Lessons from Gita - Decision Taking

A 25 years old man joined the Hindi film industry as a hero. Within a couple of years, his movies started earning good money. His romantic image became a style statement. For almost 30 years, his name was enough to draw people to the silver screen. The man fell a victim to his best screen aura. Even in old age, he insisted upon playing lead roles in films in the belief that his charm would remain evergreen. Unfortunately, that was not to be. The films started bombing one after the other with the man not giving up. Even film enthusiasts would find it difficult to recall much about the movies ‘Chargesheet’, ‘Love at Times Square’, ‘Censor’, ‘Pyaar Ka Tarana’, etc.

Allow me to talk about another illustrious person. The second-youngest cricketer to score a test century, he amassed 15,921 runs with 51 centuries in that format of the game, and scored 18,426 runs with 49 centuries in one day international games. However, his batting average started diminishing over the years, and his 100^th century came after a gap of an year after the 99^th. The opponents? Bangladesh, one of the weakest teams of that time. By the time he retired, he was a shadow of his past self.

There was a guy in a small town in Bavaria, who cobbled shoes in a laundry room. He couldn’t have aspired for much due to his humble status, limited resources, and the presence of many established shoemakers in the market. But the boy was made of a different stuff. He didn’t look at his shoes only from his point of view, nor did he blindly copy what others were making. He contacted athletes, understood their complaints about shoes, learnt about their expectations, and worked on his products. He continued to gather feedback to bring improvements. Gradually, his shoes gained recognition and started being preferred by the customers, leading to the registration of Adi Dassler Adidas Sportschuhfabrik. Adidas, a household name, doesn’t need an introduction today.

And then, there is this woman who thought she could write even when she was a young girl. Before she could share her major work, her mother died. Two years later, she got married, had a daughter, but got divorced in about a year. Her limited means, absence of a typewriter or computer, and lack of space forced her to write in a café with her daughter, Jessica, in a pram next to her chair. She could ill-afford the photocopying expenditure but still kept submitting the manuscript to publishers, 12 of whom rejected it over time. Finally, an eight years old girl, Alice, read the manuscript of the novel, liked it, and told her father Nigel about it. The wheel of fortune turned. Nigel Newton, the CEO of Bloomsbury, called the writer and thus was laid the foundation of the famous Harry Potter series. More than 500 million copies of JK Rowling’s books have been sold worldwide.

According to the Vedanta, reality can be of three types—Pratibhasika (personal or subjective), Vyavaharika (collective or objective), and Paramarthika (universal or complete). Mundane matters of everyday life can be handled efficiently with the awareness of Pratibhasika Satya. However, one should be equipped with higher knowledge to deal with larger issues. Such matters must be handled in a detached manner. Too much focus on oneself or on one point often leads to exaggerated or deficient attention on other relevant people or situations, incorrect judgement of threats and opportunities, irrational decisions, and failures. Substantial resources of time and money would have been saved had the hero of the yesteryears in the above example accepted the public opinion in time. Same with the sportsman. The key to the success of Adi Dassler lay in the fact that rather than focusing on his limitations, he concentrated on the collective feedback of the target users. While 12 publishers dismissed the Harry Potter manuscript as useless, the 13^th minted money because he gave precedence to the opinion of the target reader.

To arrive at the correct decision, the situation must be analysed in a foolproof, calm, patient, and aloof manner. Personal prejudices, dogmas, likes, and dislikes corrupt the decision. It’s easy to say but difficult to practice because of our ego. How can we ignore our status, power, strengths, etc., while getting involved with a problem? How can it be sane to treat a scholar at par with an illiterate, a billionaire with a pauper, or, a body builder with an unfit person? Aren’t we different from the others? Don’t we have unique personalities? Are we not distinctly different individuals?

As long as complex situations are concerned, we are not! A pope’s peon and the pope know more than the pope. The lowly ant is capable of making the mighty elephant very uncomfortable. Geese have guarded military establishments better than dogs in some cases. If it sounds too much of a general statement, just look at the headlines involving a major event: “126 Die in Plane Crash,” “56% Girls Clear Exams,” and, “Cabinet to have 30 Ministers.” Where is the individual here?

An often misunderstood shloka from the 9^th chapter of Gita reads as below:

पिताहमस्य जगतो माता धाता पितामह: |
वेद्यं पवित्रमोङ्कार ऋक्साम यजुरेव च || 17||

If we go by the literal meaning, Lord Krishna describes his might to Arjuna through these words by stating that he is the father, the mother, the sustainer, and the grandsire of the universe. He is also the purifier, the goal of knowledge, the sacred syllable ‘Om’, the Ṛig Veda, the Sāma Veda, and the Yajur Veda.

The implied, much deeper, meaning addresses one of the greatest errors in human consciousness because of which we consider ourselves as different individuals. There is nothing individual about us. Our body is not of our creation; it was created by our parents and their parents in an endless chain. We didn’t decide about our birth, diseases, or features, and have little control over our thoughts, romances, fights, and other events around us. The principles governing us are not our creation. Our knowledge is also not ours. We didn’t invent the alphabets, the numbers, or the subjects. We are just a part of the creation. We owe our existence to the cosmos. ‘I’ is an illusion, ‘individual’ is a myth. Once we accept that reality, it becomes easier to acquire the larger perspective essential for impeccable decision-making.

            Step down from that high pedestal, start including the lowest common denominator in the scheme of things, and enjoy the pleasure of taking correct decisions in complex situations.