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Management in Bhagavat Gita Introduction:

In this modern world the art of Management has become a part and parcel of everyday life, be it at home, in the office or factory and in Government. In all organizations, where a group of human beings assemble for a common purpose irrespective of caste, creed, and religion, management principles come into play through the management of resources, finance and planning, priorities, policies and practice. Management is a systematic way of carrying out activities in any field of human effort. Management need to focus more on leadership skills, e.g., establishing vision and goals, communicating the vision and goals, and guiding others to accomplish them. It also assert that leadership must be more facilitative, participative and empowering in how visions and goals are established and carried out. Some people assert that this really isn't a change in the management functions, rather it's re-emphasizing certain aspects of management.

Its task is to make people capable of joint performance, to make their weaknesses irrelevant, says the Management Guru Peter Drucker. It creates harmony in working together - equilibrium in thoughts and actions, goals and achievements, plans and performance, products and markets. It resolves situations of scarcity, be they in the physical, technical or human fields, through maximum utilization with the minimum available processes to achieve the goal. Lack of management causes disorder, confusion, wastage, delay, destruction and even depression. Managing men, money and materials in the best possible way, according to circumstances and environment, is the most important and essential factor for a successful management.

Management guidelines from the Bhagavad Gita:

There is an important distinction between effectiveness and efficiency in managing. •	Effectiveness is doing the right things. •	Efficiency is doing things right. The general principles of effective management can be applied in every field, the differences being more in application than in principle. The Manager's functions can be summed up as: •	Forming a vision •	Planning the strategy to realize the vision. •	Cultivating the art of leadership. •	Establishing institutional excellence. •	Building an innovative organization. •	Developing human resources. •	Building teams and teamwork. •	Delegation, motivation, and communication. •	Reviewing performance and taking corrective steps when called for. Thus, management is a process of aligning people and getting them committed to work for a common goal to the maximum social benefit - in search of excellence. Major functions of a manager are planning, organizing, leading and coordinating activities -- they put different emphasis and suggest different natures of activities in the following four major functions. The critical question in all managers' minds is how to be effective in their job. The answer to this fundamental question is found in the Bhagavad-Gita, which repeatedly proclaims that "you must try to manage yourself." The reason is that unless a manager reaches a level of excellence and effectiveness, he or she will be merely a face in the crowd.

1.Gita is an art of crisis management

The first chapter ends with the title of "Arjuna’s vishad yoga". The closest English word to vishad is despair. Depression and crisis come close too. Can vishad be yoga? The more I think of it the more I feel that perhaps this is the best way to manage a crisis. . There is a crisis inside of a crisis. War is a crisis itself. The Pandavas and the Kauravas are at the beginning of a war. The formalities have been completed. The war has been declared by blowing of the concshells. And, Arjuna goes numb. He does not want to fight. He has put down his bow and is prepared to die if that comes of it. How bad can it get? And the Bhagvadgita says it is yoga (vishad yoga). What makes it yoga? The view that Gita is presenting here is that every crisis has a hidden opportunity for growth. A crisis has occurred. If you have come across a crisis, you can relate to it as well. And who has not had a crisis of some sort or the other. SO,  a crisis  creates an  opportunities. What happens in any crisis is that the comfort zone is lost. Crisis is not hard to find. It happens all around us. Sometimes it is a car accident and sometimes it is death in the family. Sometimes one is fired from an job and sometimes a business goers bankrupt. We live and die through multitude of crisis situations. Vishad can be an opportunity for growth. And this can only happen if you can keep your awareness and alertness fully ready. Normally, when a crisis happens, we loose our mind and create another crisis and so on. Why me? What did I do wrong in my past life? God is angry with me. If we can get past these approaches, then anything is possible. Even sky is not the limit. If you can keep you cool and deal with the crisis as a situation (and not as a problem), vishad can lead to yoga; it can become the path towards the center. Crisis is a situation, crisis is easy to find and crisis can bring kranti (revolution) in ones life.

1.	Gita is a formula for success

Arjun was successful individual. After Bhagavad-Gita he becomes more successful. There are many aspects of Gita that contributed to his success. Let us understand the Karma Yoga in brief here. There are many definitions of yoga. Krishna’s definition is so practical. Yoga should make us work efficiently. How do we bring efficiency in our work? There are several modern concepts of how to become efficient. It usually revolves around decreasing waste and increasing productivity. Lean thinking is one of the concepts of reducing waste. Krishna’s karma yoga deals with these issues right here in Bhagavad-Gita. Let us try to explore it here. Let us recapitulate on three important aspects of Karma Yoga: 1.	Results are not in our hand 2.	Accepting of results 3.	Karmaphalatyag Krishna talks about the fact that the results are not in our hand. People often conclude that we should not worry about results. I differ from this conclusion for several reasons. So, what is Krishna talking about? He is simply saying that results are not totally in your hand. Result depends upon other factors as well as the effort that you make. It is a fact of life. There is no advice here. Krishna is changing the focus of our work. Most of us are result oriented people. We spend most of our energy worrying about the results. Krishna wants to bring that focus on the preparation and the work itself. The result depends on our work and other factors. Krishna knows about the other factors as well. Divine forces or call it luck factor is one of them. In our example above, I have done all my preparations for my examination. I go for the examination but there is a traffic jam because of an accident. I am already late getting to the examination place. I am exhausted. I am so tense as to what will happen that I freeze. I can’t think. The examination is not going to wait for me. This is luck factor. Can something be done about these factors? 4.	No effort of nishkam karma is wasted 5.	There are no obstacles (pratyavaya) in the path of nishkam karma and 6.	Nishkama karma protects one from the greatest fear The divine supports people who flow with the current. Efficiency is increased because the focus is on the process and on the produce. It is bound to. All the energy is directed to the work. The divine factors are in line and hence the result has to be the best possible possibility.

stress

Stress at work, Stress at home, Stress in relations, Stress in family life, we all suffer from some or the other form of stress in life. Stress has become the most common word in our fast day to day life. In our daily life everyone suffers from stress at some point or the other. Stress can be due to workplace pressures, tensions in relationships etc. etc. Stress normally disturbs our physical and mental health. Due to stress a person fails to respond appropriately to emotional or physical threats to the organism.

Common stress symptoms include irritability, muscular tension, inability to concentrate and a variety of physical reactions, such as headaches and accelerated heart beat. Otherwise stress can also cause backache, insomnia, fatigue, hypertension, eating disorder etc. So it is very clear that STRESS can create havoc with your life.

So it is imperative that we need to be cool & calm in life. Stress needs to be avoided in all cases in life. Now how can a person remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances so that he/she never experiences any stress?

If we want to come out of stress in life then first of all we need to change our lifestyle. First & foremost thing is that we need to be peaceful at mind in all circumstances. For that we should be satisfied with what we have at present. Let's try to be happy & try to enjoy what we are having at present. Do not hanker your mind always after those things which are not very easy to attain in life & are beyond one's reach.

Other than that just try to make harmonious relations with the people all around you. Be friendly with your relations & people around you at workplace. Once you are able to do that then you shall find that you are better off & much peaceful.

Other than this, just ENJOY your work. If you shall enjoy your work than considering it a burden, then also most of your Stress shall leave you as a person's mind engrossed in work has little to think about other things in life. Once you are peaceful at mind then stress shall leave you.

Finally as per teachings of "Bhagwat Gita" we need to be happy with our present state of life & should not hanker after the material desires. We need to have faith in God & should do our own duty as while doing one's own duty only one can be happy.

So just do your work with your 100% involvement & dedication & derive pleasure out of doing such work. Other than that, we need to learn some relaxation techniques such as meditation, doing deep breathing exercises, listening to soul soothing music etc. Having a long simple walk, doing some physical exercises, massaging the body can also help in reducing the stress.

MOTIVATION

Have you ever seen that when you are motivated in life, you are able to do everything in life with ease & enthusiasm. When you are motivated in life, success follows you in life. But when our mind gets depressed, dejected, demotivated, life seems impossible & we are not able to lead life enthusiastically & as a result we do not succeed in life. We may be physically fit with blood gushing in our nerves, but if we are not well with our MIND then we are certainly not going to perform to our full potential. Mental health is where the key to success lies. If we are mentally supercharged then we can achieve any milestone, in spite of having any physical inadequacy. One can never succeed & be victorious in life if he feels himself, defeated at mind.

In the ancient Kurukshetra war, "Arjuna" the great disciple of "Lord Sri Krishna" also came into such a de-motivated & dejected state of mind. In that war "Arjuna" refused to do his duty of fighting a righteous battle as he got infatuated & started thinking of his enemies as his own near & dear ones. His mind became week & highly de-motivated. He told his master "Lord Sri Krishna" that he is going away from the war & do not want to fight on the battle field. Arjuna's mental health became weak & he got deeply depressed

Now to overcome his disciple Arjuna's depression & to motivate him to fight a righteous war, "Lord Sri Krishna" gave the great teachings of "Bhagwat Gita" to his disciple "Arjuna". After listening to all these great teachings, Arjuna's mental health became well & he became motivated & energetic to fight the war. Bhagwat Gita" explains that one should do one's duty equi-poised or to have the equanimity of mind, without caring & renouncing all attachment to success or failure. If one does one's duty efficiently & with single minded devotion, without any fear of success or failure in his/her Endeavour, then certainly that person shall succeed in his/her work, as he/she is doing that work without any fear of success or failure. His/her mind shall be at peace & ease while doing such work without any fear of success or failure. Any person whose mind is at peace, certainly works effectively.

By the teachings of Lord Krishna, weakness of mind of Arjuna was gone & he became motivated. Below is a verse of Bhagwat Gita in which Arjuna acknowledges that his weakness of mind has gone & that he is now motivated to do his duty of fighting a just & righteous war.

the defeated & de-motivated mind of Arjuna became good & motivated by the teachings of Bhagwat Gita. Similarly we can also come out of the state of depression, de-motivation & dejection by reading the teachings of Bhagwat Gita. These teachings show us how to do our duty properly & how to lead a good life. So let's all follow the great teachings of Bhagwat Gita as told by Lord Sri Krishna Himself to Arjuna. These teachings are as much relevant in fast day to day life of ours today as these were in ancient times.

Below are few "Motivational Quotes" from our modern times great thinkers:

Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later. Og Mandino

Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy. Norman Vincent Peale

Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you. Thomas Jefferson

Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines. Robert H. Schuller

Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned. Peter Marshall

Things do not happen. Things are made to happen. John F. Kennedy

When you fail you learn from the mistakes you made and it motivates you to work even harder. Natalie Gulbis

Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds. Gordon B. Hinckley

You can never quit. Winners never quit, and quitters never win. Ted Turner So let yourself always be motivated in life. Let enthusiasm, vigor be there in your life & let you stay motivated in the face of challenges of life. Such an attitude shall always keep away the negativity in your life. Do not have regrets in life & move on in all the situations, as with such an attitude you shall quickly go ahead in your career. Always feel good about yourself & never let have negative thoughts in your life. Positive thoughts in life shall increase your self-esteem & that shall keep you motivated. Also enjoy a harmonious life at home & in society as it always keeps one's mind motivated in life. A motivated life shall let you accomplish much more & have greater success in life.

Management Lessons - Old truths in a new context:

The Bhagavad-Gita, written thousands of years ago, enlightens us on all managerial techniques leading us towards a harmonious and blissful state of affairs in place of the conflict, tensions, poor productivity, absence of motivation and so on, common in most of Indian enterprises today – and probably in enterprises in many other countries. The modern (Western) management concepts of vision, leadership, motivation, excellence in work, achieving goals, giving work meaning, decision making and planning, are all discussed in the Bhagavad-Gita. There is one major difference. While Western management thought too often deals with problems at material, external and peripheral levels, the Bhagavad-Gita tackles the issues from the grass roots level of human thinking. Once the basic thinking of man is improved, it will automatically enhance the quality of his actions and their results.

Utilization of available resources:

The first lesson of management science is to choose wisely and utilize scarce resources optimally. During the curtain raiser before the Mahabharata War, Duryodhana chose Sri Krishna's large army for his help while Arjuna selected Sri Krishna's wisdom for his support. This episode gives us a clue as to the nature of the effective manager - the former chose numbers, the later, wisdom. Work culture: An effective work culture is about vigorous and arduous efforts in pursuit of given or chosen tasks. Sri Krishna elaborates on two types of work culture – " daivi sampat" or divine work culture and "asuri sampat" or demonic work culture. Daivi work culture - involves fearlessness, purity, self-control, sacrifice, straightforwardness, self-denial, calmness, absence of fault-finding, absence of greed, gentleness, modesty, absence of envy and pride. Asuri work culture - involves egoism, delusion, personal desires, improper performance, work not oriented towards service. Mere work ethic is not enough. The hardened criminal exhibits an excellent work ethic. What is needed is a work ethic conditioned by ethics in work. It is in this light that the counsel, "yogah karmasu kausalam" should be understood. "Kausalam" means skill or technique of work which is an indispensable component of a work ethic. " Yogah" is defined in the Gita itself as "samatvam yogah uchyate" meaning an unchanging equipoise of mind (detachment.) Tilak tells us that acting with an equable mind is Yoga. (Bal Gangadhar Tilak, 1856-1920, the precursor of Gandhiji, hailed by the people of India as "Lokmanya," probably the most learned among the country's political leaders. For a description of the meanings of the word "Yoga", see foot of this page.) By making the equable mind the bed-rock of all actions, the Gita evolved the goal of unification of work ethic with ethics in work, for without ethical process no mind can attain an equipoise. The guru, Adi Sankara (born circa 800 AD), says that the skill necessary in the performance of one's duty is that of maintaining an evenness of mind in face of success and failure. The calm mind in the face of failure will lead to deeper introspection and see clearly where the process went wrong so that corrective steps could be taken to avoid shortcomings in future. The principle of reducing our attachment to personal gains from the work done is the Gita's prescription for attaining equanimity. It has been held that this principle leads to lack of incentive for effort, striking at the very root of work ethic. To the contrary, concentration on the task for its own sake leads to the achievement of excellence – and indeed to the true mental happiness of the worker. Thus, while commonplace theories of motivation may be said to lead us to the bondage or extrinsic rewards, the Gita's principle leads us to the intrinsic rewards of mental, and indeed moral, satisfaction.

Work results:

The Gita further explains the theory of "detachment" from the extrinsic rewards of work in saying: If the result of sincere effort is a success, the entire credit should not be appropriated by the doer alone. If the result of sincere effort is a failure, then too the entire blame does not accrue to the doer. The former attitude mollifies arrogance and conceit while the latter prevents excessive despondency, de-motivation and self-pity. Thus both these dispositions safeguard the doer against psychological vulnerability, the cause of the modem managers' companions of diabetes, high blood pressure and ulcers. Assimilation of the ideas of the Gita leads us to the wider spectrum of "lokasamgraha" (general welfare) but there is also another dimension to the work ethic - if the " karmayoga" (service) is blended with "bhaktiyoga" (devotion), then the work itself becomes worship, a "sevayoga" (service for its own sake). Along with bhakti yoga as a means of liberation, the Gita espouses the doctrine of nishkamya karma or pure action untainted by hankering after the fruits resulting from that action. Modern scientists have now understood the intuitive wisdom of that action in a new light. Scientists at the US National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, found that laboratory monkeys that started out as procrastinators, became efficient workers after they received brain injections that suppressed a gene linked to their ability to anticipate a reward. The scientists reported that the work ethic of rhesus macaques wasn't all that different from that of many people: "If the reward is not immediate, you procrastinate", Dr Richmond told LA Times. (This may sound a peculiarly religious idea but it has a wider application. It could be taken to mean doing something because it is worthwhile, to serve others, to make the world a better place – ed.)

Defeatism & Victory in Life

How many times in your life you have felt yourself depressed, de-motivated & dejected? How many times you have felt yourself defeated in life? If one feels like a defeated person in life then the battle of life is lost for that person. So we should not let our mind delve into the state of depression, de-motivation & dejection. We should never let our mind feel defeated as then there is no positive meaning of life. You can never succeed & be victorious in life if you feel yourself defeated at mind.

In the ancient Kurukshetra war, "Arjuna" the great disciple of "Lord Sri Krishna" also came into such a de-motivated & dejected state of mind. In that war "Arjuna" refused to do his duty of fighting a righteous battle as he got infatuated & started thinking of his enemies as his own near & dear ones. His mind became week & highly de-motivated. He told his master "Lord Sri Krishna" that he is going away from the war & do not want to fight on the battle field. Arjuna's mental health became weak & he got deeply depressed. To overcome his disciple Arjuna's depression & to motivate him to fight a righteous war, "Lord Sri Krishna" gave the great teachings of "Bhagwat Gita" to his disciple "Arjuna". After listening to all these great teachings, Arjuna's mental health became well & he became motivated & energetic to fight the war. Below are verses of Bhagwat Gita which shows how Arjuna became de-motivated & how he refused to do his duty of fighting a righteous war.

By the teachings of Lord Krishna, weakness of mind of Arjuna was gone & he became motivated. Below is a verse of Bhagwat Gita in which Arjuna acknowledges that his weakness of mind has gone & that he is now motivated to do his duty of fighting a just & righteous war.

So it is seen above, how the defeated & de-motivated mind of Arjuna became good & motivated by the teachings of Bhagwat Gita. Similarly we can also come out of the state of depression, de-motivation & dejection by reading the teachings of Bhagwat Gita. These teachings show us how to do our duty properly & how to lead a good life. So let's all follow the great teachings of Bhagwat Gita as told by Lord Sri Krishna Himself to Arjuna. These teachings are as much relevant in fast day to day life of ours today as these were in ancient times.