Professional

Run Away, Regret Later

EnsuresLeave a comment

This widely shared WhatsApp meme humorously suggests that the best way to avoid work stress is simply not going to work. While the joke brings a quick laugh it highlights a sad reality of modern life. People increasingly use escapism to run away from everyday challenges. Avoiding problems instead of facing them head-on weakens individuals making them incapable of handling even basic day-to-day trivialities.

Maharshi Patanjali outlined how human suffering stems from fundamental mental obstacles and the subconscious urge to flee from immediate discomfort. Beneath the surface of workplace humor lies a troubling cultural habit where people treat avoidance as a valid strategy. Ducking responsibilities trades temporary relief for long-term vulnerability. Problems never vanish when ignored. They simply compound in the background while shrinking the mental capacity needed to resolve them.

हेयं दुःखमनागतम्
Suffering that has not yet come is avoidable.
Future pain caused by escaping responsibilities can be prevented by making
wise, disciplined choices in the present moment. (PYS 2:16)

Human nature inherently pushes individuals away from pain through deep seated aversion. When faced with difficult duties the untrained mind panics and seeks immediate escape. Modern convenience conditions everyone to expect frictionless living. Ancient thought recognizes that true character grows only through disciplined effort and the burning away of mental impurities. Confronting difficulties directly clears the mind of weakness. Fleeing from simple obligations leaves the mental landscape fragile and completely unprepared for major life struggles.

अभ्यासवैराग्याभ्यां तन्निरोधः
Fluctuations and reactive habits of the mind are
quieted through persistent practice
and detachment from immediate comfort. (PYS 1:12)

People frequently confuse temporary relief with true tranquility. The mind generates continuous fluctuations and false illusions that convince a person that running away brings safety. Escapism provides a deceptive cover. Instead of addressing the root cause of stress individuals indulge in distraction or absenteeism. This reactive cycle keeps the spirit trapped in a loop of fear. Real peace requires mastering the internal state regardless of external circumstances rather than running away from environment.

अविद्यास्मितारागद्वेषाभिनिवेशाः क्लेशाः
Fundamental afflictions that disturb the mind include
ignorance, egoism, attachment, and aversion,
which drive the urge to run away from difficult realities. (PYS 2:3)

Avoiding daily trials creates a dangerous cycle of psychological decay. Every time a person dodges a difficult conversation or a tough assignment the mind registers that avoidance is necessary for survival. This false sense of security backfires rapidly. Soon even minor administrative tasks or trivial daily annoyances trigger disproportionate anxiety. The threshold of tolerance drops lower and lower until normal existence feels completely overwhelming.

Developing genuine inner strength requires steady effort and a complete shift in perspective. Instead of viewing challenges as threats individuals must train themselves to see obstacles as raw fuel for growth. Deep transformation happens through persistent practice over a long period without interruption. Overcoming small daily frictions without complaint builds the stamina needed for major crises. Embracing discomfort transforms weakness into unshakeable endurance. Facing reality head-on remains the only reliable path to lasting self-mastery.

Job Security vs. Institutional Results

EnsuresLeave a comment
PC: Gemini

The recent controversy surrounding remarks by Karnataka Chief Minister DK Shivakumar and his daughter Aishwarya regarding the quality and accountability of government school teachers has once again exposed a deep-seated administrative fault line. Their comments on the gap between state-funded salaries and actual classroom performance sparked immediate pushback from teacher representatives and public sector advocates. However, rather than viewing this incident as a isolated political dispute, it serves as a critical trigger to examine the broader structural failure that plagues public-private partnerships across the state’s social sector.

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) in public governance, whether in government schools or Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), continually run into the same structural wall: the split between operational management and administrative control.

Core Paradox: Power Without Authority

When private players or trusts adopt government institutions under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) or PPP frameworks, they are expected to improve outcomes, modernise infrastructure, and raise standards. However, they possess zero supervisory control over permanent government employees.

Permanent government staff derive their security from civil service rules, state appointment frameworks, and powerful employee unions rather than performance metrics. Private partners cannot hire, fire, transfer, dock pay, or issue formal disciplinary notices. External management interventions are often viewed as unsolicited oversight rather than support. Without administrative teeth, external partners can only persuade, which fails when absenteeism or lack of accountability is already habitual.

Why ITIs and Schools Share Same Failure Pattern

This phenomenon is not unique to school education and follows a predictable path across sectors. CSR initiatives frequently turn into cash injections for infrastructure, such as smart classrooms, machinery in ITIs, bus services, or toilet blocks. While physical assets improve, pedagogy and operational rigor remain unchanged because the human capital layer is untouched.

Government staff are evaluated, if at all, on administrative compliance like census work, election duties, record keeping, and scheme rollouts. Reality is that appraisal and growth is time based nor performance based in Government Institutions. On the other hand, Private partners evaluate them on output quality such as student pass rates, skill employable ratios, and daily classroom hours.

Structural Hesitation: Infrastructure Capital vs Human Capital

This systemic lack of operational control explains why private entities and corporate foundations deliberately limit their involvement to physical infrastructure. Donating smart boards, renovating laboratory facilities, building sanitation blocks, or gifting school buses allows corporate donors to achieve visible, measurable outcomes without entering administrative conflict. High-value physical capital creates immediate visual impact for corporate social responsibility metrics while insulating the private entity from the friction of staff absenteeism, union pushback, and entrenched workplace culture.

True institutional reform and modernisation cannot occur through hardware upgrades alone. Operational success depends entirely on human resources. When management frameworks lack the authority to enforce daily accountability, performance tracking, or pedagogical standards, institutional staff revert to established habits. Infrastructure improvements without corresponding authority over staff management yield minimal long-term change, leaving structural reform unrealised despite substantial private investment.

Ground Reality: Lessons From ITI Interventions

Direct experience in ITI interventions across various models confirms that collaborative operations succeed only when complete management control, including staffing, is handed over to the private partner. While augmenting existing institutions by retaining incumbent government staff carries long-term merit on paper, it often remains a good intention defeated by a total lack of accountable participation. During an Industry-Government meet on PM-SETU, a renowned industrialist repeatedly pressed government officials on whether operational management control included staffing control. The policy representatives offered no convincing answer beyond stating that they would cross that bridge when they come to it. Leaving such fundamental rules of engagement unaddressed guarantees friction. Clear frameworks on staffing governance, measurable outcomes, and enforced accountability must be defined well in advance rather than deferred to post-implementation crisis management.

Structural Solutions for Functional Co-Management

To make public-private adoption work without stripping public servants of their statutory protections, systemic governance changes are necessary:

  • Statutory Delegation of Supervisory Powers: Adopting entities should receive formal, delegated authority to sign off on performance-linked incentives, daily attendance logs, and internal quality appraisals.
  • Non-Teaching Duty Relief: As highlighted in defense of public sector staff, teachers and instructors are often burdened with non-educational administrative duties. Public policy must ring-fence their hours purely for instruction before enforcing strict attendance standards.
  • Third-Party Metric Auditing: Independent state-sanctioned bodies—rather than internal department heads or private adopters—must handle attendance tracking and performance audits to bypass union pushback and institutional apathy.

Confronting the Human Element in Public Education

The controversy surrounding the statements made by Aishwarya and DK Shivakumar brings this long-evaded reality into sharp focus. When the state provides substantial salaries to public school educators, expecting proportional commitment and outcome delivery is not an unreasonable corporate demand, it is basic institutional governance.

This core issue is often obscured by defensive rhetoric, such as the pushback from JD(S) MLC A P Ranganath (representing the Bangalore Teachers’ Constituency), who claimed that questioning teacher performance “insults” them because they clear rigorous recruitment exams. This argument fundamentally misunderstands the purpose of public service: clearing a competitive test is merely the entry ticket, not the end goal. Recruitment exams test potential at a single point in time, but daily performance and classroom engagement decide the future of lakhs of children. Similarly, accusations from groups like the Save Public Education Committee, claiming the government is passing the buck onto teachers, ignore the reality that teachers remain the single most critical factor in learning outcomes. Shielding staff behind past credentials or union solidarity ensures educational reform remains a distant dream.

If the goal is truly to safeguard accessible, quality education for underprivileged students, a pragmatic economic model must replace political posturing. The government can continue funding base salaries according to existing public remuneration scales, while private partners fund performance-linked top-ups and resource gaps. In return, teachers must commit to strict, enforceable standards of discipline and measurable student outcomes. Without this balanced accountability framework, no amount of public funding or private goodwill can fix the system.

Essence of Volunteering: An Indian Citizen Volunteer Perspective

EnsuresLeave a comment

Excerpts from my online address for International Consortium of Volunteer Organisations

Respected delegates and esteemed participants, warm greetings to you all.

I stand before you not as an expert on Administration nor as policy expert, but as humble seeker and blessed devotee of Pujya Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar ji. Whatever little I understand about human service comes from observing Him, whose life is ultimate testament to leadership by example. From Pujya Gurudev, I received foundational truth of my life: service is never burden we carry or favour we grant to society, but sacred privilege bestowed upon us.

My understanding of ground execution was tested in crucible of crisis. During relief operations with Art of Living, I saw how compassion transforms instantly into swift, organized action on ground. Later, while serving as Honarary Vice-Chairman of Citizen Task Force for COVID Management under Government of Karnataka, I coordinated with nearly 40,000 volunteers, where over 25,000 were active throughout the lock-down phases, risking their lives when virus was silent, unknown killer. I remain deeply grateful to Major Manivannan, IAS (currently Commissioner of Bengaluru Development Authority), a senior bureaucrat in Government of Karnataka, for trusting me with this responsibility. That experience revealed clear truth: formal state machinery can build infrastructure, but only deep spirit of voluntary action can heal society during massive human crises. When senior administrator asked why I was taking humongous personal risk when government officials were paid to do job, my heart gave only one response:

“If not me, who?
If not now, when?”

Paid duty moves within boundaries of mandate, but true citizen service springs from personal accountability toward community. I am sure each one of us are guided by the same principle

Yet, sustained service requires more than initial emotional surge. When public crises stretch across months like in case of COVID19 Management, enthusiasm naturally turns into physical and mental exhaustion. Key to building resilient volunteer movements lies in ancient Indian concept of dispassionate attachment. Shrimad Bhagavad Gita anchors this exact principle of action:

कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन |
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि ||
karmaṇy-evādhikāras te mā phaleṣhu kadāchana
mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr mā te saṅgo ’stv akarmaṇi
“You have right to perform prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to fruits of action. Never consider yourself cause of results of your activities and never be attached to inaction.” (Bhagavad Gita 2.47)

When volunteers chase personal glory, recognition, or quick fairy-tale endings, frustration sets in immediately. Working without attachment to outcome protects teams from burnout and ensures temporary setbacks do not paralyze collective movement.

Public administration during emergencies often suffers from institutional friction, rigid hierarchies, and pursuit of absolute procedural perfection. Crises demand timely, practical solutions over delayed perfectionism. True leadership requires shifting from top-down control to facilitative mindset. Administrators must insulate ground teams from red tape, replace multi-layered authorization chains with rapid clearances, and eliminate bloated documentation. We must build documented systems, not systems for documentation. Thanks to the Government of the day for the free hand given to us to manage the situation, and Major Manivannan insulating us from the comprehensive and slow moving procedures. By deploying lightweight digital platforms for resource mapping and tapping open-source technology alongside pro-bono corporate expertise, zero-budget volunteer networks can scale rapidly without heavy overheads or delays.

This self-arising model, traditional wisdom calls Swayambhu, relies entirely on shared purpose rather than monetary incentives or capital-intensive structures. Amorphous citizen groups lack rigid designations, allowing individuals to step up based on competence and adapt instantly to changing field realities. To sustain such movements without exhausting key leaders, organizations must practice rotational leadership. Inability to delegate traps experienced leaders in routine tasks, creating operational bottlenecks. Bhagavan Shri Krishna highlights how detached duty releases operational stress:

तस्मादसक्तः सततं कार्यं कर्म समाचर|
असक्तो ह्याचरन्कर्म परमाप्नोति पूरुषः||
tasmād asaktaḥ satataṁ kāryaṁ karma samāchara
asakto hyācharan karma param āpnoti pūruṣhaḥ
“Therefore, without being attached to fruits of activities, one should act as matter of duty, for by working without attachment one attains Supreme.” (Bhagavad Gita 3.19)

Establishing robust decentralized frameworks and handing over authority ensures social institutions outlive individual leaders.

Decentralized self-governance is not foreign concept to Indian soil; it is our ancient heritage. For millennia, local communities managed civic infrastructure, water bodies, and justice independently of royal courts. 10th century Uthiramerur inscriptions from reign of Paranthaka-I detail how Tamilagam’s local assembly, Sabha, managed public works through executive committees elected via Kudavolai – Kudam (pot) + Olai (palm leaves) where a small non-interested boy draws the leaf with name of the nominee from the pot – an unique lottery system with strict eligibility criteria and instant disqualification for administrative misconduct or lack of financial transparency. Similarly, in Sixth Century BCE, Gana-Sangha dynasties like Licchavis of Vaishali governed through representative assemblies, taking democratic decisions using wooden voting slips called Salakas. Modern public policy can draw from these roots, creating nodal desks that seamlessly integrate citizen action into governance framework.

For over four decades, social initiatives guided by Pujya Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar ji have proven transformative power of selfless action across India. In River Rejuvenation project, Art of Living volunteers, hydrologists, and villagers have revived dozens of dying rivers across Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh. By constructing thousands of recharge structures and injection wells, groundwater levels have been restored, bringing fertile land back to life for lakhs of farmers. From rural development and organic farming to free tribal education and disaster relief, these projects succeed because citizens view service not as transaction, but as spiritual duty.

Viewing volunteering as privilege transforms administrator and volunteer alike. Pujya Gurudev reminds us that supreme reality operates through us, and we are merely instruments in larger cosmic order. When we surrender personal ego and ownership of results, our actions remain pure and untainted, as Gita describes:

ब्रह्मण्याधाय कर्माणि सङ्गं त्यक्त्वा करोति यः|
लिप्यते न स पापेन पद्मपत्रमिवाम्भसा||
brahmaṇy-ādhāya karmāṇi saṅgaṁ tyaktvā karoti ya
ḥlipyate na sa pāpena padma-patram ivāmbhasā
“One who performs duty without attachment, surrendering results unto Supreme, is unaffected by material contamination, just as lotus leaf is untouched by water.” (Bhagavad Gita 5.10)

As every Art of Living follower understands, true service is not about capability; it is about availability. When we make ourselves available as clear instruments, dispassionate action becomes journey of self-discovery and lasting social transformation.

Thank you for patient listening and to the organizers for according this privilege of addressing this amazing bunch of Nishkama Karmayogi (Those Serving selflessly without any personal expectations)

On occasion of Deepavali, grand festival of lights, I extend my heartfelt wishes to you and your families. May your lives and path of volunteering be illuminated with light of wisdom, humility, and endless capacity to serve society.

Happy Volunteering!

PS: Script of this address will be availabe online within 24 hours on the following link

https://yensures.com/2026/11/07/essence-of-volunteering-an-indian-citizen-volunteer-perspective/

You may also refer to my earlier articles on the related subject on the following links