The Little Magazine

Opening a mountain of a book by Amartya Sen in the morning and to read some ten lines of any of his work, makes for an excellent exercise for my intellect in the mornings! At once I would be humbled by his intellectual might. This humility would help me all through the day. Once I see how small I really am, I tend to be silent and receptive.

As a bonus, an immensely satisfying one, this exercise today led me to something called 'The Little Magazine' (http://www.littlemag.com). Am amazed at the intellectual quality of this magazine. Guess it has started around a decade ago and there has been only a handful of issues posted on the website - and articles from these issues have been given access selectively online. Very very tempting. The quality of the authors is formidable. Am happy that something like this exists. I hope it survives these tough times and lives forever. The first thing that struck me from this magazine today morning is this poem by Jerry Pinto:

Lord of the linear narrative,

Show me the point at which I should begin.

Stop me when I have said as much as I should.

Regulate my voice, I boom too much

and my whispers are shrill.

Feed me words on those long, slow afternoons.

Allow me the grace of serendipity —

To find lost continents on my tongue.

Give me the gift of silence,

and then set me adrift.

The last two lines moved me. How nicely is the thirst of any creative artist for silent wanderings captured!

If not for anything else, The Little Magazine would have my patronage because Amartya Sen regulars there.

Amartya Sen's The Argumentative Indian enhanced my knowledge about India and Hinduism. Am deeply indebted to this work of his to have made these views of mine much more broader and deeper and to have enabled me to appreciate the wealth of intellect present in India. To take a small example: learning about Javali in Ramayana who features as an atheist and who calls Rama 'foolish, especially for an intelligent and wise man', made me realize that Hinduism has these strains and all of these various lines are in the fold of Hinduism. This small knowledge which has told me that arguments are the essense of our culture, and which advised me to keep my eyes and mind open, led me to the treasure trove of the Upanishads which exemplify this tradition. It was also very heartening and satisfying to note that there is a massive body of works in Vedantic Hinduism which glorify this argumentative tradition by following it very rigorously and to realize that argumentation has been the principal tool in propounding ideas. Till then I was not aware of any parallel for argumentation in India as by Socrates and Plato.

The Argumentative Indian also made me aware of the 'Arthashastra' by Kautilya. I was always wondering if there is a parallel in India to 'The Art of War' by Sun Tzu. Arthashastra seems to be a fitting answer. To quote Boesche:

"Is there any other book that talks so openly about when using violence is justified? When assassinating an enemy is useful? When killing domestic opponents is wise? How one uses secret agents? When one needs to sacrifice one's own secret agent? How the king can use women and children as spies and even assassins? When a nation should violate a treaty and invade its neighbor? Kautilya — and to my knowledge only Kautilya — addresses all those questions. In what cases must a king spy on his own people? How should a king test his ministers, even his own family members, to see if they are worthy of trust? When must a king kill a prince, his own son, who is heir to the throne? How does one protect a king from poison? What precautions must a king take against assassination by one's own wife? When is it appropriate to arrest a troublemaker on suspicion alone? When is torture justified? At some point, every reader wonders: Is there not one question that Kautilya found immoral, too terrible to ask in a book? No, not one. And this is what brings a frightful chill. But this is also why Kautilya was the first great, unrelenting political realist."

What a little magazine!

Do drop by at: http://www.littlemag.com/about/about.html

References:

1. The Argumentative Indian – Amartya Sen

2. The Little Magazine (http://www.littlemag.com/)

3. http://nandakumarchandran.sulekha.com/blog/post/2006/11/lokaayata-ancient-indian-atheism.htm

4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthashastra

Applied Gita

"In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad-Gita, in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seems puny and trivial." – Henry David Thoreau

Bhagavad-Gita teaches us management, of everything, most importantly, of the self.

The key to build great businesses is, without any doubt, great people. People, who can lead, inspire, innovate and achieve. The creation of or a transformation into a great business starts with its people. Gita can be used to achieve harmony among the employees in an organization and to enable them to connect themselves with the organization. Many organizations suffer from the malady of being disconnected with its employees and many employees find it difficult to tune themselves to a higher goal and to resonate with the organization. Any cure, of any entity, should start with its people. One must strive to correct and fine tune his/her way of life, its purpose, its focus and its goal through an ardent study of the Gita.

Gita on the way of life:

Gita prescribes knowledge as the way of life.

Many of today’s modern educational institutions, even though are quite competent in imparting education, leave a lot to be desired when it comes to shaping the students as true champions of knowledge who have mastered themselves. Gita teaches this greatest science of knowing thyself. Men who have mastered themselves are the most fit to serve the society for its upliftment and will prove a great boon to this world’s well-being. The essential parts of Gita are those which impart us this knowledge.

Gita prescribes purpose instead of self-profit:

When we have a purpose to which we are passionately dedicated, it helps us to focus our mind with extraordinary sharpness and achieve great results. This cannot normally happen if we keep worrying about the results and satisfaction of our desires. It’s the science which deals with the right attitude towards action and how to achieve great results from any of our actions.

In the context of a team, if everyone is motivated towards a purpose and if the leader can light that fire in them, which is good enough to burn their narrow desires and to enable them to see a higher goal, then everyone will work in unison. This results in true teamwork. And when motivated by a single purpose, which is communicated well to have penetrated into their hearts, the achievement will be far greater than the sum of the individual achievements.

From the perspective of businesses, moving from a profit-oriented approach to the purpose-oriented approach will do a world of good. Businesses would then cease to be short-term in their motives and gain a vision. The motivation of the ideas like inclusive capitalism, co-creation, etc should have stemmed from these principles.

Once we know the purpose of our existence, it becomes a lot easier for us to define and streamline our goals. It’s much the same as, if there is a known direction to the destination, the travel would be much smoother and quicker.

Gita prescribes focus on the present rather than the future:

Gita urges us to focus on the present and give it whatever we have. This always yields extraordinary results. It’s a simple logic that future is nothing but the effect of our present actions. And if we take care of the present, future should take care of itself. And past is a bunch of dead experiences from which we can only learn and move on. It does not help to worry about the past or to plan for the future too much, so much so that it affects our present.

To quote the meaning of the most important and immortal verse, to this effect, from the Gita

“Thy right is only to work;

But never to its fruits;

Let not the fruit of action be thy motive;

Nor let thy attachment be to inaction.”

These few lines, when realized in their whole, will prove to be great wisdom, the light of which will guide us all through our life.

All enjoyment that we ever have, all happiness that we can ever have, should come from the present, neither from the future nor from the past. Otherwise the being can be called as deluded. This principle works great to bring out people from dejection and hopelessness into the state of clarity, understanding and vital activity. It helps us to endure the vagaries of life very effectively.

This principle has far-reaching implications in the field of business too. It teaches the executives how to manage things, inasmuch as, to focus on the management of the current situation than doing paranoiac planning on the future or deriving data from the past. It teaches them on how to strategize or envision the future goals without losing touch with the present realities or the present health of the business. It teaches anybody on how to overcome failures to step into effective action as soon as possible and it teaches on how not to waste time basking in the warmth of our previous successes. It’s the most efficacious piece of learning one can ever have.

Happiness and peace as the ultimate goal:

What is life if we are not happy? Gita teaches us to identify what are the characteristics that we should develop to attain peace and happiness in life. The same principles in all their vigor and efficacy can be applied to the well-being of an organization.

What is the one measure that can measure the success of a company or a business, the success of a man, the success of a society, the success of a culture, the success of a country? It’s nothing but the happiness of the people associated with it. Success of a business should be known from not from its balance sheet, not from the revenues or profits that it’s posting, not from its size, not from its reputation, not from anything else other than the happiness of its employees, customers and other stakeholders. After all what are we living for!

There’s a lot that could and should be taken from the Gita and be applied to self-management and to business management. It is a knowledge treasure-trove, a panacea of ethical conundrums, an intellectual and moral miracle.