Saturday, November 2, 2019

Subhashitam सुभाषितम् - My route to पठत संस्कृतम् (learn Samskrtam)

1st Nov 2019

I have been wanting to learn Samskrta basha for many years now.
However, I had a block which was being validated by the external world.

i.e. Samskrta bhasha means Hindu Religion 

Nothing wrong with that, as many of the scriptures & ancient texts were written in this language.

Secondly, everyone has different ways of learning, and I was not getting my locii with this. I tried attending Samskrita shibirs , that did not go well, though shibirs focus on spoken Samskritam.

Luckily for me I had got into learning verses by heart, thanks to my parents and relatives around. Additionally I am thankful to have had Samskritam as a subject in my 11th & 12th.

Only recently i got attracted to Bhartruhari's Subhashitani and when reading this book is when I realized the meaning of the word Subhashitam 

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 सुभाषितम्  - means Good Counsel - AND that it can be a reference from any source!

Think of it as a Quote / Motto / Moral / Saying / Shayari  etc.
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Suddenly i began to come across many sources and references from where they are being quoted. 
THIS i felt is a boon for me as I am able to understand the words in a context.

Samskritam can be simple & concise as mentioned in the below सुभाषितम्
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मितं च सारं च वचो हि वाग्मिता |
मितं  mitham - brief
Saaram सारं - essence / concise
वचो Vacho - words / speech
Vagmitha वाग्मिता - Eloquence

The test of his eloquence is how well he can put essential truth in only a few words - and that is actually the advice of this subhashita.
This subhasita befits the nature of Sanskrit language perfectly. It contains esential truth and is as concise as the meaning itself. Thus Sanskrit is the language of true eloquence.
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While it is simple, it also called a phonetic language and to that extent the pronunciation needs to be correct / exact. Any mistake would make a lot of difference

Here are two (2) Subhashita's which gives the essence

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चिता चिंता समा हि उक्तम्‌ बिन्दुमात्र विषेशतः ।
सजीवं दहते चिंता, निर्जीवं दहते चिता ॥

चिता 'chita' and - Pyre
चिन्ता 'chinta'  - Worry
उक्तम्  - uttered / said

Chita and Chinta "when written" differ only by a 'anusvaar'. or a very small (bindu mantra). & Hence can be easily mis-pronounced when uttering (उक्तम्  )

Chita will destroy (burn दहते) a dead body (निर्जीवं) and 
Chinta will burn/harm the living individual (सजीवं)!!

Only those who understand the 'devanagri' script can know what is a 'anusvara'] 


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Here is another one


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साक्षराविपरीताश्चेद् ,
राक्षसाएव केवलम् 
सरसो विपरीतश्चेत् ,
सरसत्वम्  मुञ्चति ।।

Plz pay attention as how words are used:
 If the word 'SAKSHARA' (literate) is inversed it becomes 'RAKSHASA' 
where as the word 'SARAS' (noble) is inversed it remains as 'SARAS' only.
(Source - http://subhaashitani.blogspot.com - Posted by rk chaturvedi )


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Finally the beauty of the Samskrita basha is illustrated in the below subhashita

भाषासु मुख्या मधुरा,
दिव्या गीर्वाणभारती ।
तस्यां हि काव्यं मधुरं,
तस्मादपि सुभाषितम् ।।



Shloka 4 - विनाशकाले विपरीत बुद्धि:




न भूतपूर्वं न कदापि वार्ता हेम्न: कुरंगो न कदापि दॄष्ट: |
तथापि तॄष्णा रघुनन्दनस्य विनाशकाले विपरीत बुद्धि: ||
Na bhootpoorvam na kadaapi vaartaa hemnh kurangho na kadaapi drushtah
Tathaapi trushna Raghunandanasya vinaashkaale vipreet buddhih


It had never ( ) happened  before (भूतपूर्वं), nor ( )  had anytime (कदापि)  heard (वार्ता) about or seen (दॄष्ट) a golden (हेम्न) deer (कुरंगो) . 
Even then (तथापि)  Lord Rama craved (greed? तॄष्णा) for it. 

That is why it is said that when the Time is not in favour (विनाशकाले) of a person, his intellect (बुद्धि:) reduces or unfavorable (विपरीत)  and he takes wrong decisions.

It has never happened before, nobody has heard about, no body has seen a golden deer. Even then ShriRama's craving/greed (about it) happened. When time is unfavorable our intellect doesn't help us.

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Shubhashita from Rgveda - On Organization Building




समानी व आकूति: समाना हृदयानि व: |
समानमस्तु वो मनो यथा व: सुसहासति ||
यथा व: सुसहा असति ||
ऋग्वेद

   समानी  - United / Alike / Together
   आकूति - intention / wishes
   समान - Equal / Alike
   हृदय  - Heart
   समान + अस्तु - Equal / Alike + Let it be
   मन  - Mind / thoughts / views / beliefs
   सुसह  + Asti - Endure / Bearing well  

This is the last 'śloka' in the Rigveda. It states - 
Let your conclusions be one (or be alike), 
Let your hearts be the same (or be alike) 
[So that "everyone" feels for the same particular bad/ill in the society in the same intensity. It may be the common experience that not all feel for the same problem in the 'intensity' that we as individual may feel for that. Due to this there may be lack of 'collective' efforts to solve that problem]. 
Let your minds think alike/similar. 
May all these factors make your organisational-power an impressive one. 

This 'śloka' can be called as an 'saṅgaṭhan-sūkta' i.e. guidelines for building an impressive organisation/nation.

[Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak had ended his book 'Geeta Rahasya' by this 'shloka'.]

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Bhartruhari's 'Shatakatrayam' शतक त्रय


19th Oct 2019

----*** My Aa ha moment **----
- Till now i was thinking of 'Shubhashitani' सुभाषितम्   as being the name of the work written by Bhartruhari. Because that's how we studied during our intermediate (10 + 2) classes.

Only today I got to know that
 सुभाषितम्  - means Good Counsel - and that it can be pulled out from any of the works!

Think of it as a Quote / Motto / Moral / Saying / Shayari  etc.

2nd 'better understanding' moment.
There is a very subtle connection between Sanskrit and Spirituality/religion. And I was of the opinion that when I say a verse it must ONLY be religion. Maybe its use was mostly so.
After starting the Shatakatriyam by Bhartruhari I realized that it ONLY a language using which our forefathers communicated. Because the entire Shatakatriyam is about 'Rules of life' based on the writers experience.

----*** Harih om ***-----

Bhartrhari's Shatakatryam शतक + त्रय

शतक Means hundred -  त्रय means Three - In total Bhartrhari composed 300 verses. These were under three different categories such as

- Niti नीति Shatakam - 100 verses on 'Moral Philosophy or Ethics or Behavior'
- Shrngara शृङ्गार Shataka - 100 verses on 'portraying Beauty, Love and being Amorous'
- Vairagya वैराग्य  Shataka - 100 verses on 'Attaining freedom from Worldly Desires / Asceticism'



Niti Shataka नीति शतक

The 100 verses on 'Moral Philosophy or Ethics or Behavior' is further classified into 10 Paddati पद्धति
meaning - Ways. Ways in which each of these category of people should or would behave.

These 10 Paddati's are
1) Murka Paddati - मूर्ख पद्धति  - Ways of the Fools / Imbeciles
2) Vidvat Paddati - विद्वत्त पद्धति  - Ways of the Scholars
3) Maana Shourya Paddati - मान शौर्य पद्धति  - Ways of the Respect (maana) & Valour (Shourya)
4) Artha Paddati - अर्थ पद्धति  - Ways of the money / wealth / material posession
5) Durjana Paddati - दुर्जन पद्धति  - Ways of the evil or wicked people or bad people
6) Sujana Paddati - सुजन पद्धति   - Ways of the Kind people / gentle(wo)men
7) Paropakara Paddati - परोपकार पद्धति  - Upakara = help, para = others - Ways of good Samaritans
8) Dhairya Paddati - धैर्य पद्धति  - Ways of the brave & courageous
9) Deva Paddati - देव पद्धति  - Ways of the god & Impoderables
10) Karma Paddati - कर्म पद्धति  - Ways of Action & Consequence


Each of these paddati's have multiple Verses and provide a basic template for human behavior when interacting with others while following the path of Dharma.

I would post the individual verses and its meaning in my subsequent posts as and when I study them.

|| Om Tat Sat ||

Friday, April 26, 2019

Importance of ‘Team Reviews’ in Execution Excellence


Organizations & Managers would love to have exceptional execution of projects. Especially when statistics show that as many as 70% of IT projects fail. And most projects go over budget, not meeting schedule & quality parameters.

One of the reasons for this is, how ‘Effectively’ teams communicate with each other and help in synergizing their efforts towards a common goal.


While teams communicate on a daily basis, it is important to see
  • How often they have reviews?
  • And if & when they do - Do they utilize this ‘Review’ time effectively? 





We at BYLD are passionate about ‘Experiential Learning’ (EL) as a methodology to drive home critical human behaviors which when understood can help managers move closer to exceptional execution. We @ BYLD have a partnership with a leading global EL Design & Development company that offers specific solutions for business problems.

In a high energy & tizzy experience teams are introduced to a themed world
  • that has clear fiscal responsibilities for the team to achieve
  • while creating value adds that can boost revenues
  • while providing immense opportunities to explore
  • in world where teams have to sift through excessive information

The objective being - how well teams execute on their well thought through plans and when an opportunity comes for a “Mid point review” how effectively do they make use of the same!
Our observation of teams behavior gave us the following insight:
Teams were more comfortable discussing the ‘Tactical' - ‘Content’ related aspects of
  • Planning for the future
  • To that extent ‘continue working’ & process more information
  • Freezing or Upbeat about the Failure or Success 

While the above reasons seems natural & needed, Teams can be more impactful in Execution by asking more ‘Strategic' - ‘Process’ related questions such as
  • Are we doing the right thing?
  • Are we doing it the right way?
  • Is there something better that we can do?

Encouraging teams to ask such powerful questions can help them to have more open, honest and transparent discussions. This can go a long way to a successful execution of projects.

Our take: The success of Execution depends upon how well teams align to each other & talk about the ‘Process’ aspects of “How are we doing?” Rather than ‘only’ content related aspects. Managers to that extent can be the Lynch pins to encourage teams to interact more effectively towards a common goal.And, Experiential Learning is a great way for participants to experience the Benefits or Consequences of Utilizing or Not Utilizing their Review times effectively!


Do share your take on - How you made your reviews more helpful to your teams?