MONDAY MUSINGS SEASON 2 - Episode 304 - #MeritsOfMentoring
MONDAY MUSINGS SEASON 2 - EPISODE 304
10th March 2025
Merits of Mentoring
Starting a new series on learnings from #SongOfGod #BhagavadGita from this episode. Bhagavad Gita is a universal philosophy, universal guidebook. What else can be better than Bhagavad Gita for learning.
#BhagavadGita is the compilation of Lord Krishna’s teachings to Arjun. I shall start the lessons this week with a special sloka stressing the importance of learning.
#BeginWithTheEnd
Let us start with the last sloka of Bhagavad Gita ie 18.78. I am beginning with the end because this sloka gives a very special perspective to Bhagavad Gita. This sloka is set as Sanjaya’s closing remark to Dhritarashtra.
#BhagavadGita starts with a sloka (1.1) wherein Dhritarashtra anxiously asks Sanjaya to brief him the greatness of Kaurava army and their chances of winning the war. Thus, many commentators interpret this last sloka of Bhagavad Gita as the prediction of Sanjaya to Dhritarashtra that the Pandavas would win the Kurukshetra war, akin to an exit poll, but this exit poll prediction turned out to be accurate. But this sloka has lot more inner meaning and is set as the phalasruthi of Bhagavad Gita. Let me first give the original sloka, its transliteration and English translation and then the deliberations.
???? ????????: ?????? ???? ?????? ???????: | ???? ??????????? ?????????? ????????????? || Bhagavad Gita 18.78
Transliteration
Yatra yogeshwarah krishno, yatra partho dhanurdharah
Tatra shree vijayo bhuti dhruvo neeti matirmama
I will start with explaining the important words in this sloka
Yatra and Tatra are the famous combination words in Sanskrit denoting Where and There,
Yoga + Eshwarah = Yogeshwarah meaning God of Yog ie God of Teaching. This is a sandhi in Sanskrit.
Dhanurdharah indicates bow wielding, identification for Arjuna, also to highlight Arjuna’s valour
Shree, Vijaya, Bhuti, Neeti translate to Wealth, Victory, Prosperity and Righteousness respectively
Matirmama means in my opinion and Dhruva means certain.
Now the literal translation of the sloka
Sanjaya to Dhridharashtra – “Where there is Lord Krisha who is the master of yog and where there is bow wielding Arjun, there will certainly be Wealth, Victory, Prosperity and Righteousness in my opinion”.
Indirectly hinting to Dhridharashtra that because Krishna and Arjuna are fighting the war together, Pandavas would win the war, gain wealth and fame and rule the kingdom righteously.
This sloka is used as a phala sruthi (song of the benefits), essentially benefits of true love to Lord Krishna. Important point to note here is the usage of yatra two times, indicating that the benefits accrue when (only when) both Lord Krishna and Arjuna are there.
#ImportanceOfLearning
Lord Krishna and Arjun connote a very special bond and relationship. They represent the equation between God and a true bhakth in human, the special relationship between paramatma and jeevatma, and more important the affinity between a good Teacher and his committed student.
Lord Krishna is a master teacher, no doubt. Entire Bhagavad Gita was his unique contribution, only his contribution. Arjuna was just a listener offering few questions here and there. Otherwise, all the questions were asked by Lord Krishna and the answers for the questions given by himself. But Arjuna’s role in Bhagavad Gita cannot be brushed aside. As much as you need Krishna you need Arjunas as well.
The sloka exemplifies the importance of learning. Stated benefits accrue when there is learning. Continuous teaching and continuous learning are essential for a society to prosper, for an organization to succeed. All organizations require mentors and committed mentees who develop unquenchable desire to learn.
Many people offer me free advice to keep myself away from taking trainings and focus instead on other revenue earning activities for the business. I enjoy taking trainings, especially when the training programs include sincerely interested and committed students, not for the sake of the additional revenue it brings to the coffers, but for the fact that such trainings help me to enhance my knowledge.
I enjoy spending time on preparing for #MondayMusings episodes because that gives me lots of new learnings. Sharing your knowledge with others is the best way to enhance your knowledge.
Lord Krishna could offer powerful and meaningful messages only because it was Arjun on the other end patiently waiting, sincerely listening, absorbing the learnings, reasoning out and acquiring the knowledge.
For a society, for an organization, for an individual to grow gaining wealth, prosperity, victory and righteousness, teachers / mentors must be developed as well as committed students with serious interest in learning to be developed and the culture of mentoring to be developed. This is the essence of #BhagavadGita.
Ask yourself the question “How many people have you brought up in your life” as that would be the most important achievement in your life. Also ask the question “How many effective mentors have I had to learn from”. Developing, sustaining and honoring enough mentors to learn from is crucial for development. It is good to have multiple mentors.
#ProsperityAndHappiness
In the list of benefits, Vyasa put together material things such as Wealth, Power, Victory with Morality indicating prosperity is very important but morality is equally important. He sees a world-order in which man pursues a way-of-life, wherein the spiritual and the material values are happily wedded to each other. PROSPERITY WITHOUT PEACE WITHIN IS A CALAMITY, GRUESOME AND TERRIBLE! ?Similarly, mere spirituality without material exertion cannot bring happiness.
Let us enjoy and learn from #BhagavadGita from the next episode keeping in mind this new perspective of #ContinuousLearning and #ContinuousTeaching because learning is essential for growth.
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#PositiveNewsPage
Life came with more twists and turns for this bowler
(Adapted from www.swarajyamag.com)
I am watching Champions Trophy finals between India and NewZealand in the TV when preparing this episode. Big expectations on the mystery spinner, Varun Charavarti. Not only me, but cricket lovers across the world watch him with awe. But his life is not the one of rosy. He had to stride through many twists and turns in his life. How he ended up as a mystery spinner is a mysterious story with lots of learning.
The man who will turn 34 in August later this year had not even played league-level cricket till he was 26. From then on to be a potential trump card to India's fortunes in the ICC Champions Trophy is a journey that is filled with one implausible turn to another.
Born to Tamil parents , Varun first went to the KV inside the CLRI campus. Like any Chennai kid of his background, he dabbled in cricket.?As it happened, his first fascination was wicket-keeping, and his first hero was Dinesh Karthik.
But in a city where literally hundreds and hundreds of talented school cricketers vie for a few spots in district and age-level teams, Varun found the going tough as both his wicket-keeping and batting never made any major splash. In his own words, he attended at least 200 net sessions and selection trials but never got picked in any.
An architect uneasily emerges
He had two tough choices to make in his higher secondary like many other boys with interest in sports. One, a sport in which he hardly showed any great spark. Two, academics. As a boy from a typical middle-class south Indian family (his dad worked for the public sector BSNL), Varun's choice had no real surprise. But even in school studies, Varun was just about middling, securing 68% in the Boards. This meant that his other dream of making it as a doctor or an avionics specialist had to be shelved.
Luckily, he had a flair with his hands and fingers. He had skills for drawing, and armed with that he enrolled himself in a 5-year architecture course with a popular private college in the outskirts of Chennai, but one with no great pedigree in cricket. the cricketer in Varun was in exile for all those years.
Okay, he sporadically turned up in local tennis ball cricket events. But for a man who had great ambitions of international cricket, this was nothing. It was like gearing up for the Grammys by singing inside your bathroom. Varun, who brands himself an introvert, had a mind that was capable of introspection. He had an innate stoicism that did not let him brood over his life's predicament too much.?
After his architecture course, he joined a private firm (named D + Y)? in the city. His architecture days were uneventful cricketing-wise, but in that period he met Neha Khedekar, who was to later become his wife in 2020, and remain that one unwavering source of backing and inspiration to him.?
But by around 2013, Varun found himself in a situation like many of the batsmen facing him now feel — totally lost. Architecture, which he actually loved, was not satisfying his inner craving. Varun did not know what he wanted to do with his life then.
Varun, the cricketer — in a film though?
One fine day, almost like in films, he went to the office, and at the lunch hour told his senior that he was calling it quits. It was that dramatic. Later, he also told Neha, whom he had started dating, that their relationship may not work as he was giving up his job. But fortunately, Neha gave him comforting words that she would be around with him no matter what.
He did not quit his job for the sake of cricket. He decided to throw his hat in the ring of cinema. As an assistant director to start off, as he thought he can think up stories and write scripts.? As it happened, a cricket movie in Tamil was about to get going, and Varun, with his cricketing background, considered himself as the right candidate for working as part of the crew. But his efforts were nullified as the team did not pick him as an Assistant Director. But they offered him an alternative: a short role as a cricketer. For the next two years, Varun endeavored manfully in Kollywood, but the elusive break remained just that.?
Back to where he started?
By 2017 or thereabouts, Varun’s life was in crossroads. With his film career not even taking off, Varun now understood the futility of it. So where to now? Well, Varun again chose architecture. And this time as a freelancer with his own firm and money. And he lined up a few interesting projects as well, and life, for once, looked set for him as his sky was looking bright.
Well, soon the clouds gathered. Only too literally, as it poured heavily leading to devastating floods in Chennai. Under the water went three of Varun's projects. He lost all his invested money. And again, Varun was grappling with another existentialist crisis.
He had nowhere to go. 'This was the darkest period of my life,' Varun would say later. As the going got difficult, Varun chose to look elsewhere. As a diversion, he turned his attention to cricket. But nothing serious, only as a military medium-pacer in the unheralded fourth division league team (CromBest Cricket Club).? But at least he was back to leather ball cricket after a long time.
Another twist but this time for good, right in the second match he suffered an injury to his leg and it cut short his plans. As he recuperated from his injury over the next few months, Varun went back to tennis-ball cricket and had his first fortuitous twist in his life. As he was still hampered for movement, Varun, then around 26 years of age, decided to give spin bowling a shot.
The birth of mystery bowler
And there he figured out that there were many mysterious ways to bowl a cricket ball. It was a fascinating phase of discovery for Varun. But now with a few weapons in his arsenal, Varun decided to go back to league cricket. He went to another team in the same fourth division league.
And in the first match, Varun arrived with his new bag of tricks. No prizes for guessing what happened. He was hit for many and did not pick any wicket. But luckily, Varun chose to persevere, and by the second match, he had found some grip on the ball and his game. Wickets began to accrue, and batsmen had trouble in picking him up. Suddenly, Varun found himself in bowling riches. He scalped 31 wickets in 7 limited-overs matches at an average of 8.26 and economy rate of 3.06. But it was still a lowly league in Chennai.?
However, his bowling, which had alluring mystique around, had become a talking point in Chennai's cricketing circles where words spread fast. And one thing led to another, his name was in the radar of the TNPL league teams. Karaikudi Kaalais roped him in 2017, but did not play him much.
TNPL unearths a star
The 2018 TNPL league is the pivot in Varun's life so far. He didn't pick wickets by the bucketful. But he proved that he had it in him to be considered a serious cricketer. He became a hot property in 2018 TNPL draft where he was the first pick for Siechem Madurai Panthers. In all, he had 9 wickets in the tournament, with an economy of 4.7 and dot ball percentage of 52.08.
With TNPL conquered, can the bigger arena of IPL be far away. One morning, he cold-called one of the talent scouts of the CSK and got into the net practice with CSK.
And soon enough, Varun was at the practice with CSK bowling to one of its legends, Dwayne Bravo. Within a few deliveries, Varun impressed everyone and had the West Indian out also. And then entered Thala Dhoni, and Varun again wove his magic and had the great man in all sorts of trouble (a man whom he will go on to clean bowl three times in IPL games later).
But the happiness of the CSK net sessions at Chepauk could not last long as in 2018, due to local politics, CSK had to shift its base to Pune, and Varun was again thrown back into wilderness. But, as it happened, the man who had inspired him to cricket in the first place, Dinesh Karthik (DK) showed up again.
Spinner gets a break in IPL?
DK always has an eye and time for local talent. He was convinced of Varun's magic. DK, who was with the KKR franchise then, talked to his bosses, and had him fly to Kolkata (Varun had made a brief appearance in their nets before without making much impact). But this time around, Varun, with a changed action and more cricketing smarts up his sleeve, was much more ready for the audition.
In the meantime, the TN cricket team understood that it had a champion bowler in its midst. Varun was picked for the State —? List A debut for Tamil Nadu — in the 2018-19 Vijay Hazare Trophy. In 9 matches, Varun gathered 22 wickets. His graph was zooming. And he was also offered his debut cap in the State's Ranji team. In November-2018, Varun turned up for TN against Hyderabad at Tirunelveli — his first major brush with red ball cricket. In a high-scoring encounter on a batting paradise, Varun turned his arm over for 39 overs for just a solitary wicket.
But those overs were good enough for Varun, ever the realist, to understand that his skills were not made for the longer version of the game. And it is then he also decided to focus solely on the white ball games, especially the shortest version. And by 2019, Varun had also become a name to contend with in the T20 format. That year, PBKS picked him for Rs 8.4 crores. Just two years earlier, Varun had lost all his money and was trapped in life's?cul de sac.
Varun is perseverant
And here he was swirling in IPL riches. From then on, things have looked up — at least financially — for him. His show for the KKR, and mystery being decoded and having a lean season, getting picked for the Indian T20 side, losing his position. But every time he has fallen, Varun has shown the heart to get up and be ready for the next run.???
But even by his standards for unbelievable turn of events, the out-of-blue call for him in the ODIs earlier this year against England this year stands out. And after that improbable debut, he was shoe-horned into the Champions Trophy squad which already had three gun spinners in it. Nobody thought he would get a chance with Jadeja, Axar and Kuldeep already around.
But in a team with all of them around, Varun scooped up a five-for against New Zealand in a tricky defense of a middling 249. Only the third ever fifer by an Indian in the annals of this ICC trophy. Not bad for a guy whose tryst with cricket just a decade back was while playing the part of a cricketer in a mediocre film.?
Now, what next? Who knows what Varun will pull off? As ever with his life and cricket, it is a mystery.?
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Conceived, compiled and posted as a newsletter #MondayMusings every Monday in LinkedIn by Jaganathan T (www.authorjaganathan.com)
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