Improving our efficiency with the help of Scriptures

As Indians we are blessed with a number of Scriptures. Bhagavat Gita being one of the most common Scripture that many of us have heard about even if we have not studied it. There are others like Bible, Khoran and so on. Being a Hindu I am familiar with Hindu scriptures and hence I mean these when I refer to as Scriptures. I am sure there is much more to be learnt by reading the other scriptures. 

I had a chance to read some of these Scriptures and I was awestruck to learn that these are eternal truths that can help any of us anytime, in our self-improvement. There is a general impression that the Scriptures are only for those who are close to retirement or those who have retired. Luckily, I read them when I was good 15 years away from retirement. So, I did not read them as part of my retirement plan. To be honest, there was no plan at all. Probably I was ready, so I got an opportunity to read them. That was my second attempt to read Bhagavat Gita. First time, it never made any sense to me and I could not proceed beyond the first few pages. I feel consciously or unconsciously we need to get ready for reading these great texts and understand them. 

I am going to write about these Scriptures and learnings from them in a Business context. I have been working for the past 35 years. I have more years in me for the work. I have been trying to implement some of the learnings from the Scriptures into my work life. I have benefitted in a big way. There is much more agenda. There are areas where I feel I am stagnating. The struggle is continuous to evolve myself. I believe I am not unique in this. Many of you are trying to do that. To continually evolve. I believe as Humans the purpose of our existence is to continually evolve. Some of us do that consciously and many of us do it unconsciously. 

Different types of Humans

Sri Ramakrishna explains the Human beings as few types. There is someone who is blissfully unaware of the higher dimension. Even in this person there is an unconscious urge to go to the next level. But the urge is covered by his own ignorance. The second type is someone who knows that there is more to be achieved. She makes a conscious attempt. This is the Seeker category. They are like fish that are in the net. They keep nibbling at the net to try and get out. The third type is someone who has realized their true nature and the potential that they have within them. The net can’t catch them. Within this there are two types again. They have become so big that the Net can’t handle them. These are the people that they have realized thru a Knowledge that their capabilities are infinite. The second category within this those who become so small in front of their God that the net is too big for them. They can come out from the gaps.

Whether we are aware or not, we are one of these types. All of us will proceed from one stage to the other. It is a matter of time. If you become aware, probably the speed of travel may improve. 

Commentaries

When we try to read the Scriptures like Bhagavat Gita, Vedanta, Upanishads, We cannot read and understand the original scriptures. Many Gurus have written commentaries about these Scriptures. That helps us to understand the Scriptures much better. For example, Sri Krishna is said to have given the message to Arjuna on the Battlefield which we call as Bhagavat Gita. Many great people have written commentaries on this including Sankaracharya. But even the commentary of Sankaracharya or even the commentary of Bala Gangadhara Tilak on Bhagavat Gita was difficult for me to understand. Sri Ranganathananda ji who was the President of Sri Ramakrishna Mutt wrote commentary on several scriptures including Bhagavat Gita. This was something I could understand as his language was more contemporary. 

Gurubhyonnamaha !

I read the commentaries of Sri Ranganathanandaji on Bhagavat Gita, Upanishads, Vivekachudamani and so on. If you find something useful in what I am writing, the credit is only to the Guru. If you find something that does not make sense to you, it is only my inability to explain the universal truth. 

Q : Why do I say Scriptures are useful in Business Context? 

There are two dimensions to improvement in our lives. One is what can be improved ‘out there’ (Paraak). Second is what can be improved ‘in here’. (Pratyek). This is explained by Sankaracharya in the Vivekachudamani. 

If you want to Improve something ‘out there’, you need to necessarily address what is ‘in here’.

Scriptures are very useful in Improving what is ‘in here’. 

Broadly many of us would have heard that great people like Budha and many other saints have realized the god within themselves. We call it as ‘realization’. This may be the ultimate result that we may be chasing. 

But as of now many of us are all at the level of wanting to earn money to maintain our family and attain Assets that we believe will give us happiness. That is quite fine. We can do all this much better when we improve our ‘Self’. 

Scriptures help us to go to the next level wherever we are. So, it is not necessary that only those who are retired and wanting to ‘realise’ themselves need to take the help of Scriptures. If Arjuna who was a warrior could benefit from Gita on a Battlefield, why we can’t benefit? Many of us are all in lesser ‘action’ oriented work than a Battlefield!! 

Q: What is the fundamental concept that is underlying in most of the Hindu scriptures?

The God is within you. You are covering it up with a lot of your own perceptions that you accumulated from your experience in life. It is compared to a Glass window. If the window is covered with a lot of dirt, you cannot see what is there outside that glass. Your mind does this. Your mind is internal to you. You form this mind which is like a cloud hanging over you with the experiences that you have in your life. If you feel you were cheated by your friends in the past, from that experience you summarise that you cannot generally trust friends! The scriptures tell you that you should not color your thinking with your past experiences. You should be able to discriminate (Viveka) between what is true and what is not. If you are going thru an experience now at this moment, then you should be able to see what is happening now and not bring in your experience from the past to color the current experience. 

Ram is the Project leader for setting up the new factory with Industry 4.0 elements for maximum productivity in your company. The Project is delayed by 2 months and you are going to attend a review tomorrow. You are already seething with anger that Ram is always like this. He always delayed many projects in the past. If you go to the review with this mindset, then you may not listen to him at all. As you do not listen to him, the communication is not happening. You fire him for his ‘inefficiency’ and the meeting ends with Ram and his team totally demotivated. It may be better if you do not start with your assumptions and look at it ‘as it is’. 

XYZ is the Vendor for the New Parts. The Quality of the new parts is not okay. There were several iterations from XYZ. Lot of precious time is wasted. The R&D Head is an expert in these parts. XYZ is also having long record of expertise in these parts. There is an ego clash between the R&D Head and the Vendor company. Both of them feel they have long experience, and their view is right. They are not looking at what the other person is saying on the basis of current evidence. They are both projecting their own reality on the basis of what happened in the past in their experience. It would help them to look at what is needed now. Then, they can both go in the same direction. Otherwise, they will go in different directions. Project will suffer. 

Hence, we need to use ‘Viveka’ to discriminate what ‘is’ and what ‘is not’ in the current situation. This is the same concept that can be applied for the higher concept of realizing god too by removing the dirt of ‘our perceptions’ arising from our experiences. 

Man – Mind (created by Thoughts) = God. 

We will discuss more concepts from various scriptures and how they can be useful to us in day-to-day life.