Egoistic Assertion
By Karmayogi
Companies, organisations, and
government administrations do not allow much scope for assertion. Man is
resourceful enough to innovate ways of assertion in spite of a tight structure.
The wrong side of life is more resourceful. It carries tales to the boss. Often
the boss pulls up the asserting member. Often, for various reasons, he does
not. A balance is arrived at between the asserting members and the effectivity
of talebearers. That balance has acquired the dignified name of office
politics. The word POLITICS thus has come to mean the equilibrium arrived at by
the fighting forces inside a family or a company.
One who is spiritually inclined should not assert. What will he do when in his
organisation, one man below him asserts vulgarly just because the boss is
cultured? Bosses are not that cultured. Still such occasions do arise. In one
such situation, the person who was in charge of distributing drinks in an
organisation was having a field day by diluting the drinks of all but his own
friends. Complaints mounted over the years and came to a point of bursting. The
boss has before him a few issues: 1) It is wrong for the manager to dilute the
drinks, 2) The invidious distinction shown between friends and foes is
unsavoury, 3) The culprit must be pulled up, 4) Those who suffer should have
the culture not to complain, 5) The boss has a principle of not restraining
those who work under him, 6) Now, even the critical time has passed and action
cannot be postponed.
Fresh arrangements were made for the distribution of drinks and one who was
vehemently complaining was put in charge. There was jubilation in the
atmosphere. ‘‘Let us serve him a glass of crystal clear hot
water,'' was the slogan in everyone's mouth about the
culprit. After the new arrangements were made, the boss called the culprit and
said, ‘‘You can continue the present arrangements for yourself and
all your friends. The others can go to the new dispensation.'' The
bubble of the inflated jubilation was pricked. If you are spiritual, you should
not punish others. You should consider their shortcomings as your own. To
protect their defects until they come forward on their own to change themselves
is a spiritual requirement.