The commentary on the Pagnamakkanuvattanasutta
(‘First on the turning of the wheel’) in the Raja Vagga (discourses referring
to kings) of the Anguttara Nikaya (Numerical Discourses) that I began a few
weeks ago was once again interrupted by the need to respond to certain
ill-advised and obnoxious comments made by Sonia Gandhi, leader of the Congress
Party, India. I return this week to the
fourth attribute that a Chakravarthi or ‘Universal King’ is endowed with, or
which an aspirant to such a position is advised to acquire according to
Siddhartha Gauthama, our Budun Wahanse, that of Kalagngnu.
‘Kalagngnu’ refers to the matter of time and the
quality of being able to weigh the pros and cons relevant to saying and doing
at a particular moment. Today’s
politicians are a superstitious lot and place great value on determining the
auspicious moment for almost every public act, from announcement of candidature
through casting vote to launching this or that project. While the particular configuration of
celestial elements may or may not have bearing on things, the quality of kalagngnu
speaks to a much broader consideration of the time factor.
The ruler or leader of any body, from a state to a
village-level society and all things between these, is advised to locate
‘moment’ in terms of both past and future; in other words acquire what is
called the thun kal dekma or the ability to factor in the three broad
time categories of history, the here-and-now and the tomorrows that will be
impacted by decision and non-decision. A
leader has to see beyond his/her term in office and his/her vision should have
dimensions broader than issues of personal career objectives and
prospects. Indeed a leader needs to take
into account the possible impact of what is said and done several generations
into the future. This is what makes a leader a statesman and not a politician.
No extrapolation is possible if history is discounted. A leader needs to take cognizance of the
past, what has worked and what has failed, learn the lessons embedded in
success stories as well as failure. This
includes a consideration of the sum total of knowledge on the particular matter
at hand and adjustment according to changed realities. It is of course not a perfect science for the
sum total of human knowledge is but a speck of dust compared with the universe
of our human ignorance. This is no
excuse for deleting ‘past’ from the relevant decision-equation.
Leaders tend to focus on the here and now and base
calculations on immediate and tangible benefits. Such leaders can be successful but history
will not remember them in soft and fond terms.
Time will designate for them little more than name and number. The great leaders are those who constantly
base judgment on things past, the wisdom wrought of experience, the words of
the wise. They will add to all these the
visible and known realities of the particular moment and will stay decision until
they are able to make a reasonable assessment of impact, not just for those who
inhabit the ‘today’ but those who are yet unborn, factoring in also those other
processes which can be expected to have a bearing on the future.
It would be worthwhile at this point to reflect on what
kinds of outcomes have been produced by what is clearly an aversion to the idea
thun kal dekma. Modernity is
characterized by a fixation with the present.
Although leaders (political as well as religious and the captains of
industry) do refer to forecasts, they rarely calculate beyond the
short-term. ‘Long term’ rarely exceeds a
couple of decades and gaze never proceeds beyond the next generation. ‘Profit now’ seems to be the preferred the
guiding principle and since this is an economy and a development paradigm
obsessed with trade and markets, and since ‘moment’ is where need and need
fulfillment intersect, there is an inevitable rubbishing of the past, sanitized
as ‘sunk costs’ while the future gathers dust in the innumerable
‘imponderables’ that will not find residence in relevant equations.
Profit now goes hand in hand with seizure of wealth and
securing and protecting markets as well as avenues of resource and value
extraction. We have as a species
plundered and raped the earth with scarcely any concern about resource
depletion, compromising of biodiversity and indeed impact on the natural cycles
of the earth. The response to these dark
clouds ought to have infused caution into calculation but in reality it seems
to have spurred even more frenzied extraction and produced a firm entrenchment
of ‘moment-thinking’.
How does a leader acquire the quality of kalagngna? Politically speaking, the aspiring leader
does a lot of learning on the job. The
experience of others and his/her own experiences yield understanding in this
regard. On the other hand, the great and
successful leader is required to employ this character trait to matters that go
beyond securing and maintaining political power. It is learnt not on the job but in applying
principle to all considerations, however small and seemingly
insignificant. It requires the
applicator to also equip him/herself with humility, the ability to reflect, the
virtue of being cautious and, ideally, a commitment to observe the sathara
brahma viharana, i.e. loving kindness, compassion, equanimity and the
ability to rejoice in another’s happiness.
In general, those who have resolved to understand the
eternal verities invariably are better equipped to apply the principle of kalagngnu. For example, those who understand the reality
of impermanence are not prone to succumb to the inevitable traps set up by ego.
They are fully conscious of their mortality. They will therefore eschew the
pursuit of popularity and for this very reason will succeed in leaving behind a
legacy.
Kalagngnu is a quality that mellows a leader. It is about being punctual and this is no
doubt important. It is about efficient time management, another important trait
in a leader. It is about picking the right moment to say something and the
right time to do something. It is more
than all this, as elaborated above. A
leader who is guided by the principle of Kalagngnu will protect a
heritage and thereby ensure that sense of meaning and cultural relevance is
preserved in his/her people and moreover will always consider seriously the
matter of sustainability. Such a leader will eschew gimmicks and cheap thrills,
will not succumb to the cry and holler of the crowd but will operate with full
ear to the silence of those yet to come.
Such a leader will, in time, be hailed as ‘good’, ‘benevolent’ and
‘successful’. Such a leader will have a
tender place in history.
Sabbe aatta bhavantu
sukhitatta. May all beings be happy.
msenevira@gmail.com
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