Column

Sometime back, I interviewed shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi Swamigal of Kanchipuram. He was addressing a small gathering when I reached the venue. When our meeting began, I picked up one of his observations from his speech as my first question for the interview. I asked that if everything is in god’s hand, why does humankind need to work so hard.

The saint smiled at me and asked me a question: "You are a Bombaywala and I hear you people play a card game called rummy in local trains. Right?"

As I nodded, he took me through the rules of the game with remarkable temporal adeptness. "You distribute 13 cards randomly and keep pulling one card after another from the pack," he said. "You keep the cards that suit you and discard the ones than don't. When the person next to you drops a card that does not suit him, you pick it up because it makes your pair and sometimes you win the game."

Then he switched tracks and moved on to the topic of life. "Your fate is written by the lord and nobody can change it," he said. "Your journey is pre-determined. You travel from childhood to the pyre. In that path, however, you are allowed to make a few mid-course corrections."

He said such corrections take place when a human being picks up a discarded card from somebody's life. "If it is a bad pick and done with ill will, like killing or robbing somebody, then your path changes permanently and leads you to a bad end. But if humans pick up a good cause or impulse, the path leads to prosperity and peace of mind."

He said one needs to be vigilant or one will not spot good luck. "You are an MBA and you might have studied the Johari-window theory, in which one window is kept open for luck and external factors." According to the theory, one should not only do proper planning and execution, but also keep a window open for 'unknown external factors'.
"In rummy, it may be the card discarded by a fellow player. And in life, the unknown external factors are karma. One realises it when one matures and ages. Good karma always leads one to a good and peaceful life."