East vs. West -- the myths that mystify
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0:02 - 0:05To understand the business of mythology
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0:05 - 0:09and what a Chief Belief Officer is supposed to do,
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0:09 - 0:11you have to hear a story
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0:11 - 0:13of Ganesha,
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0:13 - 0:15the elephant-headed god
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0:15 - 0:18who is the scribe of storytellers,
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0:18 - 0:19and his brother,
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0:19 - 0:21the athletic warlord of the gods,
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0:21 - 0:23Kartikeya.
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0:23 - 0:26The two brothers one day decided to go on a race,
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0:26 - 0:29three times around the world.
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0:29 - 0:32Kartikeya leapt on his peacock
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0:32 - 0:35and flew around the continents
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0:35 - 0:40and the mountains and the oceans.
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0:40 - 0:42He went around once,
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0:42 - 0:44he went around twice,
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0:44 - 0:47he went around thrice.
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0:47 - 0:50But his brother, Ganesha,
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0:50 - 0:53simply walked around his parents
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0:53 - 0:55once, twice, thrice,
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0:55 - 0:58and said, "I won."
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0:58 - 1:00"How come?" said Kartikeya.
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1:00 - 1:01And Ganesha said,
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1:01 - 1:04"You went around 'the world.'
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1:04 - 1:07I went around 'my world.'"
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1:07 - 1:10What matters more?
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1:10 - 1:13If you understand the difference between 'the world' and 'my world,'
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1:13 - 1:17you understand the difference between logos and mythos.
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1:17 - 1:19'The world' is objective,
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1:19 - 1:22logical, universal, factual,
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1:22 - 1:24scientific.
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1:24 - 1:27'My world' is subjective.
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1:27 - 1:30It's emotional. It's personal.
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1:30 - 1:33It's perceptions, thoughts, feelings, dreams.
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1:33 - 1:36It is the belief system that we carry.
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1:36 - 1:39It's the myth that we live in.
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1:39 - 1:42'The world' tells us how the world functions,
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1:42 - 1:45how the sun rises,
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1:45 - 1:48how we are born.
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1:48 - 1:51'My world' tells us why the sun rises,
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1:51 - 1:55why we were born.
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1:55 - 1:59Every culture is trying to understand itself:
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1:59 - 2:01"Why do we exist?"
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2:01 - 2:04And every culture comes up with its own understanding of life,
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2:04 - 2:09its own customized version of mythology.
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2:09 - 2:12Culture is a reaction to nature,
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2:12 - 2:14and this understanding of our ancestors
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2:14 - 2:17is transmitted generation from generation
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2:17 - 2:20in the form of stories, symbols and rituals,
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2:20 - 2:26which are always indifferent to rationality.
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2:26 - 2:28And so, when you study it, you realize
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2:28 - 2:30that different people of the world
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2:30 - 2:33have a different understanding of the world.
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2:33 - 2:35Different people see things differently --
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2:35 - 2:37different viewpoints.
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2:37 - 2:39There is my world and there is your world,
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2:39 - 2:42and my world is always better than your world,
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2:42 - 2:45because my world, you see, is rational
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2:45 - 2:47and yours is superstition.
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2:47 - 2:49Yours is faith.
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2:49 - 2:52Yours is illogical.
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2:52 - 2:55This is the root of the clash of civilizations.
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2:55 - 2:59It took place, once, in 326 B.C.
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2:59 - 3:02on the banks of a river called the Indus,
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3:02 - 3:04now in Pakistan.
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3:04 - 3:07This river lends itself to India's name.
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3:07 - 3:09India. Indus.
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3:12 - 3:15Alexander, a young Macedonian,
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3:15 - 3:19met there what he called a "gymnosophist,"
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3:19 - 3:22which means "the naked, wise man."
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3:22 - 3:24We don't know who he was.
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3:24 - 3:26Perhaps he was a Jain monk,
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3:26 - 3:28like Bahubali over here,
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3:28 - 3:29the Gomateshwara Bahubali
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3:29 - 3:31whose image is not far from Mysore.
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3:31 - 3:33Or perhaps he was just a yogi
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3:33 - 3:35who was sitting on a rock, staring at the sky
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3:35 - 3:37and the sun and the moon.
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3:37 - 3:40Alexander asked, "What are you doing?"
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3:40 - 3:42and the gymnosophist answered,
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3:42 - 3:45"I'm experiencing nothingness."
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3:45 - 3:48Then the gymnosophist asked,
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3:48 - 3:50"What are you doing?"
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3:50 - 3:53and Alexander said, "I am conquering the world."
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3:53 - 3:56And they both laughed.
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3:56 - 4:00Each one thought that the other was a fool.
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4:00 - 4:04The gymnosophist said, "Why is he conquering the world?
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4:04 - 4:07It's pointless."
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4:07 - 4:09And Alexander thought,
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4:09 - 4:11"Why is he sitting around, doing nothing?
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4:11 - 4:13What a waste of a life."
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4:13 - 4:17To understand this difference in viewpoints,
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4:17 - 4:20we have to understand
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4:20 - 4:23the subjective truth of Alexander --
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4:23 - 4:28his myth, and the mythology that constructed it.
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4:28 - 4:31Alexander's mother, his parents, his teacher Aristotle
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4:31 - 4:34told him the story of Homer's "Iliad."
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4:34 - 4:37They told him of a great hero called Achilles,
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4:37 - 4:40who, when he participated in battle, victory was assured,
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4:40 - 4:43but when he withdrew from the battle,
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4:43 - 4:46defeat was inevitable.
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4:46 - 4:49"Achilles was a man who could shape history,
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4:49 - 4:52a man of destiny,
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4:52 - 4:55and this is what you should be, Alexander."
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4:55 - 4:57That's what he heard.
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4:57 - 5:00"What should you not be?
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5:00 - 5:03You should not be Sisyphus,
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5:03 - 5:05who rolls a rock up a mountain all day
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5:05 - 5:10only to find the boulder rolled down at night.
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5:10 - 5:13Don't live a life which is monotonous,
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5:13 - 5:15mediocre, meaningless.
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5:15 - 5:18Be spectacular! --
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5:18 - 5:20like the Greek heroes,
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5:20 - 5:22like Jason, who went across the sea
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5:22 - 5:26with the Argonauts and fetched the Golden Fleece.
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5:26 - 5:29Be spectacular like Theseus,
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5:29 - 5:35who entered the labyrinth and killed the bull-headed Minotaur.
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5:35 - 5:39When you play in a race, win! --
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5:39 - 5:42because when you win, the exhilaration of victory
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5:42 - 5:47is the closest you will come to the ambrosia of the gods."
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5:47 - 5:50Because, you see, the Greeks believed
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5:50 - 5:52you live only once,
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5:52 - 5:56and when you die, you have to cross the River Styx.
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5:56 - 5:59And if you have lived an extraordinary life,
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5:59 - 6:02you will be welcomed to Elysium,
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6:02 - 6:06or what the French call "Champs-Élysées" --
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6:06 - 6:07(Laughter) --
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6:07 - 6:10the heaven of the heroes.
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6:13 - 6:17But these are not the stories that the gymnosophist heard.
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6:17 - 6:20He heard a very different story.
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6:20 - 6:23He heard of a man called Bharat,
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6:23 - 6:26after whom India is called Bhārata.
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6:26 - 6:29Bharat also conquered the world.
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6:29 - 6:32And then he went to the top-most peak
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6:32 - 6:35of the greatest mountain of the center of the world
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6:35 - 6:36called Meru.
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6:36 - 6:39And he wanted to hoist his flag to say,
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6:39 - 6:42"I was here first."
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6:42 - 6:44But when he reached the mountain peak,
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6:44 - 6:49he found the peak covered with countless flags
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6:49 - 6:52of world-conquerors before him,
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6:52 - 6:56each one claiming "'I was here first' ...
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6:56 - 7:00that's what I thought until I came here."
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7:00 - 7:03And suddenly, in this canvas of infinity,
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7:03 - 7:07Bharat felt insignificant.
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7:07 - 7:11This was the mythology of the gymnosophist.
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7:11 - 7:16You see, he had heroes, like Ram -- Raghupati Ram
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7:16 - 7:18and Krishna, Govinda Hari.
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7:18 - 7:22But they were not two characters on two different adventures.
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7:22 - 7:26They were two lifetimes of the same hero.
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7:26 - 7:30When the Ramayana ends the Mahabharata begins.
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7:30 - 7:32When Ram dies, Krishna is born.
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7:32 - 7:35When Krishna dies, eventually he will be back as Ram.
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7:35 - 7:38You see, the Indians also had a river
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7:38 - 7:41that separates the land of the living from the land of the dead.
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7:41 - 7:43But you don't cross it once.
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7:43 - 7:46You go to and fro endlessly.
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7:46 - 7:49It was called the Vaitarani.
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7:49 - 7:52You go again and again and again.
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7:52 - 7:53Because, you see,
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7:53 - 7:56nothing lasts forever in India, not even death.
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7:56 - 7:59And so, you have these grand rituals
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7:59 - 8:02where great images of mother goddesses are built
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8:02 - 8:04and worshiped for 10 days ...
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8:04 - 8:06And what do you do at the end of 10 days?
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8:06 - 8:09You dunk it in the river.
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8:09 - 8:11Because it has to end.
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8:11 - 8:14And next year, she will come back.
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8:14 - 8:16What goes around always comes around,
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8:16 - 8:19and this rule applies not just to man,
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8:19 - 8:21but also the gods.
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8:21 - 8:24You see, the gods
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8:24 - 8:26have to come back again and again and again
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8:26 - 8:28as Ram, as Krishna.
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8:28 - 8:31Not only do they live infinite lives,
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8:31 - 8:34but the same life is lived infinite times
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8:34 - 8:39till you get to the point of it all.
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8:39 - 8:41"Groundhog Day."
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8:41 - 8:44(Laughter)
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8:46 - 8:49Two different mythologies.
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8:49 - 8:51Which is right?
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8:51 - 8:54Two different mythologies, two different ways of looking at the world.
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8:54 - 8:56One linear, one cyclical.
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8:56 - 8:58One believes this is the one and only life.
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8:58 - 9:03The other believes this is one of many lives.
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9:03 - 9:07And so, the denominator of Alexander's life was one.
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9:07 - 9:10So, the value of his life was the sum total
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9:10 - 9:12of his achievements.
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9:12 - 9:16The denominator of the gymnosophist's life was infinity.
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9:16 - 9:19So, no matter what he did,
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9:19 - 9:21it was always zero.
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9:21 - 9:24And I believe it is this mythological paradigm
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9:24 - 9:27that inspired Indian mathematicians
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9:27 - 9:29to discover the number zero.
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9:29 - 9:31Who knows?
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9:31 - 9:34And that brings us to the mythology of business.
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9:34 - 9:37If Alexander's belief influenced his behavior,
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9:37 - 9:41if the gymnosophist's belief influences his behavior,
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9:41 - 9:46then it was bound to influence the business they were in.
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9:46 - 9:48You see, what is business
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9:48 - 9:50but the result of how the market behaves
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9:50 - 9:53and how the organization behaves?
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9:53 - 9:56And if you look at cultures around the world,
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9:56 - 9:58all you have to do is understand the mythology
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9:58 - 10:01and you will see how they behave and how they do business.
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10:01 - 10:05Take a look.
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10:05 - 10:08If you live only once, in one-life cultures around the world,
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10:08 - 10:10you will see an obsession with binary logic,
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10:10 - 10:13absolute truth, standardization,
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10:13 - 10:16absoluteness, linear patterns in design.
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10:16 - 10:19But if you look at cultures which have cyclical
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10:19 - 10:24and based on infinite lives, you will see a comfort with fuzzy logic,
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10:24 - 10:26with opinion,
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10:26 - 10:28with contextual thinking,
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10:28 - 10:31with everything is relative, sort of --
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10:31 - 10:32(Laughter)
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10:32 - 10:34mostly.
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10:34 - 10:35(Laughter)
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10:35 - 10:38You look at art. Look at the ballerina,
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10:38 - 10:40how linear she is in her performance.
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10:40 - 10:42And then look at the Indian classical dancer,
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10:42 - 10:44the Kuchipudi dancer, the Bharatanatyam dancer,
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10:44 - 10:46curvaceous.
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10:46 - 10:49(Laughter)
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10:49 - 10:51And then look at business.
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10:51 - 10:53Standard business model:
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10:53 - 10:57vision, mission, values, processes.
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10:57 - 10:59Sounds very much like the journey through
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10:59 - 11:01the wilderness to the promised land,
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11:01 - 11:03with the commandments held by the leader.
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11:03 - 11:08And if you comply, you will go to heaven.
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11:08 - 11:10But in India there is no "the" promised land.
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11:10 - 11:13There are many promised lands,
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11:13 - 11:16depending on your station in society,
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11:16 - 11:18depending on your stage of life.
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11:18 - 11:22You see, businesses are not run as institutions,
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11:22 - 11:25by the idiosyncrasies of individuals.
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11:25 - 11:28It's always about taste.
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11:28 - 11:32It's always about my taste.
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11:32 - 11:34You see, Indian music, for example,
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11:34 - 11:36does not have the concept of harmony.
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11:36 - 11:40There is no orchestra conductor.
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11:40 - 11:43There is one performer standing there, and everybody follows.
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11:43 - 11:47And you can never replicate that performance twice.
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11:47 - 11:49It is not about documentation and contract.
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11:49 - 11:53It's about conversation and faith.
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11:53 - 11:57It's not about compliance. It's about setting,
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11:57 - 12:01getting the job done, by bending or breaking the rules --
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12:01 - 12:03just look at your Indian people around here,
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12:03 - 12:05you'll see them smile; they know what it is.
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12:05 - 12:06(Laughter)
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12:06 - 12:08And then look at people who have done business in India,
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12:08 - 12:10you'll see the exasperation on their faces.
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12:10 - 12:11(Laughter)
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12:11 - 12:15(Applause)
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12:15 - 12:17You see, this is what India is today. The ground reality
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12:17 - 12:19is based on a cyclical world view.
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12:19 - 12:22So, it's rapidly changing, highly diverse,
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12:22 - 12:25chaotic, ambiguous, unpredictable.
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12:25 - 12:28And people are okay with it.
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12:28 - 12:30And then globalization is taking place.
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12:30 - 12:34The demands of modern institutional thinking is coming in.
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12:34 - 12:38Which is rooted in one-life culture.
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12:38 - 12:40And a clash is going to take place,
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12:40 - 12:43like on the banks of the Indus.
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12:43 - 12:46It is bound to happen.
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12:46 - 12:49I have personally experienced it. I'm trained as a medical doctor.
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12:49 - 12:52I did not want to study surgery. Don't ask me why.
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12:52 - 12:54I love mythology too much.
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12:54 - 12:56I wanted to learn mythology. But there is nowhere you can study.
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12:56 - 12:58So, I had to teach it to myself.
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12:58 - 13:01And mythology does not pay, well, until now.
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13:01 - 13:05(Laughter)
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13:05 - 13:08So, I had to take up a job. And I worked in the pharma industry.
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13:08 - 13:10And I worked in the healthcare industry.
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13:10 - 13:12And I worked as a marketing guy, and a sales guy,
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13:12 - 13:15and a knowledge guy, and a content guy, and a training guy.
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13:15 - 13:18I even was a business consultant, doing strategies and tactics.
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13:18 - 13:20And I would see the exasperation
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13:20 - 13:23between my American and European colleagues,
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13:23 - 13:25when they were dealing with India.
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13:25 - 13:28Example: Please tell us the process
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13:28 - 13:31to invoice hospitals.
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13:31 - 13:35Step A. Step B. Step C. Mostly.
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13:35 - 13:37(Laughter)
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13:37 - 13:39How do you parameterize "mostly"?
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13:39 - 13:43How do you put it in a nice little software? You can't.
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13:43 - 13:45I would give my viewpoints to people.
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13:45 - 13:47But nobody was interested in listening to it,
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13:47 - 13:51you see, until I met Kishore Biyani of the Future group.
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13:51 - 13:56You see, he has established the largest retail chain, called Big Bazaar.
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13:56 - 13:58And there are more than 200 formats,
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13:58 - 14:00across 50 cities and towns of India.
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14:00 - 14:04And he was dealing with diverse and dynamic markets.
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14:04 - 14:06And he knew very intuitively,
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14:06 - 14:08that best practices,
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14:08 - 14:11developed in Japan and China and Europe and America
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14:11 - 14:14will not work in India.
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14:14 - 14:18He knew that institutional thinking doesn't work in India. Individual thinking does.
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14:18 - 14:22He had an intuitive understanding of the mythic structure of India.
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14:22 - 14:24So, he had asked me to be the Chief Belief Officer, and said,
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14:24 - 14:27"All I want to do is align belief."
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14:27 - 14:29Sounds so simple.
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14:29 - 14:31But belief is not measurable.
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14:31 - 14:33You can't measure it. You can't manage it.
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14:33 - 14:35So, how do you construct belief?
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14:35 - 14:39How do you enhance the sensitivity of people to Indian-ness.
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14:39 - 14:43Even if you are Indian, it is not very explicit, it is not very obvious.
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14:43 - 14:47So, I tried to work on the standard model of culture,
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14:47 - 14:49which is, develop stories, symbols and rituals.
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14:49 - 14:52And I will share one of the rituals with you.
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14:52 - 14:55You see it is based on the Hindu ritual of Darshan.
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14:55 - 14:57Hindus don't have the concept of commandments.
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14:57 - 14:59So, there is nothing right or wrong in what you do in life.
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14:59 - 15:02So, you're not really sure how you stand in front of God.
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15:02 - 15:05So, when you go to the temple, all you seek is an audience with God.
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15:05 - 15:07You want to see God.
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15:07 - 15:11And you want God to see you, and hence the gods have very large eyes,
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15:11 - 15:13large unblinking eyes,
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15:13 - 15:16sometimes made of silver,
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15:16 - 15:18so they look at you.
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15:18 - 15:20Because you don't know whether you're right or wrong, and so all you seek
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15:20 - 15:24is divine empathy.
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15:24 - 15:27"Just know where I came from, why I did the Jugaad."
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15:27 - 15:28(Laughter)
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15:28 - 15:30"Why did I do the setting,
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15:30 - 15:35why I don't care for the processes. Just understand me, please."
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15:35 - 15:38And based on this, we created a ritual for leaders.
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15:38 - 15:42After a leader completes his training and is about to take over the store,
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15:42 - 15:46we blindfold him, we surround him with the stakeholders,
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15:46 - 15:50the customer, his family, his team, his boss.
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15:50 - 15:53You read out his KRA, his KPI, you give him the keys,
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15:53 - 15:55and then you remove the blindfold.
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15:55 - 15:58And invariably, you see a tear,
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15:58 - 16:00because the penny has dropped.
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16:00 - 16:04He realizes that to succeed,
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16:04 - 16:07he does not have to be a "professional,"
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16:07 - 16:10he does not have to cut out his emotions,
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16:10 - 16:13he has to include all these people
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16:13 - 16:17in his world to succeed, to make them happy,
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16:17 - 16:19to make the boss happy, to make everyone happy.
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16:19 - 16:22The customer is happy, because the customer is God.
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16:22 - 16:25That sensitivity is what we need. Once this belief enters,
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16:25 - 16:28behavior will happen, business will happen.
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16:28 - 16:31And it has.
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16:31 - 16:34So, then we come back to Alexander
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16:34 - 16:36and to the gymnosophist.
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16:36 - 16:40And everybody asks me, "Which is the better way, this way or that way?"
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16:40 - 16:42And it's a very dangerous question,
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16:42 - 16:46because it leads you to the path of fundamentalism and violence.
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16:46 - 16:48So, I will not answer the question.
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16:48 - 16:50What I will give you is an Indian answer,
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16:50 - 16:52the Indian head-shake.
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16:52 - 16:54(Laughter)
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16:54 - 16:58(Applause)
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16:58 - 17:00Depending on the context,
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17:00 - 17:02depending on the outcome,
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17:02 - 17:05choose your paradigm.
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17:05 - 17:08You see, because both the paradigms are human constructions.
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17:08 - 17:11They are cultural creations,
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17:11 - 17:14not natural phenomena.
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17:14 - 17:17And so the next time you meet someone, a stranger,
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17:17 - 17:19one request:
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17:19 - 17:22Understand that you live in the subjective truth,
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17:22 - 17:24and so does he.
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17:24 - 17:26Understand it.
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17:26 - 17:31And when you understand it you will discover something spectacular.
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17:31 - 17:33You will discover that within infinite myths
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17:33 - 17:35lies the eternal truth.
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17:35 - 17:37Who sees it all?
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17:37 - 17:39Varuna has but a thousand eyes.
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17:39 - 17:42Indra, a hundred.
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17:42 - 17:44You and I, only two.
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17:44 - 17:47Thank you. Namaste.
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17:47 - 18:05(Applause)
- Title:
- East vs. West -- the myths that mystify
- Speaker:
- Devdutt Pattanaik
- Description:
-
Devdutt Pattanaik takes an eye-opening look at the myths of India and of the West -- and shows how these two fundamentally different sets of beliefs about God, death and heaven help us consistently misunderstand one another.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 18:08
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