On Saturday, October 25th, 2014, Dr. Vikrant Singh Tomar, a young dynamic scholar on Hindu scriptures and modern management, gave a public program at the Guruvayoorappen Temple in NJ. He was hosted by PROJECT SELF and the topic was Emotional Intelligence and Yoga Sutra. You can read Mr. Tomar’s professional at the end of the post. I was invited by friends to listen to this powerful lecture on how Hindu principles can help us in the modern world. Thank you to Rajesh Rabindranath of PROJECT SELF for the invite. Video and Highlights below.
Introduction & Opening Exercise (Video)
Dr. Tomar was introduced to the audience by a member of PROJECT SELF, and his impressive and extensive credentials were related to us. Dr. Tomar took the floor and started the audience off with a short exercise to teach us something about emotional intelligence. We were all instructed to quickly inflate a balloon, write the name of the person next to us on it, and throw it into the center of a circle. Once called, we were to go into the circle and try to find the balloon with our name on it and bring it to the front. After everyone had scarmbled to find their balloon we were told the balloon represents our happiness. We were all looking for our own happiness and in the process we had kicked other people’s happiness out of the way. If we had picked up someone else’s balloon of happiness and gave it to them, other’s would have done the same for us. Dr. Tomar related this to the corporate world where everyone is looking for their own happiness and destroying the happiness of others. If corporate officers could learn to give the workers their happiness, the workers would respond by giving the corporate officers their happiness through hard work. This was the moral of the exercise which was followed by anecdotes to help us understand how our emotions work, they “only feel, they don’t think”. Dr. Tomar’s key message was that “Emotional Intelligence” relies on our intellect controlling our emotions and not allowing our emotions to control our intellect.
A Lesson From The Ramayana
The most intriguing aspect of Dr. Tomar’s approach to emotional intelligence is the fact that he refers to HIndu scriptures to make his points. Using scripture to make analogies or come to conclusions is a process known as “exegesis”, a science that Hindus need to implement more if we want to make an impact in the modern world. He related to us a story from the Hindu epic the Ramayana where a king allowed his emotions to control his intellect, which leads to disaster. King Dasharatha was the king of Ayodhya and he had three wives; Kausalya, Kaikeyi and Sumitra. Kausalya gave birth to Ram who was to become the future king of Ayodhya, while Kaikeyi gave birth to prince Bharat. Several years before the birth of the children, Queen Kaikeyi had saved the life of King Dasharatha in battle, at which time he offered her two boons (promises of gifts) which she could request of him at any time. At the time of Ram’s corrination, Kaikeyi’s mind was poisoned by her wicked maid Manthara who convinced her that if Ram took to the throne, her and her son would become literal servants in his kingdom. Plagued with fear and jealousy, Queen Kaikeyi went to King Dasharatha and demanded her two promised boons immediately. The first was that her son Bharat was to be crowned king, the second was that Ram should be cast out into the forest for 14 years. King Dasharatha begged and pleaded with Kaikeyi to ask for anything else but she refused. Because Kaikeyi had saved his life, and because he had promised her anything she wanted, King Dasharatha was taken by emotion and too quickly obliged to the requests. Ram also very quickly followed his father’s orders to retreat to the forest, allowing his emotional desire to please his father to cloud his intellectual reasoning. King Dasharatha was so distraught by his decision that he quickly died of a broken heart. When Bharat heard of his mothers ill deeds, be became angered with her and she herself realized what a horrible thing she had done. Bharat tried to get Ram to return to Ayhodya to be king, but Ram felt that to do so would make his father’s death in vain, he made an overly emotional decision.
Ramayana The Movie
Dr. Tomar gave us some very good advice using the situation from the Ramayana. When Queen Kaikeyi demanded her gifts, King Dasharatha became very emotional and distraught. The king allowed his mind to be taken be emotion, he had promised the queen two boons, how could he go back on his word? The king allowed himself to make his decision in a state of grief, too quickly accepting Kaikeyi’s terms. Dr. Tomar suggested that the king should have told his wife to give him some time to prepare for Ram’s departure. This would have given both King Dasharatha and Queen Kaikeyi time to sober their emotions and make better decisions. If the king had simply asked for time to enact this decree, perhaps Kaikeyi’s son Bharat would have been able to convince her not to bring such evil deeds upon the home, or maybe Kaikeyi would have realized herself that what she was doing was wrong. But because the king allowed his grief to take him, he made a decision in haste which caused his own death and sentenced Ram to 14 years of exile. Ram also did not ask for any time to prepare for his departure, instead he too quickly leapt to fulfill his father’s wishes rather than allowing his intellect to keep his emotions in check. The idea that Dr. Tomar wanted the audience to take away was that we should not make decisions when we are in an emotional state, otherwise we are bound to suffer from those decisions.
Program Concluded With Puja
After the program, we were able to briefly thank Dr. Tomar for his excellent program on Emotional Intelligence and Yoga Sutra. Afterwards, the group entered the temple grounds and paid our respects to the gods. Once again we thank Dr. Tomar for his important work and big thanks to PROJECT SELF for putting on the event and inviting us to attend.
More On Dr. Vikrant Singh Tomar
Dr. Vikrant Singh Tomar, PhD., MBA, MJMC, MPA, MA (Phil.), DTD, CHR, PGDYEP, PGDHE, BBA National Trainer & Management Consultant, Director, UMS INDIA, Group Director, Prashanti Group of Institutions, Ujjain (M.P.)
Dr. Vikrant Singh Tomar is a young acknowledged Trainer, academician, scholar, writer and a management consultant. Worked as a National Training Resource of ICFAI University, Hyderabad. He is a qualified trainee member and a National Merit Award holder in Electronic Enabled Training of the prestigious Indian Society of Training & Development (ISTD), N.Delhi, recognized by Ministry Of HRD, Government of India & associate trainer of Rustamji Armed Police Training College (RAPTC, a premium training institute of State Police), CRISP India (Govt. of India & Germany Undertaking), National Productivity Council (NPC), Govt. of India Undertaking & MPCON (Govt. of M.P. Undertaking), SECL (South Eastern Coal Fields Ltd. Bilaspur), A Government Mini Ratna & Biggest Coal Producing Company of the Country & RCVP Noronha Academy of Administration Bhopal (Premium Academy for Deputy Collectors Training in M.P.) . Working as a Freelancer Trainer he has conducted many EDPs (Executive Development Program) & MDPs (Management Development Program) for various institutions of repute across the country, including Defense Research & Development Organization, M.P. Police, ITI, Ranbaxy SECF etc.
He is the author of books “Rule the world as Krishna Did”, “Changing Geometries of the world” & “The Human Side of Administration” (under publication)along with working as Freelancer for leading national English daily ‘Times of India’ & ‘Free Press’. Recipient of Best Speaker Award in “III International Yoga Seminar 2012”, he has been a proclaimed speaker at various national & international conferences on diverse relevant topics of management & philosophical interests. He addressed I-World Spiritual Parliament, Hyderabad, International Conference on Innovative Business Management as a Key Note speaker & International Conference On Enterprise Systems & Best Management Practices ( ICES – 2008 ) organized by Global Digital Business Society , USA. His thoughts on “Impact Of Indian Philosophy On Modern Management” were also appreciated at Philosophy of Management conference, Oxford, London, organized by Cambridge University, U.K. & at “International Conference on Entrepreneurship (ICE 2008)”, Langkawi, Malaysia.
With more than 3000 man hours in institutional, industrial, defense, Civil Services training he has covered more than 70 organizations across the country. During these trainings he has covered diverse areas of professional & corporate excellence. Have done graduation (BBA), post graduation (MBA in Marketing & HR) & Doctorate in Business Management. He has crafted a multidisciplinary vision by doing formal education in journalism (MJMC), and Public Administration (M.A.), Philosophy (M.A.) & Yoga (PGDYEP) with first rank in university in all the above. Varied educational background has made him interdisciplinary and versatile in training & consultancy. He has also secured the position in Merit in MP Civil Services in first attempt with subjects Psychology + PublicAdministration that makes him an effective trainer for both Government & Private sectors executives. Presently working as Group Director, Prashanti Group of Institutions, Ujjain (M.P.)
