Divine wealth

Chapter 16:1-3

श्रीभगवानुवाच |

अभयं सत्त्वसंशुद्धिर्ज्ञानयोगव्यवस्थिति: |

दानं दमश्च यज्ञश्च स्वाध्यायस्तप आर्जवम् || 1||

अहिंसा सत्यमक्रोधस्त्याग: शान्तिरपैशुनम् |

दया भूतेष्वलोलुप्त्वं मार्दवं ह्रीरचापलम् || 2||

तेज: क्षमा धृति: शौचमद्रोहोनातिमानिता |

भवन्ति सम्पदं दैवीमभिजातस्य भारत || 3||

The Supreme Divine Personality said: O scion of Bharat, these are the saintly virtues of those endowed with a divine nature—fearlessness, purity of mind, steadfastness in spiritual knowledge, charity, control of the senses, sacrifice, study of the sacred books, austerity, and straightforwardness; non-violence, truthfulness, absence of anger, renunciation, peacefulness, restraint from fault-finding, compassion toward all living beings, absence of covetousness, gentleness, modesty, and lack of fickleness; vigor, forgiveness, fortitude, cleanliness, bearing enmity toward none, and absence of vanity. 

There is a difference between being rich and being wealthy. You become wealthy when you have money by doing the right deeds and karmas. These karmas or divine wealth are explained by Lord Krishna in Chapter 16 of the Bhagavad Gita as fearlessness, purification of one's existence, cultivation of spiritual knowledge, generosity or charity, self-control, performance of sacrifice, study of the Vedas, austerity, and simplicity; nonviolence, truthfulness, freedom from anger; renunciation, tranquility, aversion to faultfinding, compassion, and freedom from covetousness; gentleness, modesty, and steady determination; vigor, forgiveness, fortitude, cleanliness, freedom from envy, and the passion for honor—these transcendental qualities.

Let's understand the concept of divine wealth as described by Lord Krishna and explore the importance of these virtues in leading a fulfilled life.

• Fearlessness (Abhaya): Embracing life with courage and confidence. Helps us tackle challenges head-on, fostering personal and professional growth.
• Purity of Heart (Satva-Samsuddhi): Maintaining sincerity and honesty in all our actions. Builds trust and strong relationships, both in our personal lives and at work.
• Charity (Dana): Generously giving and helping others without expecting anything in return. Promotes a sense of community and well-being, making us feel more connected and purposeful.
• Self-Discipline (Dama): Controlling one's desires and impulses. Enhances our ability to stay focused and achieve our goals.
• Sacrifice (Yadnya): Making selfless sacrifices for the greater good. Encourages teamwork and collaboration, essential for success in any endeavor.
• Study of Sacred Texts (Svadhyaya): Continuously learning and reflecting on spiritual teachings. Provides wisdom and guidance, helping us navigate life's complexities.
• Austerity (Tapa): Practicing simplicity and self-restraint. Reminds us to appreciate the simple joys and avoid the pitfalls of excess.
• Uprightness (Arjava): Being straightforward and truthful. Ensures that we act with integrity, earning respect and admiration from others.

Incorporating these divine qualities into our lives can lead to a deeper sense of fulfilment, inner peace, and success. As we strive to embody these virtues, we create a positive impact not only on ourselves but also on those around us.

Circle of competence

When you look around, everybody is glued to the mobile, internet and on social media. We receive a lot of information on social media like WhatsApp, twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc. This gives the feeling that we know everything, and information is the power. What we forget is that we have just the information and not the knowledge. I have seen people hardly learning from those messages and information about what they are consuming daily. Most dangerous part is people making their opinion based on that or taking decisions without understanding enough. 

During the current pandemic, people have a lot of dilemmas. Should we take the vaccine or should we not? Is one of the dilemmas created by social media. However, very few people tried to contact their doctor and take his/her opinion instead of believing the news on social media. In today’s times, the perception of knowledge usually engulfs your true knowledge. Hence, our knowledge graph looks as under.

As you see, the circle of competence is the area that matches your experience and skills or ‘what you already know’. However, we think otherwise claiming that we have knowledge & skill in other areas also. This is because of the lack of reflection and insight we have.   

You must be knowing that Warren Buffet writes a letter every year to CEOs and shareholders of different companies where he invested. He does this to set expectations.  He referred to this concept in the letter he wrote to shareholders on behalf of Berkshire Hathaway. 

He says, “Intelligent investing is not complex, though that is far from saying that it is easy. What an investor needs is the ability to correctly evaluate selected businesses. Note that word “selected”: You don’t have to be an expert on every company, or even many. You only have to be able to evaluate companies within your circle of competence. The size of that circle is not very important; knowing its boundaries, however, is vital.” – Warren Buffett 

Knowing the circle of competence is not only useful to investors but also everybody. Everything which comes under your knowledge, skills, and competence comes under your “circle of competence.” Wise person knows exactly what his or her circle of competence is. Knowing your circle of competence increases the success rate and better decision making. It doesn’t mean that you can’t expand your circle of competence; however, your perception about the knowledge you have, needs to be corrected. 

Identifying the circle of competence is easy but overconfidence is the major hurdle in identifying it. We actually ‘think’ that we know better but in reality, we don’t. We need to understand that we may have limitations to expand our competence in certain areas where you need specialized expertise. For example, if you are a salesperson and you wish to become a data scientist, it is beyond your expertise. You can, but then you need to learn different skills to become a data scientist. 

One of the solutions to expand the circle of competence is moving from a “know-it-all” to a “learn-it-all” mindset. We are not superhuman who have all solutions and all knowledge. Our mind brings out solutions based on our past experiences. However, the mind does not relate those experiences to the contexts. Good news is, we can condition the mind to understand the context and that’s why learning is crucial.

(Opinions are purely personal & does not represent my organizations, current or past) 

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Be wise with a wise mind.

Once a King was discussing life with Yogi.  

The king asked Yogi, “What do you and your disciples do in your monastery?”

The Yogi answered, “We sit, we walk, and we eat.”

The King said, “Then how are you different, from common people, for we do those things as well?”

The Yogi responded, “When we sit, we know we are sitting. When we walk, we know we are walking. When we eat, we know we are eating.”

That's mindfulness. When you are performing any act, you know exactly what you are doing. You perform with all senses. 

We become emotional and respond, or we respond based on what we believe. We are also aware about the concept of left and right brain. Left brain is logical, analytical and methodical; however the right brain is more creative, intuitive, emotional. It also means that we human beings live with mind and heart. The mind and heart will not always be the same. 

The famous movie, ‘Indian’ was released in 1996. Kamal Hasan played the double role of Father and Son. Father is a freedom fighter, very strong on his own ethics and loves India from the heart. When he comes to know about the corrupt practices, he starts killing those corrupt people.  His son is also a corrupt RTO officer. Son approves the permit of an unfit school bus by taking the bribe. After a few days, while going to school, an accident happens, taking the lives of small children.    

When the father comes to know this, he feels very sad knowing his own son is a part of a corrupt system. He decides to punish the son and punishment means death. Manisha Koirala, fiancée of the son, pleads not to kill him ‘would be husband’. Father asks her, “Do you think that he has done right by taking bribes and approving the permit for an unfit bus? Because of him 25 children died. He could have avoided the accident.”   

Manisha Koirala replies, “दिमाग मानता है, लेकिन दिल नहीं (Mind agrees but not my heart.)”

Father replies firmly, “मेरा दिमाग और दिल एक ही है (My mind and heart is the same.). Please don’t stop me”

When you have to make the choice between heart and mind, what will you choose? The difficult dilemma always. Our dominant part takes over and we make decisions accordingly. It is highly impossible to have the mind and heart the same, but balancing is a must. Emotional intelligence helps us to make better choices in life.

As per the Zen philosophy, we have 3 states of mind, Reasonable mind, Emotional mind and Wise mind. This philosophy is also used to treat borderline personality disorder. Therapy is known as Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT). DBT looks at the mind in two-part, Reasonable mind and Emotional mind. You can relate this to the left brain and the right brain. We need balancing. That balancing mind is ‘Wise Mind.’ 

Common people do all things with either Reasonable or Emotional mind, however people who practice mindfulness like Yogi, use ‘Wise mind’. In simple language, your Emotional mind is your feelings, Reasonable mind is your thought based on facts and Wise mind balances both, knows which part of the mind is acting and responses wisely. 

Wise mind is the state of mind in the middle of both logical and emotional mind. In a Wise mind, we are aware of our feelings, and we decide how to act in a way to honour our feelings and goals. In a Wise mind, if we were angered, we would acknowledge our feelings and act in a way that would not create negative consequences for ourselves.  

You don’t need to be Yogi or Buddha to be in the state of Wise mind. It needs practice. Whenever you are in any situation or you have to make choices, decisions, if you are struggling with dilemmas use following tactics.

Just observe the situation, behaviour of another person and its impact and also your behaviour, feelings and thoughts.

Take a pause instead of responding and acknowledge those feelings.

Be in the present situation, experience what you are feeling, without thinking much of the past and future.

Don’t be judgemental by tagging good or bad. Just check observable facts.

And be effective without allowing your emotions to control your behaviour.   

The Wise mind will create some sort of stress, to know what it means and why they are feeling it. But this frame of mind also allows you to see a way through. It accepts reality and works to change what it believes is changeable. 

“Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Joy follows a pure thought like a shadow that never leaves”: Buddha

(Opinions are purely personal & does not represent my organizations, current or past) 
Author's book are available on Amazon, Flipkart, Pothi and BookGanga 

Vitality in Human Resource is now available in paperback edition. Please click here to buy

Buy Industrial Relations Strategy Framework For Every Manager on amazon. Click IR Strategy Framework.

Toxic Parrot

Toxic Parrot is our state of mind which is self critical, negative and unhelpful for self and others.

“Do you know that we carry a colourful but very dangerous parrot every moment?”.  He asked.

“What? What do you mean by that?” My reply.

“Parrot is a bird, it learns what you teach it, it will recite what he listened without understanding the meaning of that.”

“Yes, parrots are like that. They have a strong memory.”

“But imagine that you get that parrot. You don’t know from where it is. It doesn't have any knowledge, wisdom, or insight.”

“Ok!”

“However, this parrot is fed with self-criticism, negative thought and is always critical with others. What will you call that parrot?” He asked me.

“Of course, it is a toxic parrot.” I replied

“Yes, Toxic parrots are specifically trained to be unhelpful to you continuously commenting on you, your life and others in a way that constantly puts you down.”

“This is interesting, I like the metaphor.” Indeed, it was a great metaphor.

“This toxic parrot will always criticize you for everything, putting down your self-image. For example, when you don’t get the promotion in the office, it will criticize that you are not worth for the promotion, you are dumb and there are others more deserving candidates. If you are late for catching a bus, it will say, there you are … late latif… as usual... you can’t, useless.”

“And how this parrot is harmful to others?” I had a question.

“Toxic parrot while criticizing you, it will also criticize others because of unhappiness. It will ask you to blame others. It will give a constant message negatively about others also.”

“You are right, yet we can often put up with the thoughts from this internal bully for far too long. We hear that “parrot‟, believe the “parrot‟, and naturally get upset. That then affects the way we live our lives – the way we behave towards others, how we are, what we think about others, what we think about the world, and how we think and feel about ourselves.” I said.

“Wow, absolutely, you are getting it now” He smiled,

“But how we can keep shut the toxic parrot.”

“There is an Antidote for this.”

“Antidote and how to use that?”

“Simple, just notice that toxic parrot, and cover the cage!”

“Means?”

“Imagine that you are throwing a towel to the cage where the toxic parrot is.”

“Just reinforce the message, there’s that parrot again. I don’t have to listen to it. It’s just a parrot”. He told me, “Then go and do something else. Put your focus of attention on something else, distract yourself from the toxic parrot.”

“Is it so easy? By doing this will it keep its mouth shut?”

“No, this parrot is toxic, and it won’t give up easily, so you’ll need to keep using that antidote and be persistent in your practice! Eventually it will get tired of the towel, tired of you not responding. You’ll notice it less and less. It might just give up its poison as your antidote overcomes it, or perhaps fly off to wherever toxic parrots go.”

(The story is written by Vinod Bidwaik, based on the concept of “The Malevolent Parrot” by Kristina Iving)

Author's book are available on Amazon, Flipkart and BookGanga 

Vitality in Human Resource is now available in paperback edition. Please click here to buy

Peel the onion

Today to her (wife’s) surprise, I volunteered to cook dinner. I am not that expert in cooking; however, the easy recipe is of course Khichdi, easy and fast to cook. You only need rice, dal, spices, tomato, chili powder, salt, onion etc. You can add ginger, curry leaves, coriander and garlic to make it tasty. Finally, I could cook the Khichdi. My wife and son enjoyed eating that. While preparing for the Khichdi, thought came to my mind, that isn’t in our life everything is like Khichdi and onion? The same taste as Khichdi and different layers like onion? When you peel one scale, you get another in onion and we have a lot of ingredients in life like Khichdi. Our life is full of emotions like different spices.   

When we go in deep, we have different meanings in life. Such layers are everywhere in life. While communicating and understanding human beings you can use the metaphor of onion. Outer layer sometimes is fragile, sometimes rigid, sometimes dirty, but as you peel the layer, you get different insights.

Human beings are made up of upbringings, culture, value systems etc. overall surrounding and society has an impact on our lives. In emotional intelligence, we always use the word, “empathy, understanding the perspective of another person”. However, it is interesting to understand how those perspectives are built over a period of times. Sometimes, it is necessary to build trust by tearing layers and self-disclosing and sometimes just being curious and making another person included to understand him/her.       

Different researchers and authors have come up with different theories around the onion and that is very cool to understand. Few are related to the culture; few are related to change management but underlined philosophy is the same.     

In case of organizations, organizations also have their own personalities, i.e. culture of the organizations. The outer layers are composed of the patterns of behaviour observed while interacting with employees and managers. The next layer encompasses the beliefs, norms and attitudes of that culture. The middle of the onion represents the underlying cultural assumptions and values. As the most hidden layer, these aspects of culture are much harder to recognise and understand, but all of the other layers are built upon the center of the culture onion. Therefore, careful analysis and a better understanding of the different layers as well as how they interact and influence each other is necessary.

You can very much analyse those behavioural patterns of human beings and also employees in the organization by applying this model. Sometimes the underlying reason of behaviour may be totally different than what we assume. Even though we say that values and upbringing decide the behaviour, it is also the experience a person has in the specific situation in past and recent. Responses are always interpreted and manipulated differently. The question is how we are accurate in understanding those. You can be closed to accurate by peeling the onion.  

Please read the print replica of my latest book written for leaders on amazon kindle, Vitality in Human Resource: Adding human dimensions in HR processes

(Opinions are purely personal & does not represent my organization)    

Do you have your PDP, IDP?

We always think that the Personal Development Plan (PDP) or Individual Development Plan (IDP) is the responsibility of employer. We have the basic postulation that company is responsible for everything related to us, either development or career because we think that companies hire & keep us because we are indispensable. It is true that if company puts efforts in developing employees, their productivity may increase. But at the end of the day, is it only employer’s responsibility? It is also employee’s responsibility.

Someone (perhaps me :-)) has rightly said that we are the driver of our own growth, our own career, our own life and we should independently think on our own development. In this process if organization is supporting, it is well and good. However first you should be ready with your plan.

How many times we are clear in life about ourselves?

Have you challenge yourself?

What is that time, when you ask yourself what you want to do in the life and what you want to achieve within next 5 years, 10 years etc.

Second question, how many time you have reflected on “where are you today?” you may want to be the Vice President within next 5 years, but have you thought on your current status of strength, development areas, situation, circumstance etc.?

Further have you asked yourself, “How would you achieve your goals as asked in question number 1? What are that efforts you would take to go there? Learning, developing or just changing the job??

Frankly speaking and after interacting with so many people, I have found very few people who have such plans in place. Those few people may not call the plan as PDP or IDP, but they have all  answers on all above questions. Rest of the people flow in life as per the organizational, society, community flow…     

If you would like to reflect & want to make a PDP/IDP, just follow the process of:

Thinking about where you are now, what you like/dislike, reflecting on your strengths and improvements you would like to achieve.

Planning where you want to get to, what skills and knowledge you will need to develop and how you will acquire them via learning opportunities open to you.

Doing – putting your action plan into practice; recording the development you make; identifying when you have reached a goal.

Reflecting on your learning and achievement and, in the light of this, where you want to go next (and so the cycle begins again)

It is not so simple & easy, but just try…you will come to know your true potential. 

New year is approaching…may be good idea to work on… but don’t take it as a resolution, take it as a commitment. Commitment to yourself.

Need help? Just write….

Make your own Luck…

Luck is the choice and you can actually design your luck.

Do you believe on luck? Almost all believe on these two words. There is positive and negative connotation to the words. But do you think that you can always be lucky? Luck means occurring by chance, which implies that luck just happens by chance and it can’t be planned or obtained by intention.

Off course you can’t influence the decision of raffle or lottery or roll of dice. So here you can’t win by wishing or hoping, yet you can be lucky, how? Just observe following,

Know what you want: I decided to take a new car and it was clear in my mind that I would like to purchase Honda City. When I decided, I seemed to see the Honda city everywhere on the road. While driving, car next to me or car besides to me was Honda City. Off course it hadn’t just appeared, it had always on the road. But it was only after I had learned the Honda city that I noticed it.

If you don’t know what you want, how will you know when you find it?        

After few days, I was the owner of new Honda City.

In a similar way, when we become aware of opportunities, we notice them everywhere. Like my new Honda City. When we feel lucky, we see opportunities everywhere. When we do not feel lucky, we miss them completely. Off course, the opportunities are always there, but we are not aware of the, unless we feel lucky. Opportunities of all kind around us, but we recognize them only when we feel lucky.

Let people know what you want: if you let others know what you want, they pass on to useful information and tips. If your friends are not aware that you want to change the job, they can’t help you. But if you communicate, they would definitely

communicate opportunities.

Try, try and try again, but if it still doesn’t work, then try something else. If something is not working well inspite of all efforts, give up and try something else, when you have done your best. But give it your best first.

Believe on your intuition: Respect your feelings. This does not mean you gamble on, it means that you listen to your feelings and intuition. Consider them carefully and check them well. you don’t know, you may discover something all of sudden from your insights. Some may be hidden and you may have to take it out from you.

Do you know that chain of carbon molecule was invented in dream…here is the story.

August Kekule, a Germen scientist, is regarded as one of the principal founders of modern organic chemistry, the chemistry of carbon-based compounds. In 1858 he showed that carbon can link with itself to form long chains. In 1865 he reported his discovery of the benzene ring as the basis for another major group of carbon molecules. Kekule told that he had a dream after falling into a reverie aboard a horse-drawn London bus. “The atoms were gamboling before my eyes!'' he saw how the larger ones formed a chain, dragging the smaller ones after them but only at the ends of the chain. Kekule literally invented how the carbon chains are formed while in dream. This is a power of intuition.   

Believe you will succeed: Many great achievements did not overnight. Often they were precede by many false start and difficulties. You need to maintain your faith that you will soon succeed in small things and in times in great ones. Never give up on your dreams.

You can be lucky, not by magic or dreaming, but by following some of the time tested tips mentioned above. However they do not substitute to smart work and efforts.

Good Luck.            

Be A Proactive Employee

Why Proactive employees are successful?

Proactive employee are self-directed.
They believe at all times that they have a choice.

Why few employees get very good or excellent rating during performance appraisals? Why few employees get promoted? Why few employees don’t get opportunities in spite of their so called hard work? And why only few employees lead teams?

If you ask me, I will say that those who get good career opportunities have potential and are more pro-active than others. Few employees just follow what managers tell. They neither try to change the system nor give any suggestions & ideas to improve.

Most leaders and managers want employees who can manage themselves, make decisions without careful direction, and take responsibility. Whether it is front-line customer service employees taking it upon themselves to ensure that the customer gets the best experience possible, or a team leader engaging in creative problem-solving of their own, rather than bringing every issue to the boss. Proactive employees constantly find new and better ways of doing their work.

What exactly does it mean to be a proactive employee?

We can identify this in two ways, first, we examine who and what a proactive employee is. Then we look at what a proactive employee is not.

You will find that proactive employee is “self-directed” and non-proactive is “other-directed.” The self-directed employee takes responsibility for his own decisions and actions. The other-directed employee adopts an “I have to” mentality, and responds only to direction.

Difference between proactive & Non-Proactive employees:

Other-directed people believe they have no control over their own lives and instead are controlled by people in authority. For an other-directed person, the locus of control is external to himself.

On the other hand, the self-directed person sees the locus of control as internal: I have control of my life. The basic underlying belief of the other-directed person is “I have to…” meaning there is no element of choice in following what the authority has requested. For the self-directed person, the belief is “I choose to.”

Let see the personality details of both employees trough following visual:

Personality of Other –directed employee (Non-proactive employee)

When employees comply and do something they do not want to do, their natural feeling is to resent the authority for forcing them to do it. Even though the other-directed employee will eventually complete the task, he will do it grudgingly, and only well enough to avoid trouble.

underlying belief of the other-directed person is “I have to…” meaning there is no element of choice in following what the authority has requested. For the self-directed person, the belief is “I choose to.”

Whether other-directed people comply or rebel, their attitude is: I am not responsible. 

They either behave like victims, feeling sorry for themselves and complaining to friends and co-workers about the boss, or they plot revenge. Sometimes they will do both. In either instance, their intention is to undermine, a leader, want to accomplish.

Personality of Self-directed employee (Proactive employee)

The central difference between other-directed and self-directed team members is that self-directed people believe at all times that they have a choice. When you ask self-directed employees to do a new task, their thinking is to either agree or disagree with doing it.

If they agree to do the task, then they will do it to the best of their ability, because it is their choice. If they disagree, they will explain to their manager the reasons why they disagree. Either way, the feeling that self-directed people have is one of acceptance of whatever the outcomes are of their decisions.

They accept the consequences of their actions because they feel ownership of them. If self-directed team members agree to do a job and do not do it to expected standards, then they will accept the consequences for not having given their best. If they disagree with the task, and there are negative consequences for doing so, they will accept these consequences, too. That’s what self-directed people do. Prior to making decisions they consider the consequences of the decision, then act based on their understanding of those consequences. Since self-directed people are responsible, they are only likely to disagree when they believe that what they are being asked to do is unreasonable, or is the wrong thing to do.

If you are en employee, check in which category you are and if you are a manager, make the strategy to deal with both type. As a manager, you don’t have much issues with Proactive employees, focus on Non-Proactive employees…