Nucleus of a problem
To assess Pandavas what they learnt under his guidance, their guru Drona sent Dharma Raja to a village amidst thick forest across the mountains. A horde of tigers, headed by a ferocious jaguar were attacking the villagers and their cattle. People were terrorised and prepared to vacate their hamlets.
Dharma Raja waited patiently till the predators’ next attack; chased the tigers into the woods and killed their leader. On his return, his guru complimented “Good work”.
Within a month, the beasts came again, this time in a bigger group. Drona sent Bheema the warrior, who is second to none in mace wielding (Gatha-aayudham). The mace is the best weapon to crush opponents, break their armor, wreck chariots and kill elephants, but lacks quick reflexes. Hence he could not fight a bunch of fast and sharp wild cats. Arjuna was rushed to meet the crisis. With his expertise with arrows he killed almost all of them and rescued his brother. The guru complimented him “Very good work”.
The catastrophe did not end there. After a couple of months of peace, the attack was more brutal and wild. Now the last two, Nakula and Sahadeva were sent. They had done all the homework before going there, studied the topography of the village, involved the villagers to dig craters and assisted them to construct strong fencings. They induced courage and taught the villagers the skill of fighting the wild animals. On return, the guru said, “Best and outstanding work”.
Crisis management:
This story provides three clues for trouble administration. Cutting superfluous branches does not solve unless you destroy the root cause of the problem. Asking a child to improve concentration by studying two hours more does not help unless the reasons for lack of attention (like excess TV watching, friends and internet chat) are traced and eliminated.
Secondly your weapon, how sharp it may be, must suit to fight the situation. A famous Chinese quote says, “When life gives you a lemon, make lemonade”. Insisting a genius maths student to study medicine is like sending Bheema to fight the tigers. Final lesson from the above story is: a problem is half solved, if it is seen in the correct direction.
