Lord Krishna – The Apostle of Life Skills

Lord Krishna is one of the greatest Management Gurus, whom we can emulate without second thought. He is the Mentor of Mentors, Coach of Coaches and Guru of all Motivational Gurus. He is the greatest life skills expert and demonstrated every skill in the court of Dhritharashtra during his diplomatic tour to Hasthinapuri (now Delhi), which was taken up only to avoid war between Kauravas and Pandavas.

His inimitable communication skills are evident in every word expressed in the Court of Kauravas. Lord Krishna during his Negotiations, to avoid war between Kauravas and Pandavas demonstrated perfect communication skills. As he doesn’t want to avoid war between them, he manipulated his words with diplomatic jargon and tried to instigate fear motivation in Duryodhana by way of illustrating the greatness of Pandavas on and off the field of war.

Life-skills have been defined by the World Health Organisation as 'abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life' (WHO 1993). We can see this ability abundant to face challenges of everyday life in Lord Krishna and this article is intended to analyse the same.

Happiness is the aim and ambition of any individual in this world. Whatever a person takes up in his life, it is to attain one and only objective – Happiness; says Sigmund Freud, the Father of Psychology. All religions and philosophies aim is to achieve happiness for mankind. Character only can give that kind of total happiness for mankind. Lord Krishna proved this in his life by becoming ideal personality. The preacher of Gita, Lord Krishna’s life is an example, which reflected the power of character.

Lord Krishna is God for faithful devotees. He is a magician for non-believers. He is a romantic Hero for some and a great manipulator for many. He is the greatest Philosopher who has given Gita to the mankind. For some, he is just a character in the Mahabharat of Sage Vyasa. Irrespective of any kind of faith and devotion, He is the Great Guru for Psychoanalysts and Psychologists. He is the first counseling psychologist.
He is a complete man. If we observe his life critically from all angles, we can have glimpses of this kind of characteristics in the life of Lord Krishna.

Lord Krishna is not so taller and handsome like Lord Rama. He is not having beautiful, expressive eyes. He is black in complexion. He faced many problems during his life. He never felt depressed. He has never given up. He always faced problems and got them solved. He faced problems with cheerful attitude. He stood beside his people like rock. Reason – His total personality.

Some may argue that Sri Krishna is just another character in the epic Mahabharat, written by Sage Vyasa. Then, why this balanced approach towards life is not seen in the avatars of Rama, Parasurama and Vamana. Why Sage Vyasa didn’t create the characters of Brahma and Siva also in this mould? There may not be answer for this kind of questions. We may get the answer by thinking that every character will have its own characteristics. Whether Lord Krishna is there or not in the history of mankind, or he is just a character in Mahabharat, certainly he is the example of a complete man.

A true disciple to a great Guru!

Lord Krishna is the disciple of Sage Sandipani. After the completion of his education, he came to know that the young son of his Guru Sandipani has met with an untimely death. Lord Krishna fought with Yama, the God of Death and brought back life to his Guru’s son and presented him as Guru Dakshina. How many disciples of this age are paying just fees for the survival of their Guru’s family? These are the days where people expect freebies even in education!

Eight wives and infinite problems !

Many feel that Lord Krishna means eight wives and his romance with them. He mesmerized people with his cheerful presence and playful attitude. His life started with problems. He was born in the prison. He was separated from his mother immediately after his birth. He suffered with ‘separation anxiety’ since his birth. He has spent his life in Brindavan with cowherds’ families, instead of enjoying pampered life in Madhura on the lap of his grand father Ugrasena. He never had great education also. His uncle Kamsa hatched many plans to kill Krishna in his childhood. Kamsa has sent demons every year to kill Krishna. Krishna, the kid could over come all these troubles with his determination. Due to deadly problems arising every moment, his friends also might have faced traumatic stress disorders. Many parents might have stopped their kids playing with Krishna, as it is dangerous. Krishna never bothered with this kind of problems. He has learnt many lessons of life playing on the shores of river Kalindi along with his friends. He has spent his childhood playing divine flute and doing mischief with his friends.

A friend in need !

Lord Krishna is a friend for needy indeed. He has helped his friend Kuchela (Sudama) to overcome his penury. He also helped Draupadi, the wife of Pandavas, who has immense faith in Krishna.

A politician par excellence but compassionate !

Krishna fought with his uncle Kamsa and crowned his grand father as King. He got his parents released from prison and fulfilled his responsibility as Son. Though he has able army, he never tried to invade other kingdoms. But he never showed any compassion towards Kings like Jarasandha who declared war against him. He fled from the war field to avoid unnecessary loss of lives, and killed enemy without loss of single life.

Personified love

Love is natural at a particular age. Many may dare to do anything to achieve their love. Krishna resorted to fight battle, to achieve his love Rukmini and became ideal for the world of lovers. Though there are legends that Lord Krishna has 16,000 Gopikas, he never tried to woo a single woman. He attracted them with his talkative talent. Nobody ever branded him as womanizer. He was always regarded as personification of love and affection.

Emotionally intelligent

He was not at all an arrogant and adamant husband. He was having highly adaptable and adjusting nature. Though Satyabhama kicked him with her leg, Krishna never got angry
with her. Moreover, he took her feet in his hands and mellowed her down by saying whether hitting him injured her feet. He always stood as ideal husband and tried to balance his family life.

A real leader!

Great physique is not the real asset for anybody. Character is the true asset for any individual. Krishna’s kingdom is very small in size and so his army. But King Duryodhana came down to ask for his help in the royal battle of Kurukshetra. Though Krishna said that the whole army is one side, and I will be helping one side, Arjuna selected Krishna, only because of his character. A leader is not the one who walks, but the one who leads walking ahead of others.

A great warrior !

He never fought. He is not having any powerful position. Even then everybody knows that Krishna lead the army of Pandavas. Just by having army, no one can win the battle. One needs to have war strategies and intelligence to assess the power of enemy. A leader of army has to plan ahead of others and win battle with minimum loss of human life. Krishna succeeded in fulfilling this responsibility with all the ability it demands. That’s why he is the real and great leader.

A great communicator !

When Krishna went to Hasthinapuri as an ambassador of Pandavas to express their piece of mind to King Dhritarashtra, his communication skills reached pinnacle as an avoider of war but not as an instigator of destruction. He pursued Kauravas to avoid war with Pandavas and urged them to do so by just giving them five towns to rule. When Kauravas refused to do so, he has analysed the strengths, opportunities of Pandavas, weaknesses and threats for Kauravas if they didn’t avoid war in the first place. Krishna always took responsibility for his acts, and helped Pandavas to overcome their problems and ultimately to win the war of Kurukshetra.

Small vices in great characters

It is natural that great characters will always flourish with small vices. Even Krishna is also not an exception to this rule. Krishna thrown bait to Karna to join Pandavas and marry Draupadi. He only knows on why he did like this. Karna refused politely to budge at the behest of Krishna. Even then, Krishna may have tried to expose the greatness of Karna to the world.

When Arjuna was jumping with joy after killing Karna, Krishna warned him on behaving in such a manner. This shows his respect towards a great warrior and ideal friend like Karna. If Karna is personified charity, though he is with his enemy, Krishna realized the greatness of Karna, and treated him with high regard. That is the greatness of Krishna and this reflects his unique character.

Nobody is perfect, even Lord Krishna. He also acted like human being in many situations. To help and uplift mankind without any selfish motive, one can lie here and there and can manipulate if the situation demands. Krishna took some decisions only to prove this point. That is why Lord Krishna is complete man and an apostle of life skills.

To succeed in professional or personal life, one has to learn and try to emulate Lord Krishna to become complete man.

- Challa S.S.J.Ram Phani

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