Atul Sehgal
Let us see how easy are the application of do’s and don’ts as prescribed in the Bhagwadgita. A man living in the modern society has to earn money in order to survive. He can work more and hope to earn more. He has a choice of professions and avocations through which to earn money. Hard work and perseverance pay. Honesty pays too. But a man is able to work hard only if he has a goal to reach. A person is able to persevere only if he has the result of reward in front of him. That reward is his attraction and motivation. If he were to forget about the reward, will he retain the zeal and the passion in his work? There are two different interpretations to strive for the avowed objective. It depends on whether the objective is material or spiritual, whether the goal is mundane for sublime. If the goal is simply earning money, as much as possible, then the passion or zeal will be there all right but the methods and manners of work are likely to get corrupted. After all human mind is frail. You will not even be aware of it and in spite of your efforts towards the contrary; you will succumb to that raging storm of anger and that luscious surge of greed. Your actions will get corrupted accordingly. The result will be lopsided rewards or even negative sanctions from the society – in the form of punishments. Economic corruption seen in the form of business malpractices, evasion of taxes, embezzlement of funds, sleaze and bribery are in evidence in the modern society on a large scale. These criminal and corrupt actions take place in spite of the prevalent stringent laws and check and balance mechanisms.
The proper interpretation of the Bhagwadgita’s stanza on Karma provides an entirely different approach for the success of hungry man of the twenty first century. According to this interpretation, a person does not need to forget about result or goal. But the result or goal should be spiritual and not material in character as already stated above. Thus a doctor in medical practice should not aim to make bigger money but to maximise the quality of treatment to his patients; to heal them and cure them faster. A civil engineer working to construct a bridge or highway should aim to complete the work to utmost standards of quality, without time and cost overrun. A teacher should aim to provide the best academic grooming to his students for 100 per cent success in examinations for his class. A teacher hankering after money or income would become businesslike. He would indulge in private tuitions at the expense of his normal work. A politician should aim for public welfare and not self aggrandisement. A businessman should strive for maximum benefits in quality and delivery to his customers rather than profit maximisation for his own self. A salesman should strive for providing utmost satisfaction to his customers rather than maximise numbers of his selling products.
(To be continued)
