Dharma is not just about ethics and morality, it’s about realising potential

By Devdutta Pattanaik
The word dharma has often been translated as ethics, morality, righteousness and goodness. These English words are rooted in the notion of objectivity. They are rigid and fixed, a tendency typical of Western approaches to management.
But dharma is not an objective concept. It is a subjective concept based on gaze. When empathy expands gaze, our notion of dharma changes.

Depending on our varna (mental state), we will see dharma differently. For the shudra, it is doing what the master tells him to do. For the vaishya, it is doing what he feels is right. For the kshatriya, it is doing what he feels is right for his team. For the brahmana, it is realizing that everyone is right in his own way, but everyone can be more right, by expanding gaze.

One CEO recognized this intuitively when he took over the company. He called the head of his human resource department and said he wanted to redesign job descriptions. He wanted financial goals to be the primary objective of executives. He wanted customer satisfaction and employee engagement to the primary objective of junior managers.

He wanted talent management to be the primary objective of senior managers. "As you climb the ladder, you cannot be paying attention to the same thing the same way," he said.

Dharma is about realizing our potential. While all other creatures grow at the cost of others (plants feed on minerals, animals feed on plants and other animals), humans can grow by helping others grow.

This is not sacrifice. This is not selflessness. This is making the yajaman’s (leader) growth an outcome of the devata’s (follower) growth. This is best demonstrated in the ritual that takes place during Nanda-Utsav.

Every year during the festival of Nanda-Utsav, pots of butter are hung from great heights and human pyramids are formed to get to the pot, commemorating how Krishna used to steal butter kept out of his reach by the milkmaids of Gokul and Vrindavan when he was a child. In this exercise, the most crucial stage is the one in which people in the lowermost tier, who sit while the pyramid is being set up, have to stand up.

Only when they stand, balancing the whole pyramid on their shoulders, does Krishna get their butter. In their growth lies Krishna’s success.

A mentor once asked his mentee, "When a child comes to you showing his drawing, what do you do? Do you appreciate the drawing, making him feel good, even though the drawing is awful? Or do you point out the mistakes and help the child develop skills?". The mentee replied, "If you appreciate and motivate you will be popular. If you criticize and instruct you will be unpopular."

The mentor smiled, hoping that mentee got the message. The mentee had been constantly defensive, behaving like a frightened prey, every time he is questioned during the coaching sessions. He could not handle criticism. He only wanted motivation and appreciation. Yet, he wanted to grow. The mentee did not realize that he would not grow unless he opened himself to new ideas.

When we open our mind, our notion of dharma changes for we have more empathy and are more sensitive and caring when responding to the problems posed by the market.