Epics and Puranas have always taught us ethics, conduct, morality and more and this is probably what our current education system lacks. We have turned to them when it comes to wisdom, chivalry, andvalues. We have heard a lot of such stories while growing up from our grandparents but in the process of learning modern science and math we’ve forgotten the fundamentals of life.
Corporate world today doesn’t have ethics in practice. MBA curriculum has become very trendy by introducing courses on business ethics and by the time we get to learn them we are n our 40’s. We have seen numerous accounting frauds, we have seen big corporations like Enron collapse overnight, and CEO’s like Martha Stewart imprisoned. There are more CEO’s and corporations out there but only a few have the guts to be the whistle blowers.
Chanakya, a Brahmin unites the kings in India then to keep Alexander the Great away and he mentors and thrones Chandra Gupta Maurya to keep this country from failing and falling into the wrong hands. Today the same Chanakya is back to give the wake up call to the slumbering youth. Chanakyashastra, the play is adorned with the gems from Kautilyas’s Arthasashtra and emphasizes what it takes for a leader to wear that crown forever.
Corporate trainer, Sanjay Srinivas presents the pearls of wisdom from the Arthasashtra through this play to develop leadership skills. The entire play is set in the corporate world to autopsy a power and publicity hungry megalomaniac CEO, with lose morals. Is it the chair that does it or the titles that make them lose it all? Surprisingly not many CEO’s were spotted in the play, is it because they were not ready to accept reality or didn’t want to be caught wiggling like a worm. This play was an adult learning class aimed at making people think for the better.
Chanakya comes in at the right moment when the yuppie puppy loses his job and nourishes him with courage, confidence and teaches him the nine gems (navratnas) and eventually turns the lily livered subordinate to a iron fisted whistle blower.
Here are the Navratnas shared by our Chanakya:
1. Open minded thinking
2. Keep plans and strategies locked in an iron chest
3. Make pawns depend on you and make them feel needy
4. Stay unpredictable and let others keep guessing you
5. Be the perfect courtier
6. Find the weakness and helpless child in everyone
7. Success depends on the inner truth within you
8. Timing your action
9. Destroy the wicked man by opposition
The nine characters in the play were real “Navratnas.” Chanakya seemed so real with his conniving smile, sacred thread, shaven head with a shika, while the young professional Sidharth seemed like on us struggling between right and the wrong. The slides filled in at appropriate moments to narrate the story without any sag in the storyline. They had used the 9 pieces of rectangular boxes to make different furniture, a very creative brain. The music could have been better.
It is quite a tiring world when it comes to power, pride, ego, and human relationship. We’ve come across similar people in life at work and at other places. We must remember that real life situations are very different from the ideal situation portrayed in the play. This play had an ideal situation where Sidharth the young professional was able to go around and mobilize support to dethrone the wicked animal. But in real life we all get to swim with multiple sharks and trying to tackle all of them might be extremely difficult. If you keep battling all these sharks when do we get to swim forward? Remember not everyone gets a Chanakya in real life to stand besides and give courage and confidence at the right moment. Not all of this can be applied at the same time or in sequence.
The bottom line is that good triumphs over evil. We have seen this theme in every movie and movies like Indian have portrayed the same. Not everybody can be a leader and remember that leaders are born and not made. People like Chanakya and Krishna merely energize the qualities in Chandra Gupta and Arjuna. The world needs more of Krishnas and Chanakyas to mentor Chandra Guptas and Arjunas. An assembly line kind of set up can never work. There should be the spark of leadership in the individual and we’ve got to work on the inner self to be our Chanakya.
I personally felt disturbed with a few scenes in the play and Sidharth, the yuppie character was embroiled in conflicts within when the nine principles were unveiled. His emotional turmoil never got answered and it was always rosy in reel life. We need more clarity on the 9 gems so that people don’t take the wrong message back home. This old wine in the new bottle needs a statutory warning. There is more glitter and glamour with the name and glossy corporate marketing to bring out the CEO’s from the woodwork and make stand and endorse it at the end of the show. Another Stephen Covey in the making process, I can see the wheel of fortune spin pretty fast. Goodluck Sanjay Srinivas!
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