GITA SHIBIR 2011 Session 8

LEADERSHIP

Leadership

Session Transcript 1. Now, go to next one. These are analysis of only gunas or q ualit ies. But t hen the Vedas and Bhagwad Gita recog nizes four kinds of persons. You hav e Type A and Type B and etc. you know. So, t here are four typ es of p ersons. You will find that you require these four kinds of p ersons for any organization to accomplish any objective. We require four kinds of persons. 2. One is called a Brahmana , ot her is called a Kshatriya, third is called a Vaishya, fourt h is called a Shudra. These are the names. A Brahmana is a person who is predominant in satva and is typically a scholar. He is a person who has a learning mind, a mind t hat is learning. He lov es to learn, he lov es to think . At young ag e he is a spirit ual p erson because he has value for self growt h and also a value for help ing ot hers. This is a Brahmana. 3. Second is a Kshatriy a. Kshatriya is a leader. What is the composition of the mind of a Kshatriy a? Rajas, satva, tamas. A Brahmana is satva, rajas, tamas . Meaning satva is predominant followed by rajas followed by tamas Brahmana. A Kshat riya is rajas, satva, tamas. In Kshatriya rajas is predominant followed b y satva and t hen followed by tamas . So, what happ ens is b ecause the Kshat riya has predominance of rajas he is an activ e p erson and b ecause his rajas is followed by satva usually his act ivities are non-selfish. An act ive person at the same time an unselfish activ e p erson. Therefore a Kshat riya is an id eal leader. He p rotects others. So role of Kshat riyas in our society used to be to protect t he society and Brahmana was to learn and teach the society. Kshatriya was to prot ect the societ y and rule the peop le. 4. Third is Vaishya. He is a t rad er. In Vaishya predominantly rajas, tamas, satva. This is a Vaishy a. Rajas is predominant therefore activ e followed by tamas. He is selfish. Kshatriya predominates rajas he is activ e but followed by satva. His activ ity is likely to be unselfish. Vaishya is predominantly rajas but followed by tamas therefore his activ ities are likely to be selfish. He is a trader. Stand s for himself. 5. Fourt h is Shudra. Tamas, rajas, satva . Opposit e of Brahmana satva, rajas, tamas . Shud ra is tamas, rajas, satva and therefore he doesnt hav e initiativ e, he doesnt hav e motiv at ion. He has to b e motivated . So, he is g enerally a labourer. 6. So, a scholar, a leader, a trad er, a lab ourer. In any org anizat ion you require these four, is it not? You req uire p eople who are consultants, who p lan, who hav e vision, who can plan, who can guid e others, who can provid e the consultation or advise others. T his is one k ind of p eople you require in the organization. Second are the manag ers, t he lead ers. They take their d irect ion from satva and they will execut e. So t hey are t he lead ers. T hey are t he bread winners and so t hey Page 1 of 8

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administ er and rule, lead others. Third are the p eople who are the business people, account ants, salesmen, mark eting people. Thats a third cat egory of people and fourth are the shop floor laborers and others. 7. So, ev en in a home, you need such p eople at home. You require all t he four people. At home also you req uire p ersons who are wise and exp erienced so y ou always consult that person what to do now. A wedding is coming up what should we do or such a function is coming what should we do? So, t hese are p eople, wise people who guide others. At home also there are bread winners, a lead er. At home you have an account ant also who keeps account of income and exp enses. At home t here must b e labour also who washes dishes, who washes clothes and things lik e t hat. It is possible that one person may do all t he four also but four kind of funct ions are req uired. You may not hav e four, you just have one or you may hav e fift een but the point is any system can funct ion provided t hese four kind of functions are p erformed. 8. Therefore Lord Krishna say s - Hey, Arjuna I hav e creat ed these four cast es and divided or allott ed t he d uties accord ing to their disposition. The d uties are task s are allott ed to them according to their capacit ies, their talent s, their aptitud e. So, this is how t he Vedic society was org anised. One characteristic about t he Ved as is that there is recognition of obtaining diversity - that peop le are different, they have t o respect the diversity, respect the differences. You cannot have one prescription for ev erybody. So, b ased on the div ersities, four kinds of people are there. Therefore four kinds of d uties or four k ind of task s are assig ned to t hem. 9. In fact, even during the span of their life t ime we do not remain t he same therefore four stag es of life also are recognized. First stag e is t hat of a st udent , second stag e that is of a householder. Stud ent is called a Brahmachari. Brahmachari means student in t he Vedas. See t he trad itional way of learning was the st udents would g o to a teacher in a Guruk ulam, liv e with t he t eacher and learn from him. Serve t he t eacher and learn from him. This was Brahmachari a student. The advant ages of going to a teacher was the st udent was p rotect ed from other influences which are there in a home, in t he society and other inp uts and is in the atmosp here of learning and serving so t hat is how t he only agenda t hat a student has is to st udy. No other distractions are there. No T.V. In the home there are going to b e means of enjoyment and entertainment. In Guruk ulam t hat is not t here. That s how the st udents focus only on st udies. 10. Second st age is of household er. Hav ing complet ed the st udies, he is eq uipp ed now to how to live his life. Comes home and enters the life of household er. Thats the second stage. Life of household er also is meant as t he life of karmayoga ideal. So, even a couple, when they get married, man and woman get married also the relationship as said is one of you know saptapadi. So, when t he wedding tak es place then there are seven step s are there, different vows are taken. One of t he v ows in saptapadi is that we st and as friends of each ot her so both these man and woman says that now we are friends. Friends means both of them enjoy eq ual status meaning that they resp ect each other eq ually. They resp ect each others role also. Woman nat urally does a certain kind of t ask

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because her personality is most suit ed for that. A man does a different kind of task because his personality is suit ed for somet hing else. 11. So, that s how man and woman or husb and and wife do different things, share different task s b ut at t he same time enjoy t he same respect and honor and dignity. Thats how you become matured. T hat s what you call a healt hy relationship. These script ures did not look upon the life of a householder as a life meant for simply fulfilling ones p assion it was a life of growth. So this life of householder is meant for the emot ional and spiritual growth of both the man and woman. When they accomplish the g rowth now they are ready for retirement. That s called life of Vanprastha , ret irement. Vanprastha literally means t hat you go to forest. Meaning that they hav e handed over the administ ration and ev eryt hing, all the responsib ilities t o the eldest son and there is no more anything to do now and they go, retire to the forest. An ideal situation. These day s these parents even though they grow old they never giv e up cont rol. The mot her-in-law alway s keep s the bunch of k eys with her. So the daug hter-in-law must alway s seek her permission and father also you k now he says I am retired I will just go to office for two hours a day but all control is in his hand, you know? Anyway, but the thing is what is meant by Vanprastha is t hat now you have done enough, you have done your job, now you retire, now you ent er a different stage of life. So handover what ev er you hav e to your child ren. Your life is now devoted to worship , prayer, medit ation and finally the life of renunciation. The life ded icated to p ursuit of knowledg e and dedication. So, these are the four st ages. Even t hough t hey are said to be equal 25 y ears of st udent. 25 y ears of that is just, I should say a broad division in it but really these four stag es are not four divisions of life span. They are four stag es of emotional mat urity. Leading the life of student prop erly you gain the mat urity to become a household er. On account of leading life of householder in a responsible way you gain mat urity to become a retiree. Because of that you become a renunciate. So, four st ag es of life and four divisions of labor. In each stage of life also different t asks and four cast es. Also different tasks so all tasks are div ided int o 16 ways. So this diversity is recognized , respect ed and this task division is done so that each one is comp atible wit h what he or she does. If what you hav e to do is compatib le to your nature and aptit ude and t alent t hen you do t he t ask in a very comfortab le way, in an effectiv e way. Thus the task also is done well, y ou also grow. Thus, each one contrib utes to the prosperity of the society, in this process each one also grows in prosperit y. Ideally t hese cast es are not by birth, t he cast es are by disposition of mind. What happ ens is, t his so called d isposition of mind is a subjective thing. T here is no objectiv e way of measuring the disposition of a person. That is why the immediat e indicator was his birth and that s how the cast e syst em came to b e determined by birth because we dont have a bett er way. Just as let us say as Page 3 of 8

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going to eng ineering school, med ical school, business school what s the criterion? Crit erion is a t est score. You want to go to IIT or IIM or wherever you want to g o then all these, what is that what are the t ests, you k now? (CAT) Common Admission T est is t here and usually the selection is based on the scores in t he test. Now, you cannot say t hat just b ecause a p erson scores more in t he t est, that he is necessarily more suit ed as engineer or a doctor then a person who scores less. 17. The score in a t est is not an ideal criterion to judge the cap ability of a p erson but you dont hav e better criterion, you follow? So, t hen you hav e to choose the crit erion which is as closest. Similarly, b irth is not the ideal crit erion to judg e the disposition of a p erson b ut t hat s t he object ive crit erion t hat you have. T hat is how cast e came to be det ermined by birth. Also, there was a reason, anot her supporting reason. Here you believe t hat a person scores well if he enjoys t he cap acity which is g enerally true b ut not necessarily true. Similarly law of karma says t hat you are g enerally b orn in an environment which is most suited for you. So, we und erstand t hat a p erson is born in a Brahmana family is most likely t o have karma which has brought him to a Brahmana. Therefore he is most lik ely t o possess disposition of Brahmana. So, this is how the division of cast e was equated to be based on birth. Not an id eal crit erion. Therefore you should hav e some p rovision in your selection process also - ev en though t his person has scored a little less let us t ake int erview also and you also t ry to jud ge whether t he p erson possesses other kind of traits. So even though t he score may be less you may still be select ed. I am sure in all t he good selection processes, t his is d one. And so we try to compensat e for t he lack of accuracy in one criterion namely test score by improving other subjectiv e crit erion. What we should have done even thoug h birth is an objectiv e crit erion, we should have some subjectiv e crit erion by which we could judg e the people and then classify them, re-classify them even if that fellow is born here looks like he is more lik e a Brahmana so giv e him t he st atus of Brahmana. This is not done. It is possib le that injust ice may happ en b ecause birth is not an id eal crit erion. That is how t he cast e sy st em became sort of unjust, instead of becoming effective. It was working v ery well in the Ved ic time when this country was very prosperous and v ery predominant in all branches of knowledge and accomp lishment b ut lat er on this syst em b ecame degenerat ed because it d id not reform and as somebody says there is injustice, that is true. Its not because of system; its because of not proper management of the sy stem. This is just for your information so that you will und erst and . Having said all these now I have chosen here the character of Kshatriya. Kshatriya is typically a lead er. So, Kshatriyas in our society are lead er class. They were t he k ings so what is t he trait of a Kshat riya the lead er? One is courage. Bhagwad Gita say s Shouryam courag e, tejah ab ility to dominate others and not being dominated by others, that s called tejah . Dhriti strong will power; not submitting to obstacles. Dakshyam quick in responding to situat ions, quick in judging t he situat ion and responding to sit uation. Kshatriya never runs away from b attlefield, ready to face challenges meaning not running away from challenges. Ready t o face challenges. Danam generosity, a Kshat riya is a generous p erson. A lead er Page 4 of 8

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is supposed to be a generous person, an inclusiv e person. Ishwar bhavasya - The ability to rule, ab ilit y to lead, g uid e others, if necessary d iscipline others. A ruler should be able to lead ot hers, g uid e others at the same t ime where necessary, discip line others. And finally practicing dharma, a Kshatriya is committ ed to following dharma or rig hteousness, protecting righteousness and help ing other people to also follow dharma. He practices dharma at the same time he mak es others also pract ice dharma. So, practice dharma, prot ect d harma and make other people follow d harma is a role of a Kshat riya. 20. So, you know what is an ideal lead er, an ideal manager, ev erybody is a lead er not only manag er is a lead er, ev erybody is a lead er of a few people at least. Ev en at home you are parent, you are lead er as far as y our child ren are concerned, as far as your young er brother or your sib lings are concerned as far as few people who look up to your concern, you are a lead er. T herefore, the third point say s, Bhag wad Gita says teach by ex ample. There is a v erse in Bhagwad Git a which says - whatev er leader does ot her p eople automatically follow b ecause most people want t o imit ate what a lead er d oes. So, when you are in a posit ion of lead ership, it b ecomes your responsib ilit y to conduct yourself in a manner which can be exemplary to those who are following you. So, lead er should b e exemp lary he should teach by example. Preaching is one way of t eaching and set an ex ample is anot her way of teaching. Lord Krishna says that rather than preaching communicate by set ting an example. That is how there is an expression called transformat ional leadership, you k now where you can t ransform others. L et me relate to you an incidence from life of M ahat ma Gandhi it just comes to my mind. How you can help and transform other person by setting the example and by being g enerous and comp assionat e. It is said that once, Mahat ma Gandhi was traveling in a t rain. You know t hat he used to travel in t hird class. T hose day s there were three classes - first class, int er class and third class, those days three classes in t he t rain. Now, you hav e only two classes first class and second class. So, Gand hiji insist ed that he would trav el only in t hird class which was one of the public class. What is t he class, what is it called? Cattle class. You know that expression? Who uses that? All rig ht. Thats correct. So, cattle class. So, Gand hiji chose to travel in cattle class because he look ed upon himself as one of the cattle, that is why. He wasnt snobbish and always going to disting uish himself from others. He wanted to includ e ot hers. This travelling in cattle class was not t o make a show. It was to includ e others. So, he was trav elling. Trains are crowd ed usually. So, Gandhiji is sitting on this berth and ot her people are sitting and there was one p erson sitt ing in the b erth opposite Gandhiji. He was coming from village. Not a v ery cult ured p erson. That man was suffering from cold and so from time to time, you know, he would spit out and you k now how uncult ured p eople do, spit out where he was sitt ing. So, Gand hiji is sitting here so when Gandhiji saw this you know what he did? He was reading a newspap er he tore a piece of newspap er, cleaned t hat thing and t hrew it out . Other man didnt lik e it. Who is this? So, he did it ag ain. Very patient ly Gandhiji again tore a piece of paper, cleaned it . Third time, fourth time, a numb er of times you know t hat man must have b een so insensitive, he k ept on doing it. He challeng ed Gand hiji, let me see how much you can do? How often can you do? Page 5 of 8

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Very pat iently and very kindly Gand hi did this. Then came the stat ion Varanasi. Gand hiji had to get down there was crowd of p eople. Mahatma Gandhi ki jai wit h all g arlands and that man hey, this is Gandhiji. He fell into the feet of Gand hiji. Says, Bap u I am v ery sorry for what I have done. Gand hiji says fine. Well I am really sorry, I am really sorry. T hen do t his. Next time when you trav el in a train you find somebody creat ing dirt iness or making a mess you clean up p atiently. Ill do that. 23. So, how can you teach and transform a p erson? So, this is called transformat ion not so much by preaching as much as by setting an example not in a snobb ish way. Sett ing an ex ample very humb ly, with compassion, wit h patience. So, you need pat ience wit h people. You cannot afford being intolerant because people will not meet with your expectat ion, t hey are not q uick enough, t hey are not efficient enoug h. You get intolerant because you are q uick, you are efficient others are not. You are intolerant, you make a demand - my way or highway y ou have heard this? My way or hig hway. Just you want to control others so t his is what p eople think t his is t he way to liv e. That s how a manag er should lead, b e able to cont rol ot hers. Be able to dominate ot hers. Create fear in them. By t hreat you get t hing s what you want. My way or hig hway . As I said in the morning that does not work too long. Because there are many highway s that a p erson can go to. They will be on your hig hway as long as it is convenient to them, they will find anot her hig hway. And what do you get by that? The lead er wants t o win over these p eople not dominate p eople. You dont want a slav e wit h you; you want a friend wit h you. A slav e always needs to be instruct ed a friend just think s without instruction. You underst and? They t alk of t hree kinds of serv ants. One is the servant who k nows what the mast er wants and he does t hings without b eing inst ructed . An ideal serv ant k nows what the master wants and does what is need ed without b eing instruct ed. Uttama - this is the b est k ind of serv ant. T he middling one does when instruct ed, as instructed; a t hird one does not do ev en when instruct ed. What k ind of p eople do you want? You want to k eep on inst ruct ing peop le and micro-managing other peop le t hen you are always busy inst ruct ing and manag ing other people. You want peop le who can take their own initiative, who know what you want and can do thing s then you can do some bett er things. So, for a manager or a lead er wants to creat e people who are wit h him and not scared of him, not afraid of him, not look ing for an opport unity t o escap e. When y ou threaten peop le and creat e fear in them then t hey will deceiv e you. In front of you they will act in one way and t hey will tell lies to you b ecause they are afraid of you. On t he other hand, if you hav e won over peop le, t hey will b e op en with you, frank wit h you and t hey can also share t heir difficulties. When you d emand from a p erson my way or highway, if y ou cannot come in time tomorrow you dont come. In New York subways there is one sign. Talking about t he old d ays you know? If you cannot come on a Sunday do not bother t o come on M onday . Sunday is a holiday but then t hese laborers thats how the mast er, when labor unions were not t here, t his was an advertisement by lab or union by the way you know. This is how it used to be in old en days if do not come Page 6 of 8

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on Sund ay do not b other to come on M onday. Thus t he world cond uct s business . You cannot g et b est out of that person. When can y ou g et b est of a p erson? When you win over, when the p erson is comfortable wit h you t hen you win over that person. You hav e to understand that person. Understand the person, he is not able to do somet hing isnt that he doesnt want to, you can assume that he doesnt want to d o, he is not sincere, you need not assume that. May be that person has some difficulty, he has some problem, may be he needs help, he doesnt need just to be punished he needs help. 27. This morning I relat ed to you one example of a man in sub way wit h his two children. The child ren were rowdy and y ou know ot her people and t hey were just scold ing t his man, you are not controlling y our children. They learnt that t he children hav e lost t heir mot her and thats how they are behaving lik e that. Then there is symp athy. So also a person who does not perform as expect ed; he is not punctual; whatev er, be symp athetic wit h that person. Dont reject t he p erson, b e sympathetic and the p erson can op en up with y ou. May b e he has p roblem at home; may be his child is not well; may be his wife has a problem; may b e his mother has a problem; may be he has some p roblem; may b e he has some stress; may be he has some personal t hing s. If you exclud e - you are you and I am I, do as I want otherwise you d ont b elong here that s one way or you and I are not different. What is y our p roblem is my problem also, what s your prob lem? What way can I help you? In that case, you include that p erson with compassion, with sympathy . That p erson will b e with you when you share his p roblems or difficulties. He will be with y ou for the life time he will nev er leave you b ecause people are not wit h you just b ecause of money . Everybody want s money no doubt but they want ot her t hing s also, isnt it? Do you only want money? Many other thing s you want. Is it not so? You want to be resp ect ed; you want to be accept ed; you want t o b e lov ed; you want to b e includ ed; nobody lik es to be isolat ed; nobody likes to be excluded so what you lik e from ot hers, giv e to others also. Thus, a Kshatriy a is a larg e hearted p erson, an inclusive p erson, a g enerous person; as best as possible a selfless person. So, higher y ou go, more mat ured you should b ecome. Then only you should tak e t he position. And mat urity means you are more inclusive, you are less self-cent ered that you also includ e int erest s of others in your interest. That was Mahatma Gand hi. He recognized t hat t wo kinds of spiritual sadhanas are there. One spiritual pursuit is you are for yourself, that you d o your meditation, you do your yoga, everything else and you will grow, that does not includ e others. Gandhi say s no, that is not ad equate. It s not enough that I grow, that s how Gaut am Budd ha also said. Gautam Buddha says t hat and that is why Gandhiji likes that verse, that I do not want heaven, I do not want even the hig hest world, I want to b e b orn again and ag ain to suffer along wit h suffering p eople so t hat I can help t hem. It was Jesus Christ s thought also. So, Christianity also preaches suffering for others. Gand hiji also believes that my growth must includ e the growth of others and therefore he liv ed life of sett ing ex ample to others, teaching others, including others and raising others along with him. Now, t hats a very big thing. We are Page 7 of 8

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small as y et but I am saying what id eal is or in which direction you should go? What they are teaching you is to be selfish, to be dominating , to be controlling, to be assertiv e, to b e snobbish. That s what they teach b ut what t hese script ures teach is q uite different - to b e humble, t o be inclusive, to b e sensitiv e and as less selfish as you can. 31. Nobody can b e truly selfish when you are a perfect man. We dont expect that but still there is a value for value. Let there be value for inclusiveness; let there be value for includ ing others; let there be value for t heir well being. A lead er should stand for the well b eing of t hose who need him. You should b e help ing them. If you lift them up they will push you up. You follow? If you lift them up, they will push you up, they will be wit h you. Thus, all of you grow toget her. Your growth is not ex cluding their growth. A growth must be inclusive growth. So, if you care and are concerned for those who work for you , you genuinely care lik e your children. The king has to look up on his subjects as children. Praja is nothing but prog eny (children). Praja means subject. Praja also means progeny. For a king ideal thing is t o look upon his sub ject s as his children. Care for them. Be concerned about them. Protect them. Help them. Swami, what will happen to me? T he next question is but what will happ en t o my progress? What progress do you want? The progress is measured in terms of emotional maturity, in terms of what mak es you successful and happy, that s what makes you more effect ive. You are always a more effectiv e person when you are inclusive not when y ou are ex clusiv e. So you tak e care of growth and well b eing of your team memb ers that is an ideal lead er.

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