Purohit and Me

“Today is Krishna Paksha Dwadashi, 12th day since last full moon. As per your Bengali Calendar it is the 10th Day of Shravana Month. I am saying Bengali Calendar because, in Bengal months start from Sankranti. Sankranti is the day when sun leaves the region of one group of stars (Commonly known as Zodiac) and enters into another.

Here in Gujarat and many parts of the country, month will start from 31st July, i.e. the first day after new moon day. So it is not Shravana yet in Gujarat. Ashadha is still going on.

In some other parts of the country month starts from the day after Full moon day as well.”, local temple Purohit was lecturing us about the various calendars. Not sure why. I just asked him, “How are you?”, to greet him. He responded lecturing me about sun, moon, calendar and what not. I am fine with 27th July date and happy because after 2 days I will get my salary. Who bothers about which month and date as per which calendar.

I hate that guy. No real knowledge but lectures all day long. If I say ‘Namaste’ to him due to social compulsion, he starts giving blessings loudly as if he is the god. He came home and was telling me to start reading as well as teaching Bhagwat Gita to my kids.  Why they need to read Bhagwat Gita? Will that help them in any way in their entire lifetime? I am sure if I ask him he will give me a day long lecture to prove that. These preachers are the cause and worry of this ever-growing religious violence in our country. Keep your religion with you. Do not force me. I do not want to be religious. I am spiritual. I believe in myself not those Sun, Moon etc. My work will decide my destiny, not these non-understandable mantras. If you try to pronounce them out of compulsion, you may find some of your tooth missing and your tongue may be stuck inside your stomach. These people should be caught and put in jail for creating nuisance. Idiots!!!

I went to office after spreading enough hatred in my body and mind. I had to lead a project meeting. My responsibility was to make my team aware of the major as well as minor milestones of the project. When I said that we have to work couple of weekends to meet the next milestone as we are already late. I projected the project Calendar on screen, which is showing all the major and minor milestones and the progress so far. I overheard one of my team member whispering, “I am more interested in the milestone that is going to come after 2 days. SALARY.”. I immediately hit back, “It is extremely important that every member of my team is aware of the big and overall picture for the success of the project. This project is very important for our professional career. We must ensure we are utilizing it wisely and we are always aware where we are and how we are doing so far.”

Just after the meeting, I met our senior vice-president. After a formal discussion it was time for him to go for a meeting. Before parting he wished me all the success for the ongoing project and encouraged me and my team to go a great job. He is very open and loud. His wish was audible to the entire floor including the office boys.

In the afternoon I had scheduled a confidence building session with my team. I was aware of the low morale within the team due to recent performance appraisal and one member quitting the organization due to bad performance. That person was very good friend of almost all the members but was a bad software engineer. I was trying to find ways to increase the morale of the team. Based on one of my friends suggestion, I had started weekly lecture based on one of the most famous self-help book and I encouraged them to read those books themselves. This was one of the series. I finished the lecture of the day where I was trying to teach them to be more ‘Proactive’ than ‘Reactive’.  Later on the day, one of my colleague cum friend said about the team scolding me in my back because of the boring and useless lectures every week after lunch.

This was bit frustrating for me. I am trying to help the team to build morale so that they can perform better which will eventually help them in their career but they are not understanding the motive.

I tried to consolidate the entire days activities before sleeping. It is kind of a soft diary inside my brain.

What I found is, my impression about the Purohit and my teams impression about me is same. Purohit is trying to help me understand and make me aware about, where I am, in the biggest as well as most important project I am assigned to, called life in the premises of this universe. I rejected him because I really could not understand his intentions. It might be due to my lack of knowledge or his lack of communication skill. I referred the self-help book because I read it and believed the content and understood the intent but my team did not find the need of it or I was communicating very badly. Purohit referred Bhagwat Gita as he understood the content and intent of it but I could not. Here again a communication gap.

Many read English novels written by foreign authors despite unrelated/unfamiliar plot and complex language because of the content and depth. Many of my friends including me learnt C language by reading the book written by Denis Richie despite complexity because we wanted to learn from the source. If we see, all the self-help books combined only cover a percentage of the self-help material that Bhagwat Gita provides. Bhagwat Gita is source of all self-help books directly or indirectly.Some say understanding Sanskrit is tough. But there is no other language where you can write some much information in so little words. As it is a self help book and you need to refer to it in many walks of life, slokas come handy as chit-sheets do than a 300 page book. So it is worth learning Sanskrit.

Now a days schools try to teach phonetics first to make the speech clear before teaching them the alphabets. The same benefits can be achieved by reciting Sanskrit slokas. If you practice reciting slokas in your childhood then you find it easy to pronounce any language. Again rhythmic recitation can help you streamline your thought as well as bodily functions.

Wishing openly, loudly and honestly creates positive vibe around your and within you. But recipient must accept it to get the benefits. If somebody wishes you or appreciates you and you reject it doubting the intention of the person then you become the looser. But if you accept the wishes and appreciations without analyzing the intent much, then you will get miraculous benefits out of it.

Namaste!!!

– Stray Dog