There are many precepts in Bhagavad Geeta which is not a Holy Book for the Hindus alone, but is a book of concentrated wisdom handed down the ages from the ancient seers in India. Going through the Geeta one feels that it is applied Psychology, applied Management and Applied Lifestyle. The Geeta speaks about not only all these but also about the food that we eat and the effect it can have on our character and behavior and over ages it has been proved true. One does not have to be a believer in any God or any philosophy to read and understand the Geeta as it is a quintessence of sublimated thoughts filtered and concentrated from the ancient texts called the Upanishads.
Let us now look into what the Bhagavad Geeta has to offer to a professional manager who deals with the management of his employees.
Many of the maxims expounded in the Geeta can be applied to management techniques. Let us in this brief article try to see some of them.
In Chapter 4 verse 7 and 8, of the Geeta, in the verse starting (in Sanskrit) “Yada yada hi dharmasya………..” meaning literally ‘whenever Dharma (Honesty, Truthfulness etc) deteriorate, God incarnates to set the balance right and restore peace by protecting the good and destroying the evil individuals’. But viewed from a management viewpoint it can be interpreted as — “When there is instability and indiscipline in a system, the balance has to be restored by protecting the interests of the majority and weeding out the dishonest, corrupt and inefficient administrators.” This is exactly what a Board of Directors in an organization do or should be doing to keep the mission and the vision of the organization from going forward and not backward.
Another verse from Chapter 2 verse 22 runs thus “Vasaamsi Jeernani yatha vihaya ………..” It literally means “just as we discard decrepit clothes and wear new ones, the soul discards its old body and assumes a new body after giving up the old ones “.
Translating it into management parlance,we could interpret it thus. In any organization, the administrators should abandon old and obsolete ideas (mindset) and accept newer ideas. Change must be the order of the day especially when one has to adopt modern methods of management, marketing and digital technology. The organization also should renounce old technology and techniques and embrace newer ones for its progress. Also individuals in the administration who hang on to old fashioned ideas also may need to be replaced with newer and younger blood with more innovative ideas using modern management techniques and technology, whichever be the organization — a factory or a hospital.