Sattva Rajas and Tamas

A call from an Aunt back home got me thinking about FDI. It is good that the calls now-a-days revolves around national and international affairs ranging from Mitt Romney's chances to the latest buzz on foreign direct investment in India. It is really a relief as it takes the focus out of the usual tittle-tattle on second cousins and the whinging about fourth uncles. Her narration was a clear indication that the neighbouring grocer had excellent influencing skills, she believed that FDI would instigate another colonial rule and that our future generation would be undertaking freedom struggles like our forefathers.

After the call ended, I recollected about  my previous visit to her place. During my short visit there, she had a visitor, who was the pharmacist from a nearby shop. He had come to hand deliver her medicines at home. The conversation that followed was something as below:

"Madam, your BP medicine would get over in the next 7 days, here is your repeat medicine"

She replied, "I know, just wanted to check if you would forget. Another medical shop  (name was mentioned) has offered to come home and give me periodic checks on Sugar and BP, as well as deliver as per my schedule. So was really giving you a chance"

"We will be rolling out similar service to our customers as well Madam, we will give you the best offer and will never slip a schedule" said the pharmacist.

"Good, you better do that", was the reply.

Out of curiosity I asked him about how he managed to maintain the periodicity of delivery of his many customers.  He showed me his smart phone which had an app that maintained his customer details and provided him the needed alerts. My Aunt's for example was set up with details for a repeat cycle of 2 months. Wow impressive, the gadgets have indeed started reaching grassroots and are adding value.

Now thinking about FDI, I wondered, if she will be able to demand this service or boss around with Carrefour when it comes around in her vicinity.

Again I also wondered if people like her would change their lifestyle from buying fresh vegetables and milk on a daily basis, being delivered at their doorsteps to travelling distances to stock for days. The vegetable and flower vendors who come home daily for example have been doing this for the past 30 years - every single day they deliver garden fresh greens, spinach, tomatoes, bananas, etc. So the impact on her or anyone belonging to her market segment should be minimal, unless the MNCs have localisation strategies (that indeed they are so good at) to capture all market segments.

Anyhow the poor lady was petrified on the phone over FDI, not impressed by the benefits this may bring to the country and it's promise to steer growth back on track. Out of the many concerns raised, one stood out and is the theme of my blog today. She said that the people of this great country would turn "Tamasic"  due to the dumping of Tamas food that people may adopt to in course of time.

Food has a great bearing on our nature (Guna), according to our scriptures.

Called as the Three Gunas, these determine the quality of thoughts, emotions and actions in a person.

These effectively are binding forces of the higher oneself to the worldly matters (if this is difficult to understand, - leave it for now). 

It is said that each human being has all the three gunas - at at any state - one of the gunas will be in a predominating state.

Sattva guna is associated with clarity, awareness, presence of mind, learning ability, friendliness, joy, happiness, knowledge. Harmony, peace, truth and love are all sattvic qualities.

When Sattva guna dominates, we tend to be happy, humble, content and not easily prone to anger. Our mind remians alert and  perceptions are clear. We are creative, with a learning intent, inspiring and pleasant.

Rajasa guna is associated with activity, restlessness, desire, sadness and when this nature dominates and depending upon the amount of domination (and the suppression of the other 2 gunas) results in secondary level of symptoms such as aggression, fear, anxiety, pride, jeaslously, anger. It is said that most of us predominately have Rajas as the dominating state and hence tend to value and chase power, prestige, success and material pleasure.

Tamo guna or Tamas is associated with laziness, dullness, physical sluggishness, ignorance, disorientation and confusion . When Tamasa guna dominates, we tend to have a dull mind, would like to sleep or stay inert, lazy and depressed.

It ia told that we should try to develop Sattva guna over the other gunas. And finally go beyond the three gunas and get liberated (if this is difficult to understand at this stage, - leave it for now).

Let us look at the first objective only which is to increase Sattva guna. According to the scriptures there are several factors that can be followed to achieve this objective. For example, having clarity and peace through meditation, doing service and having appropriate/limited amount of Sattvic food.

Here we will look at the food factor only. In my subsequent blogs we will explore other factors one by one.

Connection between the food we eat and the Nature or Gunas is given below:

1) Sattvic food that promotes Sattva guna is usually soft and easy to digest, it nourishes body and mind. examples are: fresh food (should not be refrigerated), most of the fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, milk, grains, nuts, lentils, rice, wheat etc. Such food promote calmness and clarity in mind.

2) Rajasic food that promotes Rajasa guna increases the activity levels of the mind and body. If consumed in excess they would cause an imbalance of Gunas leading to aggression and emotions. Examples of rajasic food are: onions, garlic, peppers, tomatoes, radishes,  chillies, corn, spices, eggs, fish etc.

3) Tamasic food causes heaviness and sleepiness in the body and mind. Food such as meat, mushrooms, deep fried food, excessive oily food, fermented food, refrigerated/ frozen food, cheese, aged food is supposed to cause mental dullness, confusion, disorientation, physical lethargy and sluggishness. Alcohol and drugs also belong to this category.Tamasic food also act as catalysts to rajasa nature as they impede clear thinking.

Now I get connection from my Aunt's message and also see her overwhelming love and forethought towards future humanity.

Adieu

Self Awareness

Visagan completed a project recently related to Attitude. Being a grade 12 psychology student, his analysis on emotional intelligence based on Daniel Goleman's thoery taught me a few bare truths. At the corporate world, people with high IQ and high technical skills have failed when promoted to "real leadership" positions. Whilst real leadership is also a debatable topic, let us for simplicity purposes say positions whose success is not based on historical learning’s, incisive/analytical acumen and smart ideas. These are the People who succeed based on original thoughts - though the intention of this blog is not to replicate Goleman's theory (you can well read about it widely in public domain), what is interesting is that technical skills (IT, accounting, marketing etc. etc.) and cognitive skills (analytical, big-picture thinking, visioning etc. etc.) are not sufficient for success at leadership positions. These are without a single doubt, ingredients for excellent performance - but what is needed for true success is emotional intelligence (self awareness and self regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills)

Thiruvalluvar's chapter "To identify and avoid one's faults"  is a wealth of wisdom on Self awareness. The following Kural is quite famous and I have seen this used in the family very often.

Varumunnark kaavaadhaan vaalkkai erimunnar
Vaithaaru poalak kedum

The good fortune of a man who does not anticiapate and guard himself against upcoming untoward developments, is as vulnerable as a haystack kept before an advancing fire.

A stack of dry straw has no chance of survival in front of a steadily rising wind of fire. Like wise, a man who does not identify his weaknesses (a part of self-awareness) and who does not take action to protect himself against the consequence of weakness (such as unforeseen developments) will have the untoward happenings overtake him, which means he will not be successful in achieving in goals. Thiruvalluvar's style is to be curt and direct, in his words "such a person’s life will be surely ruined".

For a leader, lack of foresight and lack of rightful forethought will not only affect him personally, but also all under his administration (his people or department).

Let’s contemplate for a minute here, are we doing more of - Fire-fighting problems that have happened due to lack of preparedness? or Identifying and preparing towards untoward developments?

Lets us look at another Kural - this is about understanding others (Empathy is one of the pillars of emotional intelligence)

Nanraatra lullum thavarundu avaravar
Panparindhu aatraak kadai

If the nature and needs of beneficiaries concerned are not taken into account,
Even in doing good, one may fall into error

Even when our intentions to do good are pure, the effects may not be correctly realised if we do not consider the unique nature of the recipients

Thiruvalluvar propounds directly modern management theory here.

We tend to do things based on "It worked very well there, so it should work here". We tend to make decisions on what "we" consider is good for people, take a top down approach and thrust it down on people. Only when these decisions do not get accepted, do we start realising the "other side" and look at the reasons for failure with surprise. Meanwhile, substantial amount of effort, money and time is lost that could have been well avoided.

Thiruvalluvar's sound advice is applicable to administrators for public service as much as it is for the C-level corporate leadership.

In every step taken in doing good things for people, there are 4 dimensions - the need (what), timeliness (when),  place (where) and last but not the least the important dimension of "Acceptance" should also be satisfied. This will happen only if we "understand and empathise" the needs of people and tailor make our proposals to suit their acceptances. Only if we spend time and effort understanding people's emotional makeup and make appropriate decisions, the effectiveness of the intentions will be met.

This is a modern management concept, but I'm very surprised at the ease with which Thiruvalluvar has propounded it. I seem to be continuously awestruck by the depth and the applicability to modernity of these verses, a few more will be shared in my next blog.

Regards