Learning from Sagas

Stories & tales are a superb means to get inspired & share knowledge. I am lucky to have my grand father, who always have new stories to share with me, ever since when I was a kid he used to share with me the sagas of Ramayana, Mahabharata, Chattrapathi Shivaji and tales of heroism and dharmic deeds, even today when I meet him he shares his wisdom & I eagerly listen, I personally believe that lessons from these sagas had immense impact on my life, these lessons have deeply rooted in my perceptions & beliefs & are very foundation pillars of my thought process.

As I grew up the depth of his stories also grew, when I was a kid stories were for fun, but today they have a deeper intellectual meaning. I would like to share with you a tale which he recently shared with me, this story is easy to understand & joyful to read but has immense hidden learning, I hope you will enjoy it.


Here is the beautiful story which depicts:

There was a cat and there was a rat. The cat was after the rat. The rat entered into the hole and the cat was waiting outside, because the rat was inside the hole.

Who will win? It all depends on who is more alert, because God has given intelligence to both the rat and the cat.

The cat got tired of waiting, and started going away. As she was going away, she got caught in the hunter’s net. She began to struggle, and the rat heard the noise. The rat came out with confidence. The cat was caught and helpless in the net and the rat was going away, when it found there was a eagle coming towards it, but it was quite some distance to go to the hole, so the bird was likely to pick up the rat.

Immediately, the rat got an idea and negotiated with the cat. “If you save me I will save you,” he said. How? “The bird is coming to get me, so I will come inside the net with you and you save me. And if you save me I will go out and cut the net.” The cat got confused with the courage of the rat & agreed. And the rat got inside the net and sat on the lap of the cat. The bird could not do anything and went away.

Then the cat realized that now if I don’t allow the rat to leave, I cannot get out and the hunter is coming soon. If I eat the rat the hunter will finish me. So she let the rat go. The rat also saw the hunter coming, but the hunter could not see the cat and rat.

The rat went round the net and slightly cut the bits of the net, and the cat got restless and said, “Hurry up, the hunter is coming.” The rat said, “Don’t worry, I will honor my words. When I will honor it, I will not tell. I said I will cut the net. When I will cut it, I will not tell you now.”

So the rat cuts a little and goes around twice, doing dance, then cuts a little more and did four rounds of dance. The cat now is in tension and yelling, “You are cheating me.” The rat says, “No, I am not.” By the time the hunter came very close there was only one strand left and immediately, the rat cut the strand, the cat came out and the rat ran to the hole and cat ran for its life. When the hunter came he could not see anything.


Dialogue with my Grand Father.

I asked, Dadaji, why was rat so slow in cutting the net?

Dadaji Answered: “because rat If had cut the net too fast, the cat would have eaten him. He had to honor his words, but the cat will not change.”


Lessons:

1. People hardly change, but at the same time you might have to support the enemy also.

2. We should keep a distance from the enemy so that we don’t get cheated by him. Look at Lord Krishna’s life. He always honored his words.

"In life we have to honor our words. Secondly help even our enemy. Thirdly, understand that people rarely change. Even if they change they change superficially".

It would be delightful if you share your views & suggestions, I hope you liked & enjoyed it. My special thanks to my Dear Grand Father, Shree Chandrasen Kashid Bhonsle for his constant support, motivation & love.

With Best Wishes
Sujay Bhonsle

Passion or ROI

‘Passion or ROI’ I give you these two options choose one of your choice & your wish will be fulfilled tathastu, This is the question which every one of us faces & yes we do answer it & make our choice & write our own destiny, Passion is the driving force, it is what excites us, it is the fire within us & ROI(Return on investments) is the profit or money. Well earning money can also be a passion & yes it is a passion for many of us & there is nothing wrong in it. But what if your passion is something else not just money, but money being a very important constant for today’s materialized society & an unignorable fact, you are forced to make choice between passion or money for rest of your life.

What would you choose Passion or ROI ?
Lets see:
Imagine: Sachin Tendulkar in his twenties choose to do a bank clerk job instead of playing cricket his passion for a secured future.
Sir Richard Branson in his early years choose to work as salesman instead of choosing entrepreneurial adventure.
Edmund Hillary instead of risking his life to climb Mount Everest choose to become a tourist guide in New Zealand

Would it have paid them off?
“You know what you are but not what you can become" adding to this phrase its your passion & perseverance that takes you long way ahead, even a way you have never imagined. Yes it was the passion & persistence that forced Sachin Tendulkar to score over 30,000 runs, forced Sir Richard Branson to stand at every fall which came his way & create a magnificent business empire worth US$ 17 billion in a single generation, forced Sir Edmund Hillary to risk his life at height of 8,000 m above & become the first man to climb Mount Everest ever.

Now what do you say Passion or ROI?
If you choose money instead of your passions then take my word you have chosen to be in your comfort zone, because earning money is much easier then to chase your passion, chasing your passion is like chasing your own hidden identity & discovering oneself, Passion to fight for the freedom of 30million poor people forced Mahatma Gandhi to fight against the mighty British Empire that led his country free, it was passionate & persistent efforts of Martin Luther King Junior which ended racism in USA for ever, passion is the jewel of enlightened human being. Passion can change life were as money can increase standard of living, passion is intrinsic where money is extrinsic.

From the above discussion you might be feeling that I am a strong supporter of Passion, & yes I am
But I would like to introduce to you a proactive approach, an approach that can change your life forever, approach that is as revolutionary as our revolution for independence, & that approach is to have a equilibrium or relation between your passion & ROI. If you work for your passion keeping sound ROI strategies in your mind (how, when, who) no one can beat you. Lets take an example of our Sandeep Manudhane Sir teaching is his passion, but different from the others how are just passionate about teaching, Sandeep Sir skillfully connected his passion with ROI, created a brand out of his passion PT Education which gave him tremendous success both intrinsic & extrinsic(financial). Lets take example of Bill Gates his passion was to create software which he followed & in turn he fought for the inclusion of software under copyright act which made people pay for software & he made billions to be the richest man of the world, In the same way you can relate your passion with ROI. The easiest method to do this is to think financial applicability of your passion, to discover new approaches for you passion & to choose excellence while chasing your passion & success will follow you.

There is one more dramatically true approach which is beneficial for both whose passion is money or else, that is search passionate people for your company & retain them, start up new enterprises by making such people CEO who are passionate for that business profile (operation), you might not be passionate about soya oil production & yes you can find someone how can do that for you in this way you can expand your business empire, this the way how Virgin & Reliance have grown so faster.
“If you want to go fast go alone; if you want to go far go together”

The art lies in use of passion (oneself or other’s) & its skillful link with ROI strategies to achieve success. One who can do this the whole world is on his side, so be passionate, be positive, have perseverance & accomplish your goals.

With Best Wishes
Sujay Bhonsle