During the closing stages of 2016, Telengana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) stirred up some controversies, first for building an ostentatious hi-tech official bungalow-cum-camp office ‘Pragathi Bhavan’ built at Begumpet, Hyderabad costing around Rs 50 crores and then for the manner in which it was inaugurated. The opposition parties assailed KCR for his extravagance when the whole nation was left shell-shocked in cash crisis post demonetisation.
Amidst vedic chanting and prayers, the palatial building was inaugurated by the CM’s spiritual guru and pontiff Chinna Jeeyar Swamy. Providing further fodder to his detractors, during the opening ceremony, KCR made his guru sit on the Chief Minister’s chair. When KCR requested the pontiff to sit on his official chair, the latter was very reluctant. Only after persistent pleas by the Telengana CM, he occupied the coveted seat. Media even reported that for a few minutes, it appeared as if Telengana had a new Chief Minister. In a matter of minutes, the seer vacated the seat for the Telengana CM. Understandably, there was a hue and cry from one section, “How can a CM allow someone else to sit on his chair?” and from another group, “Why should the CM cause unnecessary embarrassment to the respected Swamyji?”
A flash back to 17th century India when the mighty Chatrapati Shivaji ruled the Maratha empire. Shivaji revered his guru Sri Samartha Ramdas and always sought his guidance and blessings in his ventures. Shivaji started believing that being the emperor, he alone was responsible for the happiness of his kingdom. Once, according to legend, when his enemies became powerful, he became depressed and felt helpless. He wanted to call it quits and lead a peaceful life. He approached his guru who promised to take over the kingdom and don the mantle of a ruler and in turn give Shivaji his ‘sought-after’ renunciation. Shivaji, the ruler happily surrendered his crown, sword and throne to the sage and picked up ochre robes. “Guruji, I am at absolute peace now since you have become the king and I, merely a subject,” declared Shivaji.
Sri Ramdas of enormous wisdom and presently the ruler smiled and told Shivaji, “As the ruler, I command that from now on, you shall rule this kingdom as a trustee, on my behalf.” There’s a sea of difference between ruling ‘my’ kingdom with loads of ‘ego’ and ruling with humility ‘on behalf of someone.’ Has not history been witness to the tales of many mighty rulers who thought that their iron grip on the seat of power would last for eternity but who ended up by the wayside as disgraced or dead? Shivaji got his lesson loud and clear and accepted the throne. His heart became light and he was ready to rule again, this time in the second innings merely as a representative of someone else and not as an everlasting owner of a permanent property.
In life, if we remember that we are merely temporary care-takers of our assets and subjects, ego will take leave of us. If our rulers remember that they have been given the mandate ‘by the public, for a specific period’, they can work to the best of the society without attachment to the seat of power, vested interests and devoid of the multiple evils that such mindless attachment begets. Let this thought be a New Year message not just for those who rule us but to everyone of us too.
