workaholics, and they just work, work, work, work, but they neglect their families, they neglect their health, and sometimes while being workaholics they just become obsessive about money, and they gain money, but in the process they lose their morality, they lose their ethics, they lose the overall picture of life.
And we may become successful in one area of life, but if that growth is disproportionate, then it doesn’t lead to satisfaction. The success in one area of life cannot compensate for failure in another area. Somebody may be a brilliant achiever in their work, in their office, but if they neglected their family, and their family is in shambles, their spouse is about to leave them, their children have become derelict, their children have bought into drugs, then what is the meaning of that success? So the Bhagavad Gita expands our conception of who we are and what we are meant to do.
So just as success in professional life cannot compensate for failure in family life, similarly the Bhagavad Gita says we have a material side and a spiritual side. Satisfaction, success in material side alone cannot compensate for failure on our spiritual side. What does failure on the spiritual side mean? Our spiritual side determines our inspiration, our motivation.
What are we working for? A few years ago I was at a United Nations, UNESCO conference on mental health and spirituality. And there the UNESCO delegate was the chief of all of India. He was speaking and he said that actually more than one million people commit suicide every year.
This figure one million means that one person commits suicide every 40 seconds. And that means since we started this talk, almost 40 people have already committed suicide. This figure of one million is actually more than the number of annual deaths due to murders and wars combined together.
More than the number of people who are being killed by others are the number of people who are killing themselves. The WHO says that suicide is a tragic social health problem. And suicide can have many specific causes which need to be addressed.
But at a fundamental level underlying universal cause is frustration. When we do not have expansive conception of life when our conception of life becomes reduced to one thing. So if I think my career is everything and if I lose my career, who am I? What am I living for? If I consider that my bank balance is everything and I lose my bank balance what am I living for? If I consider that my spouse, my lover that is everything and if that person leaves me what am I living for? So now all these things our career, our bank balance our relationships, all these are important.
But they are aspects of our life. When we make one aspect of our life into everything we have not an expansive conception of life we have a reductive conception of life. And this reductive conception of life, when there is frustration then life itself is no longer worth living.
And then suicide seems to be preferable to living. So when I talk about expansive conception of life, the Bhagavad Gita offers us a magnificently expansive conception. It tells us that we are bigger than our bodies.
We are spiritual beings. We are souls who are on a multi-life journey of spiritual evolution. And so our spiritual evolution is like a 100 km marathon.
We will face ups and downs in life but all these ups and downs in life are like laps. In a marathon, a person may go through many laps. In one lap, somebody may be ahead.
In another lap, somebody else might be ahead. It doesn’t matter. In the long run, we all can keep moving forward.
So this big picture of life, when we get then we don’t get so much affected by the small ups and downs of life. So another example one of the consistent teachings of the Bhagavad Gita is don’t be affected by life’s ups and downs. The Bhagavad Gita says that don’t be too elated when you get success and don’t be too rejected when you get failure.
What can you do? Be situated in spiritual knowledge and by this stay calm. So how does this work? One of the most commonly quoted verses in the Bhagavad Gita is karmanye vadika raste ma phaleshu pradachana. It says you have a right to do your work but do not be attached to the results.
Now most of us may think, it is the results that inspired me to work. So how can I work if I am detached from results? Students think, oh I’ll get, I’ll get, I’ll come first in my class, I’ll get this job in this company or as faculty members you may think, you know, I’ll become the HOD, I’ll get a promotion, I’ll get a pay raise. So, isn’t that how can, if we are detached then how can we work? Actually the Bhagavad Gita is very careful in what it is teaching.
There are goals and there are results. The Bhagavad Gita is not telling us don’t set goals. The Bhagavad Gita is telling us don’t be attached to results.
What is the difference between goals and results? Goals are what we set before we do the work. Results are what we get after we have done the work. So, setting goals it inspires us to offer our best.
And in the Kurukshetra war that happened after the Bhagavad Gita was spoken, Arjuna would every day set goals. So, the Bhagavad Gita is not against goal setting. Now, when we set goals we are able to concentrate our energy.
This is what I want to achieve and I’ll focus on it. So, goal setting is fine. Now, results are what come after the work has been done.
One of the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita is that the results themselves are not in our hands alone. The same 2.47 in the Bhagavad Gita has two further parts which most people don’t talk about. That is, you alone are not the cause of your results.
So, how are we not the cause of our results? I’ll give an example to illustrate this. Consider a farmer. A farmer what is the result of a good harvest? The Bhagavad Gita explains that the phala, the result that we get, it involves three factors.
That is karma, that is daiva, that is kala. And then, these three lead to the phala. Karma plus daiva plus kala leads to phala.
So, daiva means destiny, karma is our duty, our execution of our duty. Kala is the passage of time. So, consider from the farmer’s example, the farmer has the duty to plough the field and to sow the seeds.
That is the karma, that is the duty of the farmer. And that is what is in the farmer’s hands. Now, the daiva is the rainfall.
The rains coming at the right time in the adequate quantity. That is essential, but that is not in the farmer’s hands. So, when the karma and the daiva come together, then after that, there is the kala.
Even when the rains come, it’s not the harvest comes immediately. There is the passage of time. The harvesting season comes and then the crops come up.
At that time, the farmer gets the phala. So, karma plus daiva plus kala leads to phala. And the Bhagavad Gita is telling that karmanye vadhikar asti.
What is in our control is our karma. Sometimes we may do our best and still the results may not come. Because factors beyond our control shape the results.
Now, India is a cricket mad country. And sports are determined by performances. The batsmen have to bat well, the bowlers have to bowl well.
But even sports players know that there is something more than their performance that determines the results. Now, in the recent times, among the most tough cricket teams of Australia, infamous for sledging, beating down their opponents, and yet some of the best cricketers in Australia had their own superstitions. So, for example, there was an Australian batsman, Mark Taylor.
Whenever he would go out for batting, he would first go to the washroom in the pavilion and shut down all the lids of the commodes. And then he would go out to bat. And if he got out early, before going to the pavilion, he would go to the restroom.
If any commode lids would be open, he would go and blast his team members. Why did you keep this open? Because of this, I got out. This is ridiculous.
What has the commode lids being open or closed got to do with his batting? It’s got nothing to do. But basically, he understands that there’s something unknown beyond me that shapes the results. And in his own quirky way, he’s trying to satisfy that unknown.
Steve Waugh was Australian captain and he would always have a red handkerchief in his pocket. About one-third coming out of the pocket, two-third inside the pocket. And he would consider that as a good luck charm.
He’s a very good fielder. Sometimes if you drop a catch, he would not look at the ball. He would look, have I dropped the handkerchief? How did I drop the catch? So, what is happening over here, he, not just these two cricketers, sports players all over the world have their superstitions.
Now, what is the point over here? They understand that performance matters but performance is not all that matters. There is something more that matters. And that they may not know exactly what it is.
Bhagavad Gita explains that that is destiny. So, karma, daiva, kala, together lead to fallow. And we also, if we become attached to results, then sometimes the results are just not in our control.
Now, we may do very well in an exam, study very well, do very well in the exam, but suppose in that particular period there are many other students who do very well and the results are based on a percentile system. Other year we might have been a topper but now we might just be among the top 50 or top 100. So, there are factors beyond our control which shape the results.
And, by acknowledging this, we can avoid blaming ourselves unnecessarily. Sometimes when results don’t come about, we might just beat ourselves up. You know, I am good for nothing.
I am useless. I am worthless. One of the main reasons why people develop inferiority complex, suffer from depression, succumb to addictions and eventually consider suicide is because they are unable to take failures gracefully.
What does taking failures gracefully mean? It means that we accept a failure without beating ourselves down. Did I do anything wrong? If I did something, I learn from it and move on. But, when we don’t recognise Dayua and Kaala as factors in determining Fala, then what happens? We think we and we alone are responsible for the failure.
And then failure doesn’t just remain an event, it becomes a person. I think that I am good for nothing. Some people say, I am unlucky.
My destiny is rotten. No, destiny is not rotten. Destiny goes through different phases.
Sometimes we may work and results may not come. Sometimes we may do little work and still everything else clicks very nicely and we get good results. So, in the long run, life evens out.
But, when we don’t acknowledge the role of destiny, then we either become excessively elated when there is success or we become excessively shattered when there is failure. So, the Bhagavad Gita is telling us, by situating yourself in spiritual knowledge, expand your conception of work. Expand your conception of success.
So, now from this perspective, what is the difference between goals and results? The Bhagavad Gita is not against setting goals. It is against being attached to results. Setting goals inspires us to put in our best, to do our karma, to do our endeavour the best that we can.
But attachment to results makes us obsess on something that is not in our control. The results are determined by Daiva and Kaala also. And the more we become attached to something that is not in our control, the more we feel disempowered.
The more we feel distressed. And that’s how being detached from results is actually empowering. This was one work which I wanted to do.
I do it wholeheartedly and then I move on. I have done my part. Now if Daiva and Kaala will work, will be favourable, I’ll get the result.
If I don’t, I’ll move on to the next thing. So, whatever we are doing, we can do wholeheartedly if we have this strength of detachment. If we are attached, then we are doing one thing, but our mind is caught.
Oh, I did that. Will the result come or not? Oh, I’m going to do that. What is going to happen about that? And that way we can’t focus.
So, in this way, by expanding our conception of work, expanding our conception of success, the Bhagavad Gita says that we work as a worship. Work as a worship means? So, by working in the mood of worship, we can all attain perfection. So, the Bhagavad Gita is not saying work itself is worship.
We can work in a mood of worship. It’s a mood which we have to conscientiously cultivate. If work itself were worship, then the donkey would be the greatest worshipper.
Donkey works so hard. Now, work can be made into worship by infusing it with philosophical understanding, with devotional mood. So, the success can be seen in various terms.
As I said, there is internal success and there is external success. There is building of the foundation and there is the superstructure which comes. So, the Bhagavad Gita says that whatever we do, if we do it in a mood of service, in a mood of contribution, in a mood of worship, then we are successful in the eyes of God.
And that is the success that we will be enduring. That is the success which will grant inner satisfaction. We will become very successful externally.
But if we are not internally satisfied, we will never be satisfied. Since my childhood, my life’s goal was I wanted to be a topper. And I was always among the toppers but I was never the topper.
I was second, I was third, I was joint first, but I was never the first. So, finally when I came GRE, at that time, I loved English since my childhood. And mostly Indians struggle in English.
Maths and general aptitude is not a problem. So, I did very well. I got 2350 out of 2400.
And I was not just first in my college. I was first in the whole university, in the whole state. I was first in the entire history of my college.
And I thought, now I am successful. Now I will be happy. And yes, I was elated for some time.
But after that, there is no joy in looking at the mark sheet. Oh, I got 2350. And the joy comes when somebody comes and congratulates, appreciates.
And then, one of my friends, it is just known to everyone that I got so well, that he just forgot to congratulate me. And it happened once, it happened twice, it happened third time. And then when this happened, I got so agitated.
Initially, I was agitated. Why is this person not congratulating me? But, after it happened the third time, I became a little more introspective. And it struck me that actually this achievement has not made me happy.
It has made me more dependent for my happiness on others. Now earlier, I could just meet with others, talk with them and have some fruitful interactions. Now when I meet with someone, I am so expectant.
This person should congratulate me. And if this person doesn’t congratulate me, I am agitated. So, I thought in the future, I can give another exam.
I can crack that exam. I can go to America. I can go here.
I can go there. But, through it all, I will always be dependent on something for validation, for appreciation, for felicitation. And there is nothing wrong in wanting appreciation and getting appreciation if we have done something worthwhile.
But, what struck me was the dependence. Where is the satisfaction? So, it was at that time, I started looking for something higher. And when I learned about the Bhagavad Gita, and there, the Bhagavad Gita talks about spiritual satisfaction.
In the sixth chapter, verse 22-23, it talks about what is real achievement. It says, It says, real achievement is that which, having achieved, one feels there is nothing more to achieve. Having gained this, there is nothing greater to be gained.
And secondly, having gained this, no loss will trouble one. One will not be disturbed by disturbing situations. So, I started thinking, what is there in my life? What goal, by achieving which, I will be contented and I will never be disturbed? There is no external goal.
No matter how big an achievement we get, it can be taken away from us at any time. The Bhagavad Gita says the real achievement, the achievement that will bring enduring fulfilment is internal. So, when we expand our conception of success and learn to grow inwards, learn to realise our own core spirituality, realise our connection with the whole and find satisfaction therein.
That is where lasting satisfaction is. The Bhagavad Gita says as Atma, we are Atma and Atma is Sat, Chit, Ananda. The Atma is naturally joyful.
It is presently because we are caught in external things. That is why we cannot experience our joyfulness. A child, say sitting in a comfortable home, the mother is nearby but a child is watching a horror movie.
And because of the consciousness being caught in the horror movie, child is trembling, shivering, sweating, crying, screaming. Actually, the child is safe. But because the consciousness is caught in that horror movie, the child is out.
Purushah prakriti sthohi bhukte prakriti jaan gunan karanam guna sangosya sad asad yoni janmasu The Bhagavad Gita says similarly, we as spiritual beings are joyful but our consciousness is caught in hundreds and thousands of things. And because our consciousness is caught externally, we suffer from insecurity, we suffer from anxiety, we suffer from misery. If we just realise who we are as spiritual beings, we expand our conception.
We are not just our bodies, we are souls. We are parts of God and God is always with us. This understanding can bring security, it can bring satisfaction, it can bring strength.
This is the expansion of our conception of life, of our conception of work, of our conception of success which the Bhagavad Gita offers us. So, third, A is appreciating. Actually, especially a leader is a person who is meant to inspire others to bring out their best.
And yes, sometimes people make mistakes and they need to be corrected. Mark Twain said that I can live for two months on a good compliment. If somebody appreciates us, not just flatters us and says I was a good compliment, somebody genuinely appreciates us for something good that we have done, then that acts as a tremendous boost for us.
Life is discouraging. People sometimes hurt us, things go wrong, we ourselves commit mistakes. We all get discouraged and we all need encouragement.
And one of the most powerful sources of encouragement is genuine words of appreciation. The Bhagavad Gita says that there is austerity of speech. Austerity of speech, sometimes we talk about tapasya or austerity means I’ll not eat any food, I’ll not drink any water.
We think of that as austerity. But Bhagavad Gita says austerity of speech means we don’t just speak whatever comes to our mind. We speak carefully.
तनुद्वेग करमवाक्यम् सत्यं प्रियः तम्चयत् स्वाध्याया विशनम्चयिव वान्मयं तपवुच्छते Speak in a way that will not agitate the minds of others. That will please them, that will encourage them. Speak truthfully, but speak pleasingly.
So words shape words. Words have tremendous power. In the world there are many shortages.
There is shortage of food, shortage of water, shortage of electricity. None of these shortages are immediately in our power to correct. What can we do if there is a shortage of food in Somalia? What can we do if there is a power shortage in Siberia? Not much here.
But there is one shortage that we all can rectify. And that shortage is appreciation shortage. Everybody feels underappreciated.
And we all just by speaking a few words of appreciation can work to counter the shortage. Now we don’t have to flatter others. Flattering means we are simply concerned to manipulate the other person, to get the other person to do what we want them to do.
Appreciation means that we genuinely think of that person, see what they are doing and verbalise the good that they are doing. Many times when someone passes away, a memorial service is held. And at the memorial people speak their memories of that person.
And often during those memorial services people speak so sincerely, so much good about the other person that it often brings tears to the eyes of the attendants. Unfortunately, most of the people who speak appreciatively about that person, after that person’s death, most of them never speak those words while that person was alive. Why? When that person was living, if he had spoken those words of appreciation, that person would have felt so much affirmed, valued, energised.
So why delay appreciating? We may sometimes get angry with others and we may have to correct others at times. But what we do often is, we speak with others only when we have to correct them. Otherwise, we just speak functionally.
You do this, I do this, you do this, I do this. If we learn as a discipline, as an austerity, Bhagavad Gita says, learn to speak kindly, learn to speak pleasingly, learn to appreciate. We can just learn this one skill of appreciating others.
We can win over people so much. Chanakya Pandit says that the most important skill for a king who wants to conquer the world is not expertise in weapons. It’s important but the most important skill is expertise in words.
A king is a person who is meant to inspire others. And how do you inspire? There are various aspects for inspiring but one very foundational point in inspiring is appreciating. So whatever position we are in or whatever position we are lacking, if we can just learn the art of appreciating, just make it a habit.
Every day I will genuinely appreciate one person. Just decide this, we will find so much of the social energy around us becoming favourable rather than unfavourable. Those who have developed a habit of appreciating others when eventually they need to get something done, they will find that others are much more receptive and cooperative.
So this is appreciation shortage. We often ourselves feel underappreciated. Say, you know, I am doing so much, nobody appreciates what I am doing.
Yes, that may be true. But rather than expecting others to appreciate, let’s begin. Gandhiji said that be the change that you want to see in the world.
The Bhagavad Gita has this mood. Krishna wants to establish Dharma in the world and Arjuna doesn’t say Krishna, you are God, you establish Dharma. Arjuna says at the end of the Gita, I will do your will.
He takes up the responsibility. So, if we all learn to appreciate others, we will find that we will grow in our stature as leaders even if there is no growth in our external position. The last point which I will talk about is D. D is determining.
Determining means that we all need determination in our life. As I said, we all face reversals. One thing I talked about is when others are discouraged, how we, by appreciation, encourage them.
But the other is that we all need determination when we face reversals in life, when we face obstacles in life. And the Bhagavad Gita represents how a person can get overcome. Arjuna was the greatest archer of his times and he was about to fight the biggest war of his life.
The war for which he had prepared years after years after years. And just before that fight, he lost the fight. Even before the war began, internally a war began inside him.
And the result of that was the first chapter of the Bhagavad Gita ends with विस्रुज्यसशरं चापं शोकसंवीखन मानसः शोकसंवीखन Arjuna became overwhelmed by sorrow, by lamentation, by negativity. And what happened? विस्रुज्यसशरं चापं He put aside his bow and arrow saying I cannot fight. नयोच्यति गोविन्दम् भुक्त्वातु श्रींब भुवः I cannot fight.
Arjuna’s Gandiva bow represents our determination. He says Arjuna had to fight on the battlefield. We too have to fight.
Most of us may not have to fight on the battlefield, but we have to fight in life. Fight against difficult situations, fight against hostile work environments, fight against difficult people in our work environments, fight against adverse economic conditions, fight against excessive competition. Sometimes the combined effect of the difficulties that we face in our life is such that just as Arjuna put aside his bow, we also put aside our bow.
We lose heart. By the end of the Bhagavad Gita, what happens? The last verse, 18.78 in the Bhagavad Gita is यत्र योगेश्वर कृष्णो यत्र बार्धो धनुर्दर तत्रश्रीर पिजयो भूतिर द्रुवानी तिर्म तिर्मम The Bhagavad Gita says that यत्र बार्धो धनुर्दर यत्र बार्धो धनुर्दर where there is Arjuna who is the wielder of the bow. That means Arjuna has picked up his bow and he is ready to fight.
Arjuna has picked up his bow and he is ready to fight. So what happened? The same Arjuna who had lost heart at the start of the Gita has gained heart at the end of the Gita. What happened? That is the transformational power of spiritual knowledge.
The Bhagavad Gita offers many levels and layers of spiritual knowledge. The central point in all the spiritual knowledge is that we are not alone in this world. We are never alone.
God is always with us. God whom the Bhagavad Gita knows by the name Krishna, He always loves us. He always cares for us and He is always with us.
Arjuna looked beyond the immediate circumstance. When we look up in life sometimes we just see darkness. When we look ahead we just see darkness, this problem, this problem, this problem, just darkness in our life.
But Arjuna, the Gita teaches us not just to look ahead but to look up. When we look up, when we spiritualise our vision, then we understand that at our core, God is always with us. And He will give us the guidance, He will give us the strength, He will give us the wisdom by which we can face whatever life sends our way.
When we are down to nothing, when everything seems to have gone wrong, when we are down to nothing, the Bhagavad Gita tells us that God is up to something. God is up to something special. Even when bad things happen in life, God is expert in bringing good out of the bad.
But we need to persevere. We cannot afford to lose heart. If we just look at the world, sometimes the problems may appear to be so big that we will lose heart.
But if we look up to God, sometimes we may even go to God and we pray. But when we are praying, we are telling God, Oh God, this problem is so big, please help me. So what is happening? We are still problem conscious.
We need to become God conscious. I’ll conclude with this point about what God consciousness means. Suppose somebody is caught in a stormy ocean.
They have fallen in the water. And they are being tossed here, tossed there. And then somebody from a helicopter offers a rope down.
Catch the rope, they rise up. Now, physically speaking, they are at the same location in terms of longitude. At one point they were below in the water.
But now they are above. Initially in the water, they have been tossed here, tossed there, they have been threatened. But when they rise up, they are no longer threatened.
The storm is still there, down there. But they are not threatened because they have risen above. So what has happened? Arjuna at the start of the Gita is like a person in the ocean, being tossed here, tossed there, he is disheartened.
But the knowledge of the Gita has raised his understanding, has raised his self-conception up. He understands, actually I as a soul am indestructible. No matter how many things go wrong, I at my core can never be destroyed.
Even the biggest problems in life cannot even scratch the soul. The soul is always indestructible. No matter how many people leave us, God will always stay with us.
When we get this assurance, this conviction internally, we rise above. When we rise above, then we can face life more calmly, more confidently. Quoting Gandhiji once again, he said that when doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face, when I see not a ray of hope on the horizon, I turn towards the Bhagavad Gita and I find myself smiling in the face of the greatest distress.
Those who meditate on the Gita will get fresh meaning and joy every day. So the light of the Gita is there to illumine us. When we fix our consciousness on God, guided by spiritual wisdom, we will be raised above our situation.
The problem will not go away, but the problem will not consume us. We will not feel overwhelmed by the problem. Rather, we will be able to deal with the problem.
The Gita says, if you become conscious of God, of Krishna, by His grace, you will pass over all obstacles. So don’t tell God how big your problems are. Tell your problems how big God is.
God is far bigger than the biggest problems. And God is always with us. What the Bhagavad Gita does is, it helps us to come with God.
God is always with us, but we are not with Him. We are caught in this problem, that problem, that problem. The Bhagavad Gita says that when we come with God, yatra yogeshwara krishna yatra partha udhanudhara.
When the human and the divine come together, then, tatra shreer vijayo bhundir. There, there will be supreme victory. So whatever be the difficulty we face in our life, whatever problems come, if we just stay fixed in spiritual consciousness, say fixed in divine determination, in determination to stay connected with God, then we will find that we will be able to face the problem.
And we will learn how to go through the problem. Now, one of the greatest teachers of the Bhagavad Gita in the modern times was A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swamish Lakshaprabhupada. He is the founder Acharya of ISKCON.
He wrote a one of the world’s most widely read Bhagavad Gita commentary in English, Bhagavad Gita as it is. When he was asked, what is the best prayer that he can offer to God? He said, just pray, Oh God, give me the strength to serve you. Give me the strength to know how I can serve, how I can contribute in this situation.
Sometimes, say if we are going along a road, suddenly the power goes off. We may get overwhelmed. What do I do now? Now, we don’t have the power to turn on all the street lights.
We can curse, we can rant, we can moan. That doesn’t get the lights back. What we can do is, instead, we can turn on our own mobile flashlight.
The flashlight does not replace the street light. But the flashlight can show us one step ahead. One step ahead.
One step ahead. So, this attitude of service and contribution, this attitude is like the flashlight. Sometimes we have big plans in our life.
I’ll achieve this, I’ll get this post, I’ll get this raise, I’ll buy this car, I’ll get this house. We have the path of our life planned and suddenly, lights go off. Suddenly, some big problem comes in our life.
We lose our job, some loud one leaves us, we get a terrible health diagnosis. It’s like the lights have gone off at that time. Now, we can moan, we can lament, we can get discouraged.
But the Bhagavad Gita says, if we have this understanding, God is always with me. I just need to be with God. To be with God means, understand that I am meant to serve, I am meant to contribute.
Yes, I have my talents. As a professor, I contribute. As a mother, as a father, I contribute.
As a child, I contribute. As a son or daughter of someone, I contribute. As a friend, I contribute.
We are all meant to contribute to our nature. And if you just focus on that, Oh God, give me the strength to serve you. How can I serve in this situation? That question itself will shift our focus.
Sometimes when bad things happen, we just caught in the question, why? Why did this happen? And the why question sometimes just has no answer. Just shift the question. How? How can I respond now? How can I serve now? The why question will simply perpetuate the darkness.
The how question. How can I serve now? How can I respond best now? That will be the flashlight, which shows one step forward, one step forward, one step forward. The problems of today are never too much for today.
It is only when we add on top of the problems of today, the problems of yesterday and the problems of tomorrow. Then life becomes unbearable. If I think all that I have to do is take one step now.
This is this problem. What can I do? Pray to God and take one step forward. As we keep taking steps forward, we will cover a substantial distance.
And not only will we cover the distance, but in due time, the streetlights will come back. We will find that not only have we gone through that problem, but we have grown in wisdom, we have grown in character, we have grown in inner strength. And that growth will equip us to face whatever adversities life may send our way.
In this way, the Bhagavad Gita gives us the vision to become a leader who can face the greatest of difficulties. Normally, small people, when they face difficulties, they just crumble under the pressure. What defines leaders is their capacity to face pressure and move on.
And the Bhagavad Gita empowers us with its spiritual knowledge to become a leader who can face the greatest pressures of life. And by the inner spiritual connection, by the light of an attitude of contribution, can face even those that pressure and not only endure the pressure, but grow through that pressure. So I’ll summarise.
I spoke today about four leadership principles from the Bhagavad Gita. I started by talking about how Arjuna and Krishna are both leaders. And Krishna demonstrates doing the contribution of a leader without seeking the designation of a leader.
He never became a king himself. We may or may not be officially leaders, but leadership is not just a designation. It is more importantly a disposition.
And we all affect others by our conduct, by our very existence. Even introvert people do that. So in that sense, we all are leaders, even if we don’t have any designation.
But if we develop the disposition of leaders, then we can influence others positively. I talked about four aspects. L.E.A.D. Does anyone remember what that is? Learning.
So, the best leaders are the best learners. Bhagavad Gita shows how even on a battlefield, Arjuna doesn’t simply ask, should I fight or should I not fight? He asks, what is Dharma? What is the natural order of things? How am I meant to function in an orderly way? Science is a search for order. Science is also a search for Dharma.
But it is the physical level. The Bhagavad Gita talks about understanding our role in life at a more personal and universal level. And Krishna, as an expert teacher by his presence and presentation, converts a battlefield into a classroom.
So if we have that attitude of learning, then even amidst difficulties, even amidst routine situations, we can learn and can grow. Then E was what I spoke most elaborately. E was expanding.
So expanding our conception of our self, of our work and our success. Self means we understand that we are not just our bodies. We are spiritual beings on a multi-life journey of spiritual evolution.
Success in life is not just coming first in a hundred metre sprint. Success in life is actually moving in a hundred kilometre marathon. So ups and downs, when we have this long-term perspective, we don’t get so shaken by them.
Then I talked about work that we do. The Bhagavad Gita tells us detachment is a power. Why? Because it is not telling us to become apathetic about our work.
But results are something which is not in our hands. And that’s why detachment from results helps us to focus on that which is in our control. That is our work.
I described an equation. Karma plus daiva plus kala leads to phala. This is an example of farmers and then of cricketers also who have their own quirky superstitions.
Our performance matters but performance is not all that matters. And if we are attached to phala then we are attached to something that is not in our control. Because daiva and kala will sometimes not work out.
And that’s why we become disempowered and distressed. So people suffer from depression and develop inferiority complex. Failure becomes not an event but it becomes a person.
It becomes a self-definition when we become attached to results. But when we focus on goals that means we focus on the karma, what is in our hands and do it wholeheartedly. So this spiritual understanding of who we are and how we are functioning in life this is an expansion of our conception.
And that brings us inner growth and inner fulfilment. Without this we will build a big building, it won’t have a foundation. Building will not last.
I talked about how over a billion people commit suicide every year. Why? Because they have developed not an expansive conception but a reductive conception of life. Their work, their spouse, their bank balance.
One of these things they have made into everything. And when they face a reversal in that they feel I have nothing to live for. Bhagavad Gita gives due importance to all of these it tells us we are bigger than all this.
With this expansive conception we can avoid getting unduly distressed or devastated when one aspect of our life goes wrong. I talked about work as worship that means we see our work in a mood of contribution. God has given us some talents and we use them in a mood of service.
When we look only for external success we depend on congratulations by others. And that’s always uncertain I told how I was never satisfied. That made me search for something higher.
So we, when we work in a mood of devotion then yes we will get external results also but even when those results don’t come we will be internally satisfied by our spiritual connection with with God. We are ourselves at our core spiritual and that means we are joyful but because of our attachment to external things we have lost our joyfulness. Just like a child may be comfortable in a home but because of infatuation watching a horror movie the child feels horrified.
So we just realise who we are we will become more peaceful. And A was appreciating. As a austerity of speech we try to decrease the critical words that we speak of others and we consciously strive to speak appreciatively.
Everybody feels underappreciated. And food shortage, water shortage, power shortage is something we can’t correct. But appreciation shortage we all can correct.
Many times we appreciate people doing their memorial services after they die. But why wait till then? If we appreciate now they will feel so much encouraged, affirmed, valued. So if we just make a habit of appreciating, not just flattering to get people to do what we want them to do but appreciating genuinely for what they are doing, we will find that our circle of influence as leaders will increase even if our social or official position doesn’t increase.
Chanakya says that the most important skill for a king who wants to win is not just expertise in weapons but expertise in words. And the last D I talked about is Determining. Determining means being staying determined.
So Arjuna was a warrior who before the war began lost the inner war because of confusion, because of discouragement. And Bhagavad Gita by the end of it he has raised the weapon. Gandiva is ready to fight.
He has won the inner war. So what happened? He got a spiritual self-understanding. We too may become discouraged in life but when we understand that no matter how many things go wrong in our life which may discourage us, God is always with us.
He always loves us. And he will bring good even out of the bad provided we stay connected with him in a mood of service. Then that attitude of serving, when lights go off, that attitude of service becomes the flashlight.
One step ahead, one step ahead, one step ahead. And we may be in a stormy situation but just spiritual understanding will be like raising us from the stormy water to a height above in a helicopter. We become calm and then we can respond wisely.
So whatever problems we have today, if we don’t pile the problems of yesterday and tomorrow, we can face life’s problems today. By focussing our vision not just on the front and seeing the problem, we look up and see God. When we are down to nothing, God is up to something.
And by staying connected with him, we can overcome the greatest difficulties and progress towards inner success and outer success. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.
Does anyone have any questions?