Business Sutra: A Very Indian Approach to Management (55 page)

BOOK: Business Sutra: A Very Indian Approach to Management

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Shyamchandra is seventy years old but he continues to go to work. His wife tells him to slow down but he refuses to. "Remember those five years when I had no job and we were nearly on the streets. That should never happen again," he tells her. But that was thirty years ago. Since then work has been pouring in. The social body went through death and rebirth but Shyamchandra's mental body has not expanded. It has instead contracted in fear. He feels always like prey that will be attacked and ambushed anytime. Those around him see him as a predator who will not let anyone else work. He is the great banyan tree which will nurture nothing under its shade. In his mind, Shyamchandra sees himself as a victim. He does not trust the world around him. He clings to it as Brahma clings to Shatarupa, fearing abandonment. He refuses to see otherwise. All his wife can do is watch him in despair and support him with affection, hoping that one day wisdom will dawn.

In the Mahabharat, Arjun loses his nerve and refuses to fight the battle, not because he fears death or the infamy that will come from killing his kith and kin. More than the physical body, it is his social body that is threatened by the war. He seeks comfort and motivation, Durga, more than Lakshmi, in that moment of crisis.

But his charioteer, Krishna, gives him Saraswati instead: exhorting him to expand his mental body. Krishna reveals the Narayan potential by presenting his cosmic form: the vishwarup. Arjun, who is nara, sees in Krishna the entire universe, extending to infinity in the eight directions; all of time, the past, the present, the future; every deva, asura, yaksha, rakshasa, prajapati and tapasvi. Within Krishna, all worldviews are included.

If Arjun seeks peace, he needs to expand his contracted mind. For this, he has to participate in the yagna, again and again, keep paying attention to the hunger of those in front of him, appreciate the fear that prevents others from being inclusive. Only then will he be able to outgrow the fear that makes him want to exclude. Escape is not an option.

Rebirth is about believing in second chances. This is not the one and only life. There is not only one way of seeing the world. There is always another opportunity, another chance to feed and be fed.

The yagnas will never end. As long as humanity exists, there will always be hunger to satisfy, resources to generate and potential to realize. With every successive yagna, every devata can become a yajaman, and every yajaman, a bhagavan.

He who believes in infinite lives will also have infinite patience, for there is no single goal to reach, only one's gaze that has to keep expanding. It is this human ability that the rishis acknowledge when they join their palms, bow their heads and say, "Namaskar."

When the mind expands, Lakshmi follows. This is the essence of Business Sutra.