Thursday, December 10, 2009

Taking a Stand

Hi,
I am back after a long holiday and back to blogging. It was a hectic travel and net access was difficult and even you did not feel like sitting in front of the computer. Lots of travel blogs to write but before that just wanted to write this small story which I read somewhere. Am sure you are gonna like it.
"
Once upon a time, during the time of Mahabharata, there was this great warrior who wanted to be part of war between Kauravas and Pandavas. So he set out to Kurukshetra battlefield. On his way he met Krishna.
"I want to participate in great Mahabharata" he told Krishna.
"What can you do?" Krishna asked him
"With one arrow I can kill all Pandavas, with another arrow I can kill all Kauravas, and with one arrow I can kill Krishna" he said (he did not know that the man he met was Krishna)
"Prove yourself?" Krishna said.
"Ok, look at that tree, with one arrow I can pierce all the leaves of this tree"
Krisha asked him to do it, secretly plucking five leaves of the tree and putting under the five fingers of his feet.
The warrior shot the arrow and it after piercing each and every leaf, it came and pierced each of Krishna fingers one by one.
Krishna was very impressed and he realized that the warrior was of the highest class.
"On which side would you like to fight the war?" He asked,
"I always fight on the side of losers" the warrior said.

This really bothered Krishna, because he knew this would create a loop. The warrior would first fight on Pandavas side, and when they would be about to win, he would join Kauravas, and so on. The fight would never end. So he decided to end the warrior
Krishna asked the warrior, "Would you help me to fight against a a person who is destroying the dharma that I am trying to establish on Earth?"
Warrior said, "yes I will cut his head" he said
Krishna showed him the mirror. Warrior immediately realized that Krishna wanted him to be killed, but true to his word he offered his head to Krishna.

Pleased with him, Krishna asked him for the boon, and the warrior asked to be allowed to see the battle even when he was dead. So Krishna placed his head on the tree, where in spite of being dead he could watch the battle.
"

Well the story ends here and I have picked it up from Professor Devdutt's site. So Devdutt says that this story teaches us to take a stand because if you don’t take a stand then you end up being nowhere and don’t allow others to reach anywhere.

He says that in our day to day corporate meetings, we see people who are so brilliant that they can see things from both sides. When someone proposes a plan, they argue in favor of it, but as soon as everyone is about to agree to the plan, they argue about the misgivings of the plan. At the end of it, everyone is confused and you don’t take any decision. Hence the meetings just remain as mere intellectual discussions without any outcome.

So many of my meetings in my company have been like this. We just talk and talk and talk and talk very intelligently without making any decisions what so ever.

Even in my personal life, for lots of things I find balance arguments in favor and against doing something. And most times in these cases I don’t decide and keep thinking it over and over again. Guess it is best to decide something and move ahead and review the decisions at some point of time later.

Also reading Devdutt site makes me believe that there is so much in our mythology stories. If you try to interpret them, there are so many things. These stories are not just some imaginations, but have deep rooted meaning. Wonder why don’t we have more of these in our textbooks rather than decoding half French poems by William Wordsworth and "thou thy" language of Shakespeare.

12 comments:

Balachandra said...

As always, nice article. I agree completely with you that the stories we grew up with are quite meaningful. I really like reading those stories.

broca's area said...

welocome back:)
nice philosophy...

throughmyeyes said...

Nice message great post..
i hope you write more often

Hemant said...

Good story. It is nice to learn something from your blog.

throughmyeyes said...

It was a real story and i was 10 years old then.And such facilities were not available or not popular and not even afordable.Thnx i nvr thought u 'll read my blog and actually admire it.
It was the first comment on my blog.

Anonymous said...
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Ree said...

, goli, ur back with a bang! thanks for sharing this story, i was not aware of it and i will share it with people too :)

Goli said...

@bala, broca, throughmyeyes, hemant and reema : Thanks, I love devdutt Pattnaik, and I think he is amazing person.

Parul Gupta said...

very very nice. so Goli's whats your decision? ;-) :-)

29june said...

to 16 december happy bday frm 29 june

Anonymous said...

wonderful,iam new to net/blogs.there is more wisdom in ancient stories.drsuresh chhatwani.

Nikhil Bhagia said...

Loved it!!! :)
So true,.......& what a timing!!! I just gave my 12th & m confused w/ what to do after 12th??.....And i can argue the +s & the -s of any given field.....& m yet to arrive @ a decision....
Your post inspires me to take a stand.
Cheers,