ARANI SERIES
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Spark 30
Overcome Your Inhibitions
In his advice to his younger brother Bharata on leadership, Shri Rāma, touches upon three traits1 that are indeed very thought-provoking:
1) Do consult right people on complex matters where you may not know enough,
2) Do avoid wrong advisors who may speak sweetly but are incompetent and
3) Do not shut your door and try to sort out every issue all by yourself.
The above are free translations with liberal addition of phrases. In the actual verses of Vālmiki Rāmāyana2, the mention is of “pitfalls” of leadership.
- a)not seeing wise people,
- b)discussing with advisors lacking knowledge and
- c)deliberating on matters by oneself.
The advice obviously applies to all of us, irrespective of whether we are CEOs or not. We may or may not be well-recognized leaders in any field but we have to handle various situations at home or at work, where the pieces of advice given by Shri Rāma are very relevant.
From a psychology point of view, we will have these pitfalls if there are certain inhibitions in our mind that are actually baseless. Because of some painful memories, which have perhaps gone deep into our unconscious, we avoid certain people and see the company of certain others. We sometimes just want to be holed up in our own rooms!
It has been rightly said by countless spiritual masters that the essence of spirituality is “living in the present”. For this to happen, we need to root out our fears, anxieties, regrets and other memory-based negativities.
“Who am I?” – This query anchored in intense self-awareness can be a powerful tool to do this. With the flame of “who am I?” burning brightly, the shadows of the past, which are in the form of various residues following incidents that were hard to digest, leave us. No matter what our past was, we can emerge free.
We can thus see that self-enquiry (Who am I?) can help us overcome the inhibitions in our psyche, and emerge as good leaders.
Swami Chidananda
Notes:
1 adarshanam jnānavatām, eka-chintanam arthānām and anarthajnais-cha mantranam
2 Vālmiki Rāmāyana, 2.100.65 thru 67 {Ayodhyā Kānda}