The Code of KANAK

We hear so much about Sun Tzu's The Art of War. It talks about the art of fighting a war based of the strategies adopted by attackers and defenders. I had never heard of any Indian book talk about strategies when so many great wars have been fought on Indian soil and won. Never did I hear talk about adopting the different formations like the ones used on Kurukshetra in real life situations in business. By a stroke of luck, in the book I am currently reading called 'Mrityunjaya-The Death Conqueror' came across this one and a half page dialogue between Kanak, a trusted minister and King Dhritarashtra 

Duryodhana strongly believes that the throne of Hastinapur rightly belongs to the Kauravas and the Pandavas as the whole world calls them are not the sons of Pandu. Therefore the Pandavas should be banished from the Hastinapur kingdom and he requests his father, King Dhritharashtra to order accordingly. Dhritharashtra does not believe this but in his heart he wants his son Duryodhana to be the successor. Caught between fatherly affection and duty he summons Minister Kanak to advice the right choice. Kanak does not answer the choice but instead poured words of wisdom that still applies today.

" Kanak says, "Maharaja, a man should always stand firm by his own efforts. The world fears only those who are unshakably strong. That is why all deeds have to be performed from a position of strength alone.

Never let anyone in on the weaknesses of your kingdom - let this be your main aim. Every enemy will exploit your weakness. Discover your enemy's weakness, use it to your advantage, and attack first; or else you will repent. 
Draw your limbs in like a tortoise and warily extend your neck to know the lay of the land. 

Never criticize uselessly. Never expose your true nature to anyone, certainly not to any official employed by you. 

Prefer to keep your eyes closed if that is called for, and open them only when they have the power to destroy the world. Ears, eyes and mouth - these are in your control - so don't indulge them excessively. And remember that one's hands are also one's senses. These hands have been given to us by nature so that, whenever required, we use them to cover eyes, ears and mouth.

Even if an enemy is feeble, don't underestimate him. The Palmyra is a small plant, but in no time at all it shoots straight up to the sky. The nutmeg fruit never grows on a castor-oil plant. A spark is infinitesimal but it can create a conflagration. If you spare a baby snake, don't think it will forget to sting when it grows up. No matter how weak and small an enemy is, he can exact a heavy toll in the end. Even if such an enemy professes gentle humility for any reason, don’t be taken in by his crocodile tears. Dispatch instantly to the realm of Yama any impassioned enemy out to do mischief. Conciliation, winning over by gifts, punishment, intrigue- use any means to finish off an enemy. An enemy is like the wild cactus - a tough and hardy plant. Even if you uproot it and throw it on a plot of barren land, it will somehow succeed in re-rooting itself. Its vicious thorns on both sides regain their sharpness. That is why one should always smile even when angry, and talk sweetly - but always do what one wants to do. 

Never speak insultingly to anyone. Speak sweetly to an enemy before attacking him, and even more sweetly after attacking. 

Never allow beggars and traitors to flourish in your kingdom. Beggars encourage laziness, and traitors pass on important official secrets to enemies and foment disaffection. 

Learn to suspect even those who you should not suspect; test them, and never let any free who are found wanting, for they are like fierce snakes lurking in cattle grounds. 

See that spies are located in your kingdom and your enemy's kingdom. It is not enough to have an espionage system, it is necessary for the king to become a spy himself and see that it is working. The spies planted in other kingdoms should be atheists, unmarried and liars. Such spies do not betray their country out of fear of divine punishment or because they are emotionally attached to their families. 

No one should know the whole truth about your kingdom. 

If after a peace treaty with an enemy, a person becomes smugly self-satisfied, consider him to be a man sleeping atop a tall tree. Only when he falls off, his eyes open or not open at all. The reason is that a treaty is never a total victory. A treaty is simply an acknowledgment in writing that a compromise has been made. Therefore, rather than signing to such a compromise, it is better to defeat an enemy when he is at a certain disadvantage, whether depletion of food, geographical circumstances, his morale etc. If such conditions are not available, they should be created in order to rout him. 

A raja should always keep these life's objectives in mind and act in accordance to them. If for any reason he is unable to do so, then he should transfer his royal authority to the hands of a competent and dutiful regent and proceed to his renunciation stage of his life. A raja's life is not intended to spent only in relishing exquisite cuisine, strutting about in flamboyant dresses and roaming in the royal chariot with a golden crown adorning his head. For a raja, and for the kingdom, peasants who grow rich harvest by the sweat of their brow in the sun-scorched fields are not felons meant for forced labor. The soldiers who fearlessly risk their lives for the defense of their country and the enhancement of its glory, like the silk cotton plant scattering its wealth, are surely not madmen. The red richness of their blood gives a shining magnificence to the nation; their flesh is the fertilizer of the national tree, whose delicious fruits are relished by king and subjects alike. What kind of raja is he, and what kind of kingdom is he ruling, who cannot be loyal to such sweat and such blood?""

*I give due credit and acknowledgment to Mr.Sivaji Sawant from whose book 'Mrityunjaya- The Death Conqueror. The Story of Karna.' this excerpt has been quoted.

Decision making

Everyone faces a situation in their lives where they confront themselves with the task of making a tough decision. The situation no matter if it is light or tough, a decision has to be made. No one can teach a person on what decisions to make because every situation or condition is different from one another and I am not here to do that.

Getting insights from a literature that I reviewed recently, it provided with endless thinking aspects on how a decision should be made. It proved that decision making is multi-dimensional activity where the many dimensions are based in the thinking before the final decision is made.

Its widely advised that all decisions should be made with a calm mind. But many of us do not follow this and most of the times takes decisions to calm the mind. Only a calm mind analyses the whole picture weighing down the pros and cons, rethinking over and adequately allowing time before settling down. In other case when we take decisions to calm the mind, the decision making becomes secondary and our state of mind becomes the first point of importance. So to be at peace a hasty decision is made.

A decision is also be made putting in front the two important paradigms, righteousness and love. Righteousness and love are like the Sun and the Moon. A decision made out of love will please the ones whom you are making the decision for and provide comfort just like the Moon and the cool breeziness of the night, but there is darkness behind it which may grip you anytime when the moon disappears. A righteous decision is like the Sun because it can be hot, bright and hard to make, but in the end it always spreads brightness.

Larger than Life

I may draw huge amounts of criticism trying to convey this subject because recently I was at the recieving end when I tried to prove my point about an important personality. Yes, Larger than Life is what we see around in our daily lives and around the world as well. Since I am not a world renowned traveller or a historian or a philosopher, I will just keep my subject to my home country India and Indians. By now way this is a write up to tarnish any feelings, emotions, sentiments or demolish the structures created in ones mind that was built over the years. We Indians always believe in larger than life characters and individual worshipping is higher here than anywhere else in the world. This is perhaps why we have more Godmen in the country than Gods. In Hindu religion where you have a God for your every need in life, a God for every natural aspect you see around, it is under this religion you see the highest number of Godmen. Chritianity and Islam are also not far behind with their clergymen enjoying more powerful positions than the almighty himself among the subjects. Their voices are heard and followed strongly as if its fallen from the heavenly gates. Importance of a God is limited only to an idol or a name and under which the utilization happens. Pathetic isn't it??? Now I will draw you to another case where I was isolated for speaking my mind. Sachin Tendulkar is one of the greatest cricketers to play the game and his importance and role in the development of Indian cricket is unquestionable. Like every Indian, I too am a great fan of his who holds the breath as long as the man is playing on the field. As every sportsperson Sachin Tendulkar also grew old and as age started to catch up, performances declined. I felt he was extending his time beyond what is probable and he was not making any valuable contribution to the team. This is where the Larger than Life personality comes into play. Because of his stature and fan base and because the x number of cricket fanatics just want to see the person on screen, an oppurtunity that is waiting for the next is either delayed or denied. The reason here is not Sachin Tendulkar or his performance, the sad part is people love the person more than the game itself. It is cricket who made the man called Sachin Tendulkar, not the other way around. I do not wish to see a horrible game when I know his performance is below par just because Mr. Tendulkar does not want to retire as he still continues to enjoy the game. Enjoying your game and performing is world apart. Here the game of cricket is irrelevant, people glue their eyes on the screen because one man is playing. Irony isn't it??? Same can be said in case of films. Many extraordinary creative attempts and good movies fail to find any audience but crap movies that features a popular movie star strikes gold. Larger than life movie actors and their crazy fans have nothing to do with what went in the film. More than the movie, its only their favorite actors screen presence that is required. Result is good and out of box creative attempts gets the beating and such attempts less encouraged. Be it in Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, Telegu or any regional film these Larger than Life stars command over the movie world. Pity isn't it????? Politics which is part of every common man's life is also not free from such charactors. Every regional party has a larger than life picture who has powers to control the moods of the followers. They have such dangerous authority that they can anytime decide the fate of any common man under their radar of operations. A perfect example would be the Gandhi family ( Not the Mahatma Gandhi family but the Nehru converted Gandhi family). The recent lot of jokers without any accomplishments under their belt still holds enviable control over masses only because Indian conscience is addicted to the Gandhi name. People idolize Gandhi over the country itself. Poor man Mahatma Gandhi fought for the country and the counrty was his priority. If only the common man put India the counrty in forefront than any person or personality we would have achieved a great deal. I really do not see this as we are a generation of people who cannot see beyond the beyond. Dangerous isn't it??? We can keep on debating the reason for this. We may also come to the conclusion of what is wrong in such an approach. What is wrong if I like a movie star, a cricketer, a politician or even the words of a Godman....it is my personal choice. Yes personal choices, we only live with our personal choices and do not care for a wider one. From our beginning we are not taught to see the broader picture. Our education system also does not allow this. I leave it to you all readers to decide. Is this concern of mine right or wrong? The subject what I have taken is valid or invalid? .......................??