MAYA AND YAMA

There is ‘Maya’ and there is ‘Yama’ and they have their respective roles to play in this world. Maya implies affection and illusion while Yama represents death and discipline. Leadership demands one to play both roles but using affection and discipline rather than illusion and death.

Unfortunately, present day politics often showcases illusion and death over the other two. Here, illusion could mean creating confusion amongst followers. And if one tries to expose that confusion, his punishment is likely to be severe, in many cases even elimination – if not physical, then at least sidelining the (so-called) rebel and regarding him as disloyal. ‘Disobeying the high command’ is the name of the game. The current leadership certainly creates discipline, but this discipline is of continuous deaths of the followers, of their elimination and their exit. There is room for affection in this leadership too, but only for those who sell themselves to flatter their leaders. They have little or no critical analysis of the situation and only nod their heads in agreement to everything for puny gains.

True leadership evades the negativity of death and rejects the false imagination of immortality. In the Mahabharata, we see how long it took Lord Sri Krishna to re-establish the Dharmik kingdom, appointing the hesitant but just Yudhishthira in the helm of affairs. Yudhishthira is that incarnation of Yama who only practices his discipline side, not the destructive. He was Maya, the mother who gives affection.

When the king or the administrative head plays a fair leader with a balanced combination of both Maya and Yama, healthy and great governance emerges.

One must analyze carefully the grounds on which Maharaj Yudhishthira achieved political and governing success. It was by the assistance of Lord Krishna who facilitated Yudhishthira to be an affectionate and disciplined King simultaneously by eliminating the flatterers and creating illusions for those who were trying to cause adharma. Yudhidhthira Maharaj was thus established as King on the throne of Hastinapura, which is also the throne of Dharma, creating a legacy of rightesousness and an incessant flow of dharma.