Skip to main content

Corporate Social Responsibility lessons from The Mahabharata

We all have heard the story of Bhimsen and Bakasur in Mahabharata. We all know how Bhimsen, during the Agyatwas ( Incognito existence of a year) stayed in a town plagued by the demon Bakasur. And how, he used his power to slay the demon and freed the town from the atrocities inflicted by the demon Bakasur.

How does it connect with CSR?

Well, Bakasur symbolises the social and economic evils in the communities companies operate in. And Bhimsen symbolises the corporates who have resources to manage such challenges. 

Therefore, CSR or Corporate Social Responsibility could be the method by which Companies can beat social evils faced by their communities, just as Bhimsen killed Bakasur and freed the community that sheltered him and his family when they needed it.

What I see here is a symbiotic relationship. The communities have something to offer to the corporates and the corporates have something to offer to the communities. It is this mutual relationship that can help both the communities and companies prosper. 

More than five thousand years back we had the solutions that we seek now. Interesting insights from our mythologies that can help us learn to build more inclusive communities and societies. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2020: adios amigo!

The year 2020 was cruel to most of us, but it taught us many positive lessons. It made us appreciate and be grateful for all that we have, and realise what we really need in life to be happy. It was a lesson needed for the world to reboot and rethink of its priorities. It reminded us that we have been making the mistake of using people and loving things when it needs to be the other way round. It made us realise the importance of the people in our lives - even if they are the people who do mundane jobs in our households and whom we tend to take for granted. It also made us realise that our wealth can't protect us from the virus or a calamity, but our fellow humans can; the great work done by the medical fraternity, the workers who helped us stay alive during the lockdown, was truly commendable. No words can really describe how grateful the rest of us are for these courageous selfless servants of humanity. I hope we have learnt the lessons and learnt them well as a race, as life ten...
5 comments
Read more

Nature calling!

There is a tiny little compass within us, our conscience, the keeps giving us signals. There are times when it keeps warning us of the dangers of the city life we are living. It gives us hint of being at home when we are in the middle of nature. We are all like tiny parts of the nature we are so foolishly moving away from. And that's why we feel so much at home when we go to these places. We are parts of them - the air, the water, the soil, the fire that makes us us. Not the iphones and fancy toys we are so attached to these days. Let's make it a point to live closer to nature. To breathe pure air. To drink water unadulterated by modernism. To think thoughts that are pure and in tandem with the cosmos. There is a monk within us. Why do we hide him? Why do we not listen to him? We must. Before it's too late!
Post a Comment
Read more

The mountain between us

The film mountain between us is a simple story. A storm, A mountain, two professionals, one recklessly sick pilot and a dog. Meagre ingredients for a movie. But the movie touches you deeply. Hits you hard like the sinking Titanic and it's soulful background track. The mountain in the movie is the metaphor we all have in our relationships. It's the mountain and the storm that brings people closer. The lonely souls wandering in the sea of souls, looking for something neither knows. It's so true in our modern lives. We are all living busy lives, chasing dreams. Then life takes over sometimes, creating situations and circumstances that gets us meet people whom we were otherwise never going to meet. Call it destiny or karma or whatever you choose. But these people, places and circumstances help us reach deep within ourselves and find us the anchors in the sea of life. Then life is never the same anymore...there is positive vibrations all around and we follow the vibrations to r...
Post a Comment
Read more