My Birthday Special Blog on "Safety"...

Today, on my birthday, I have come up with a story to tell you…

Person-A1 drinks a liquid blindly under the influence of the friends, colleagues or the boss or someone (B1) without further questioning/reasoning or using his own logical thinking. A1 meets with an accident & dies. The liquid may be alcohol or poison.

Person-A2 keeps on questioning B2 until A2 is convinced that the liquid is safe and is required to be drunk. B2 explains clearly why it is important. A2 lives forever as the liquid has become nectar (Amrit).

Moral of the story: Never take any decision under the influence of others. Use the discretion. You are responsible for your decisions, safety, life. Moreover, guiding someone wrongly will be dangerous.

Have you guessed who are A1,B1,A2,B2? Now I explain you with an analogy from the epic Mahabharata…

A1= Karna

B1= Dhuryodhana

A2= Arjuna

B2= Krishna

Now please re-read the above story again…

In A1-B1 case, the logical thinking & discretion was hijacked by the Swami Bhakthi of Karna.

In A2-B2 case, just before Kurukshetra, Arjuna asks Krishna a lot of questions such as why the war & so on… and he wants to quit the battlefield. Then, Lord Krishna explains the requirement and convinces him through Bhagawadgita. Arjuna after getting convinced, goes to the battlefield and wins… That’s why Arjuna is called Vijeya & Krishna the Jagatguru.

The point here is Arjuna expressed his doubts so politely even to the God though the God Himself was instructing him. After getting the clarity only he moved ahead. Whereas, Karna blindly considered Dhuryodana as God and followed his instructions without exercising discretion & reasoning and we all know the result. Here, one more observation is - whenever we are guiding someone, it should be on the right path… If we wrongly guide like Dhuryodhana did, then we will take so many other people along with us into misery.

Takeaway: Always we should clarify our doubts and questions before commencement of any work or decision making with the people who are guiding or instructing us. Be polite like Arjuna. The instructor or the peers or the boss who are guiding someone should be like Lord Krishna to convince through their discussion with full of logic similar to Bhagawadgita. Moreover, we can observe how Shri Krishna is with Arjuna throughout the war driving him to the victory.

Application: Always remember the combinations A1-B1, A2-B2 & choose wisely in which combination you want to be in the daily life, safety at work, career guidance, counselling, any decision making or in any other similar situation where your discretion is warranted.