Do not Imitate Others

You follow the path that suits your convenience. Any procedure that appeals to you and gives you shanti, and ananda can be followed. But never imitate. Never go by other people’s words and paths. You follow your chosen path. Otherwise, you lose your own way also. Imitation is human. But creation is divine.

I give you here a simple illustration from the life of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. Once it so happened, that one disciple by name Brahmananda was crossing the river in aboat to buy and fetch the requirements for the residents of the asram. He overheard the conversation going on among others that boarded the same boat. One said that Ramakrishna was spoiling many youngsters who were wasting their time by being lazy in the name of devotion and that it was surprising to see them with shaven heads and wearing ochre robes. Brahmananda felt very sad and shed tears. He returned to the asram that evening. Ramakrishna asked him what had happened in the boat while crossing the river. Brahmananda recounted the whole episode feeling very bad about the remarks made against Ramakrishna and his disciples. Then Ramakrishna was furious and said, “What Brahmananda! How could you hear all these remarks! Can you bear when your Guru is criticised like that? How do you react when your parents are attacked? How could you hear all this?”

Next day, it was the turn of Vivekananda to go to the market. He boarded the boat and was on his way. Vivekananda had to hear once again the boatman speaking ill of Ramakrishna for making youngsters lazy and useless. He could not control his anger. He got upimmediately, held the neck of the boatman and was even ready to push him into the Ganges. Somehow, others calmed him down.

In the evening, as usual in the course of the conversation, Ramakrishna, surrounded by his young disciples, asked Vivekananda what had happened in the boat. He proudly reported his reaction to the words of the boatman. Then Ramakrishna said, “What Naren! Are you not ashamed of your behaviour? Couldn’t you control your anger? What is the use of your sadhana? Is this the way a brahmacari should behave?”

Vivekananda then asked, “It is very strange to hear you speak like this. The other day you were angry with Brahmananda for keeping quiet when we were criticised. Today when I reacted to the same words, you are blaming me. Why this difference, Swami?” Ramakrishna smiling said, “A bicycle has two tires. There is too much air in the front wheel. A little of it should be let out. The air is less than necessary in the back wheel. Some more air must bepumped into it. So also, Brahmananda should have more spirit, while your temper must be reduced.” That’s how the individual level is important in the spiritual path. You shouldn’t imitate and follow others blindly.

 

Imitation can never become culture. You may wear royal robes and act the role; but can you, as a result of this imitation, become a king? A donkey clothed in tiger skin does not become a tiger. Imitation is a sign of cowardice. It cannot further one’s progress. In fact the tendency to imitate leads you down, step by step, into frightful shape. You must endeavour to uplift yourselves. You must be proud that you are devotees of the Lord. You must be proud of your ancestors. You should not imitate others and copy their attitudes. However, you may imbibe the good in t.

- Baba

 

The Good Coffee

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite -
telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups.

Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of Life we live. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee.

"The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything."

Who is Hindering your Growth

One day all the employees reached the office and they saw a big Notice on the door on which it was written:




“Yesterday the person who has been hindering your growth in this company passed away.We invite you to join the funeral in the room that has been prepared in the gym.”

In the beginning, they all got sad for the death of one of their colleagues, but after a while they started getting curious to know who was that man who hindered the growth of his colleagues and the company itself.

The excitement in the gym was such that security agents were ordered to control the crowd within the room.

The more people reached the coffin, the more the excitement heated up.


The more people reached the coffin, the more the excitement heated up.

Everyone thought:
“Who is this guy who was hindering my progress?”
“Well, at least he died!”

There was a mirror inside the coffin:
Everyone who looked inside it could see himself.

There was also a sign next to the mirror that said:

“There is only one person who is capable to set limits to your growth:

It is YOU.”

You are the only person who can revolutionise your life.
You are the only person who can influence your happiness, your realisation and your success.
You are the only person who can help yourself.
Your life does not change, when your boss changes, when your friends change, when your parents change, when your partner changes, when your company changes.
Your life changes when YOU change, when you go beyond your limiting beliefs, when you realize that you are the only one responsible for your life.

“Examine yourself, watch yourself, handle yourself well in front of others.”

“Don't be afraid of difficulties, impossibilities and losses:
Be a winner, build yourself and your reality.”

“The most important relationship you can have; is the one you have with yourself.”

It is not what happens to us, it's the way we choose to handle life that makes the difference.

Lessons from Indian Wars

Battle of Haldighati (1576 AD)

Mughal Emperor Akbar had captured Chittorgarh (Chittor fort) from Maharaja Udai Singh II in 1568. But before this, Udai Singh sensed the Mughals' intention to capture Chittor and the strength of the army. Thus, he built a new town at Udaipur near the foothills of the Aravali mountains. Udai Singh II, father of Maharana Pratap, shifted his capital to Udaipur, when Chittor fell.

Lesson: Prepare a backup plan to face any contingency. This plan should be executed at an appropriate time when the current plan fails to deliver the desired result. This is what Maharaja Udai Singh II had done by building a new town and seamlessly shifting the capital when Chittor fell.

Udai Singh II wanted his favourite son Jagmal to be his successor, but his ministers instead preferred his eldest son Pratap.

They argued that Pratap had the required skill to fight the Mughals in these difficult times to retain Mewar's independence and to recapture Chittor. Finally, they made Maharana Pratap the king of Mewar.

Lesson: Succession planning should be reviewed periodically, and modified based on the ground realities. It should be done on merit, not on favouritism.

*****

Maharana Pratap was unlike many other Rajput rulers who had joined hands with Akbar and had matrimonial alliance with Mughals. He turned down multiple proposals from Akbar to join hands with him.

He was determined to take over the Chittor fort and avenge the killings of innocents during that battle. Maharana Pratap knew it was not easy to capture Chittor.

Lesson: One could set an aggressive goal even if it is against popular belief or practice, provided one is determined and weighs the decision well by considering the full perspective.

******

In 1576, a big army of Akbar led by Kunwar Man Singh (who later became Raja Man Singh) met Maharana Pratap's men at Haldighati. Maharan Pratap was riding his famous horse, Chetak.

Maharana Pratap and his few men fought valiantly, but his army was no match to the numerical strength of Man Singh's army. When defeat looked imminent, Maharana Pratap's general, Jhala Mansingh, convinced Maharana Pratap to change the clothes and escape from Haldighati as he had bigger mission to accomplish.

Pratap agreed and escaped from the battlefield. Jhala Mansingh fought well, but was killed on the battlefield.

Lesson: Don't be rigid. One should be flexible in entertaining new ideas and suggestions from the team members, and take corrective actions if convinced.

********

Shakthi Singh was the brother of Maharana Pratap, but was fighting along with the Mughal army due to the family feud. He was amazed at Maharana Pratap's skill in the battlefield.

A couple of Mughal soldiers realized that Maharana Pratap had escaped and they followed him. Sensing this, Shakthi Singh followed the soldiers. When Maharana Pratap's famous horse Chetak died on the way, and Mughal soldiers came close to attacking Maharana Pratap, Shakthi Singh killed these soldiers and saved his brother's life and joined him in his battle against the Mughals.

Lesson: Leadership does not come by position, but by the qualities one demonstrates. This can turn the person into a role model, someone people would like to emulate. Here, Pratap's leadership qualities impressed Shakhti Singh, who, in turn, showed a higher sense of maturity. Bravery and leadership of Pratap appealed to his higher senses. Leadership guided by higher senses and great value systems are sustainable. It makes others follow the path.

The Mughal army suffered heavy casualties due to the arrows shot at them by the Bhils from the Aravali mountains. Bhils sided with Maharana Pratap during this battle and later too.

Maharana Pratap realized that defeating the Mughal army in a face-to-face battle was difficult and, therefore, he changed tack, shifting to guerilla warfare. His guerilla war was supported by tribes in the mountains and others, who kept attacking the Mughal army in whatever way they could. They even provided a spy network that saved Maharana Pratap several times.

Lesson: Willing to change the strategy by learning from the failed ones. The goal is to find a winning strategy. It's a case of using one's strength against the enemy's weakness. Lack of knowledge of the local terrain made Mughals vulnerable to guerrilla attacks that Maharana Pratap together with Bhils utilised to their advantage.

Pratap captured many areas of Mewar, but Chittor remained elusive. He made sure that the Mughals would never be able to rule in peace in Mewar. Even Akbar sent multiple expeditions to ferret out Maharana Pratap from his hideouts, but to no avail.

During this period, in one of his weak moments, Maharana Pratap decided to give up the fight and negotiate a peace treaty with Akbar. Knowing this, Pratap's cousin Prithiviraj Rathore, who served in Akbar court, wrote a letter to Pratap, urging him not to go ahead with his plan, as he was the only Rajput whom everyone respected. He urged Pratap to continue to be the custodian of this great responsibility.

Maharana Pratap responded positively and continued to fight till his last breath.

Lesson: During execution, it is sometimes common to lose sight of the goal and move away from the path and take one that is not aligned with the end goal. During this time, one needs mentors, friends and allies to provide the right guidance.

Maharana Pratap started his campaign with an aggressive goal to capture the Chittor fort. Approximately, 20 years after the battle of Haldighati, Maharana Pratap died. He had captured almost all of Mewar, except the Chittor fort.

He was such an icon of patriotism and the fight for freedom that four centuries later Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, one of the stalwarts of India's freedom struggle, commented that if Mewar could merge with independent India, then no other state had the right to remain independent.

Lesson: One should not be worried about setting aggressive goals for the fear of failure. Even if one cannot achieve the entire goal, partial achievement in the right direction is far more commendable than taking an easy way out.

The author, based in Bangalore, is the managing director of an IT multinational firm. He has also written two books: Offshoring Secrets, and the forthcoming Myths & Realities @ the Office.

Disclaimer: Since history is replete with different versions of the same event, chances are that some of the stories written here might not match with the version that the reader is conversant with. However, the article has been written not with the intention of being unerringly accurate on the historic account, but to use the event as a source of information from which to draw strategic management lessons.

A tiger, a hunter, a bear and a fear

Once in a forest, a hunter, on being chased by a tiger, felt tired and climbed up a tree. There was a bear sitting on the top of the tree. The tiger was waiting under the tree as it could not climb up. It was very hungry, so it wanted to gobble up the hunter. It requested the bear to push the hunter down, so that it could kill him and appease its hunger. The bear refused to do so, saying that the hunter was its guest and it was its moral duty to extend hospitality to guests. But, the tiger continued to wait under the tree. After some time, the bear started to doze. Noticing this, the tiger addressed the hunter, "O man, I am very hungry. It does not matter whether I eat you or the bear. I will go back once my hunger is satiated. The bear is dozing. So, push it down without delay. I will eat it and spare you." The man did not have the morality of even the bear. He thought he could escape from the clutches of the tiger by offering the bear as bait. So, he committed the ungrateful act of pushing the bear down. As luck would have it, the bear, as it was falling, caught hold of a branch, climbed up and saved itself from the tiger. Then the tiger said, "O bear, you should never believe the human beings. This hunter tried to harm you, though you were kind enough to give him shelter and protect him. So, without further delay, push the ungrateful wretch down, I shall devour him". But the bear said, "I have done my duty. Each one has to face the consequences of his own actions. I will not harm him just because he tried to harm me."

Sathya Sai Baba. Divine Discourse 6 May 1999

Most Important Body Part???

Inspiring Story..

My mother used to ask me: "What is the most important part of the body?"

Through the years I would take a guess at what I thought was the correct answer. When I was younger, I thought sound was very important to us as humans, so I said, "My ears, Mommy."

Mother said, "No Many people are deaf. But you keep thinking about it and I will ask you again soon."

Several years passed before she asked me again. Since making my first attempt, I had contemplated the correct answer. So this time I told her, "Mommy, sight is very important to everybody, so it must be our eyes." Mother looked at me and told me, "You are learning fast, but the answer is not correct because there are many people who are blind."

Stumped again, I continued my quest for knowledge. Over the years, Mother asked me a couple more times and always her answer was, "No, but you are getting smarter every year, my child."

Then last year, my grandpa died. Everybody was hurt. Everybody was crying. Even my father cried. I remember that especially because it was only the second time I saw him cry. My Mom looked at me when it was our turn to say our final good-bye to Grandpa.

Mother asked me, "Do you know the most important body part yet, my dear?"

I was shocked when she asked me this now. I always thought this was a game between her and me. Mother saw the confusion on my face and told me, "This question is very important. It shows that you have really lived in your life. For every body part you gave me in the past, I have told you was wrong and I have given you an example why. But today is the day you need to learn this important lesson."

Mother looked down at me as only a mother can. I saw her eyes well up with tears. Mother said, "My dear, the most important body part is your shoulder."

I asked, "Is it because it holds up my head?"

Mother replied, "No, it is because it can hold the head of a friend or a loved one when they cry. Everybody needs a shoulder to cry on sometime in life, my dear. I only hope that you have enough love and friends that you will always have a shoulder to cry on when you need it."

Then and there I knew the most important body part is not a selfish one. It is sympathetic to the pain of others. People will forget what you said... People will forget what you did.... But people will NEVER forget how you made them feel.

True or not, the story makes you stop and think. Be blessed. Be a blessing. Get your shoulder ready.

How Leaders Should Manage Failure

This is a very inspiring interview given by former president of India.Its worth reading,specially for those leaders who blame others on failure. This was the answer given by Abdul Kalam when the interviewer asked him about leadership.

India Knowledge@Wharton: Could you give an example, from your own experience, of how leaders should manage failure?

Kalam: Let me tell you about my experience. In 1973 I became the project director of India's satellite launch vehicle program, commonly called the SLV-3. Our goal was to put India's "Rohini" satellite into orbit by 1980. I was given funds and human resources -- but was told clearly that by 1980 we had to launch the satellite into space. Thousands of people worked together in scientific and technical teams towards that goal.

By 1979 -- I think the month was August -- we thought we were ready. As the project director, I went to the control center for the launch. At four minutes before the satellite launch, the computer began to go through the checklist of items that needed to be checked. One minute later, the computer program put the launch on hold; the display showed that some control components were not in order. My experts -- I had four or five of them with me -- told me not to worry; they had done their calculations and there was enough reserve fuel. So I bypassed the computer, switched to manual mode, and launched the rocket. In the first stage, everything worked fine. In the second stage, a problem developed. Instead of the satellite going into orbit, the whole rocket system plunged into the Bay of Bengal. It was a big failure.

That day, the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, Prof. Satish Dhawan, had called a press conference. The launch was at 7:00 am, and the press conference -- where journalists from around the world were present -- was at 7:45 am at ISRO's satellite launch range in Sriharikota [in Andhra Pradesh in southern India]. Prof. Dhawan, the leader of the organization, conducted the press conference himself. He took responsibility for the failure -- he said that the team had worked very hard, but that it needed more technological support. He assured the media that in another year, the team would definitely succeed. Now, I was the project director, and it was my failure, but instead, he took responsibility for the failure as chairman of the organization.

The next year, in July 1980, we tried again to launch the satellite -- and this time we succeeded. The whole nation was jubilant. Again, there was a press conference. Prof. Dhawan called me aside and told me, "You conduct the press conference today."

I learned a very important lesson that day. When failure occurred, the leader of the organization owned that failure. When success came, he gave it to his team. The best management lesson I have learned did not come to me from reading a book; it came from that experience.