How we no longer think of people in business or politics or in life?

 

Business, politics and life are not about people. It is about shareholders values, market values and top-line and bottom line. 

And that’s the biggest problem in the last hundred years.

We look at people as merely tools to achieve something else. The purpose of life is about something else, not about people. We don’t see society centred on people. Industry centred on people. Enterprise centred on people.

Somewhere along the lines people have just become instruments and we think like that. So when we talk about objective based management, the objective is not to make a great society, the objective is not to make a great organisation. That’s merely seen as a collateral benefit. The primary goal is top line, bottom line, Fortune 500 companies. The conversation is never about people.

And if we see problems around the world whether it’s brexit, whether it’s donald trump. All these things are about people. When you go to threads or twitter the problems are about people. 

Now people being the centre of the world, when you read the indian epics whether it’s Mahabharata or Ramayana, the focus is always on people. So it is not the top line, bottom line is not important. Of course they don’t use words like top line and bottom line. They talk about a goddess called laxmi (the goddess of wealth and fortune). And she is the oldest goddess in India in art. If you look at the art of India the first god/goddess to be carved on the walls of sacred places and it is the goddess laxmi. Buddha said desire is the cause of suffering. He established a monestic order. But when you go to sanchi, barhood (the oldest Buddhist shrines in India), oldest shrines in India. You’ll always find the image of goddess laxmi (the goddess of wealth and fortune). So clearly india realises great value in wealth. So even in a monastic order, wealth was given an important place. What is the relationship between wealth and people?

The idea of it is explained in a very simple manner. They said do you grab wealth or attract wealth. And that’s the question you have to ask. 

Now look at this from an animal kingdom point of view, 

                      What is wealth for a tiger? A deer? Tiger runs after a deer because deer is food. So deer is the target and hindi word for target is laxya, from laxya comes laxmi. That’s nourishment for the tiger. And so the tiger RUNS after the deer. 

But now look at a flower,

                                        The flower cannot move anywhere, so it produces fragrance, it produces nectar and pollen and attracts bees and butterflies that enables it to pollinate and transform into a fruit.

So nature has both these strategies:

(1) that you run after wealth and it’s a very violent process, predator running after prey. The alternative is 

(2) you attract laxmi by creating fragrance and color and nectar. So the bees and butterflies come to you and you get what you want, you get the pollination done. So you attract laxmi. 

The same thing is told in the story telling format. We have the concept of getting into the market violently. When we read management books they will talk violently ….we have to expand market share…. We have to penetrate the market. Look at the language. It’s almost vile and we wonder why suddenly there’s a wave of me too. Because you valorise violent masculine behaviour, toxic masculinity. You have to penetrate the market. I want to be on top of everything else. It is a language which is violent … ranabhoomi (battleground), where you fight and when you fight and you grab market share, so you grab laxmi. In the battleground you create laxmi by grabbing her. It’s a violent process. And hence indra (the king of swarga) is always involved in battleground. He is always involved in battle of asuras (devasursangram) constantly fighting. Either he has lost his market share or he is afraid of losing his market share which means he’s always under threat.

But when an alternate model is presented:

Vishnu, who is in rangabhoomi, the performance ground, the stage, where he performs so beautifully that the audience is so happy that they throw money at him and laxmi comes towards him joyfully. It’s not a win/lose situation, it’s a win/win situation because Vishnu is trying to delight his audience. He doesn’t want to penetrate the market. He wants to attract the market ….come i have such lovely products, such lovely services. And therefore Vishnu manifests, manifests different forms, depending on the requirements of the market.

So one market is called ramayana, the other market is called Mahabharata. These markets are very different from each other. One is in the tretayuga another is in the dwaperyuga, two different contexts. 

In one vishnu decends as the eldest son in a royal family. In the other he is the youngest son in the cowherd family. Same god in the two different context cannot behave in the same way, you have to adapt, you have to be agile and you have to transform.

How do you transform?!

And the used is avatar, an extraordinary man who becomes ordinary. Vishnu is extraordinarily, he’s infinite and he depending on the context becomes smaller. He becomes rama, a mortal being with a birth and death or he becomes Krishna birth and death. And therefore functions very differently in two different context, depending on the need. You’re larger than it but when i go to the finance department I have to talk like this, when I go to the HR department I have to talk like that, with the sales guy I have to have a drinking buddy relationship because they are always under stress, with marketing guys I have to treat them very differently, the conversations are different, the language is different, the body language, everything changes. You have to adapt. You have to do avataran, coming down to the size that makes other comfortable.

And therefore in Ramayana and Mahabharata the learning processes are very different. 

In the Ramayana, rama does not know he’s vishva rupa. He doesn’t have knowledge of his divinity. 

Krishna, in the Mahabharata knows he’s divine. He knows he is smarter than everybody else.

And you have to deal with people like this, who are capable of so much but don’t know their capabilities and at the same time people who know their capabilities and you have to harness it. 

You can’t teach these two people in the same way. One needs to be inspired, the other needs to be shown empathy. Because you’re capable of so much more. You are capable of so much more but you make other people near you insecure. So calm down, don’t show your brilliance. 

How does Krishna not show his brilliance?!

He is called purna purusha (the supreme man), but he walks in front of everyone in a highly effeminate way. He has peacock feather, alta in his hands, sandal paste, wears silk and flowers, nose ring. He is doing this to make people feel safe because they say omg he is so feminine. And men feel safe around feminine men. It’s called toxic masculinity. You don’t threaten me therefore I like you. And Krishna knows this. Rama never does vishva rupa because he doesn’t know he’s that.

Two different context, two different ways of functioning. 

In the Ramayana learning is so different. In the Ramayana, when you read the bal kanda. He is being educated by his teachers who are dealing with this child prodigy. And vashistha who is giving him theoretical knowledge in a safe ecosystem ashram. And then viahwamitra comes along and says this learning won’t do. He is in a safe ecosystem of the palace. He needs to go into the forest, there he’ll know what is reality. The first task given to him is kill tadaka, a demoness, the second task given to him is ahalya, a woman who has been treated badly, to bring her back into the social fold. 

He’s taught ruthlessness and compassion. He’s taught the two ends of the CEO spectrum. You have to be ruthless. What is killing?! Taking away someone’s job, worst thing to do. You have learn the art of how do I let a person go without taking away his dignity. You’re breaking a contract, you’re not breaking a relationship. But we don’t know the art of separation or for that matter how do you help someone who has done something wrong or treated badly. How can you be compassionate as a leader?! Is it a sign of weakness?! In modern society if you are kind people treat you as if you’re stupid. CEO’s valorise being ruthless. Ruthless ceo rather than kind ceo? It is so easy to be ruthless. It requires a lot of energy to be kind and compassionate. It is so easy to be rude and insulting. It is so difficult to be generous with praise, genuinely generous not falsetto. 

And then comes the Mahabharata, where learning is very different. Dronacharya teaching in the palace and something is not right because one thing he doesn’t teach both kaurvas and pandavas. And the karavas end up fighting the pandavas, they refuse to share property.

What kind of a teacher is that, he doesn’t recognise his failure. I taught these students who don’t know how to share property. Nobody sees the failure. We talk about guru dronacharya but the story is telling us something very very complex. The failure of a teacher.

In the Mahabharata dronacharya’s head is cut. It’s called brahmahatya. It’s one of the most violent stories. Guru hatya is one of the greatest sins in the scriptures. Yet in the Mahabharata guru’s head is cut because you have not taught basics. Basic is you have not shown kings that kingship is not about holding on to property, it is about giving away property. 

Creating an ecosystem where people can be powerful not powerless. Ninety nine percent of politicians aren’t leaders, they are hungry for power. You feel discharged after meeting them and you want to come back and have a drink, which is why you have coctails every evening. 

In the Mahabharata, you learn the tragedy of human civilisation. You see the pandavas think they are arrogant but when do they learn their lesson like in the Ramayana vishwamitra takes rama into the forest. In the Mahabharata , the pandavas are kicked into the forest because they gamble away their kingdom.

What is a forest?!

Forest is a space where nobody thinks you are important. The lion is not gonna say, “oh pandavas, I’m not gonna eat’em”. When you have a job and a lovely title everybody loves you. You wanna go to the forest, lose your job and you’re in the market oh the humiliation. No salami anymore. Nobody stands up when you walk into a room. You don’t matter. Talk to any IAS officer who has retired, it’s horrifying. Talk to doctors, as long as they’re in the hospital they’re great people, the moment they step out of the hospital and go to a club nobody knows them. It’s very humiliating. 

Vana is a place where you don’t matter at all and that is where you learn the most. Unfortunately how do you create an environment where you don’t matter at all in learning and development. How do you do that?!

Pandavas go to the forest and they are repeatedly humiliated. Hanuman comes in the form of an old monkey as says lift my tail yrr I can’t get up. Bheema says I walk straight, I am a prince, everybody should move when I walk. Bheema is brought to his knees. You think you’re mighty, there’s someone mightier than you. Arjun thinks he’s the greatest archer in the world. Shiva takes form of a tribal, kirat and defeats him in a dual and says you maybe the king in your palace not in the forest.

These are stories of humiliation because the basic learning is not a skill. Archery is a skill. Language is a skill but what is not taught is basic humanity.

At the end of the day leadership is about being a great human being. Skills i will teach you. I will make you a great archer. I will make you a great fighter but are you a great person ?!

Will you terminate jobs with dignity?!

Will you elevate me?!

Will you transform me?!

Will you help me be a better person than I was yesterday?!

Will you energise me?!

How do you teach people to do that?!

How do you teach empathy?!

These are the big challenges of the corporate world where we valorised ruthlessness and market penetration. I keep using that word again and again how language distorts the way we think.

Ultimately the biggest learning happens when pandavas have to serve for one year as servants in the palace of king viraat. The great king Yudhisthira have to be a servant and he is slapped for telling the truth. Here is a man who is very proud i always tell the truth and the king says don’t say so much truth i like to hear lies that feel good than truth which is painful. That’s a lesson he’s been taught. It’s a brutal lesson. Bheema becomes the cook. All his life he would have the largest share of food and he’s told you would first feed others and then eat. That’s the lesson you’ll learn. Arjun the super macho guy, whom every woman loves is told for one year you’ll live like a eunuch in the woman’s quarters. That’s the lesson. 

Humanity 

And Krishna is doing it. He’s a kingmaker. Rama is king and he’s struggling to understand what is ruthlessness, what is compassion. Krishna says you should learn how to be a good human being.

Draupadi, the queen is abused by king’s brother in law keechka. He treats her because she’s a servant. There’s a power in equality. King’s brother in law abuses maid servant as says bring wine at night. And that is what we’re reading in newspapers today, right?!

2000 yrs ago keechka bada story talks about the entitled prince abusing maids. Draupadi runs after queen and says madam what are you doing, I am your servant and you are telling me to go to his room at night with wine. This is inappropriate. She goes to the king running save me and nobody takes care of her, she’s publicly humiliated and Yudhisthira realises what’s the use of the power when you can’t even protect your own wife. You want to be a king.

In one you are dealing with different kinds of stories. In one you’re being taken into a controlled ecosystem from the palace. I’m the Mahabharata there’s no control. You learn through failure. You allow people to fail. You allow people to go to the forest, different ways of learning. When you read the Ramayana and Mahabharata you realise there’s no one way of learning. Guru shishya parampara is a romantic notion doesn’t exist. Krishna is the teacher. He throws them in the jungle and says learn humanity. The context is different. The methodology is different. It shifts with context.