Indian mythology is based on the principle of Karma, where every action has an unforeseen reaction. There is no escape from consequences as everything has cause. This Indian paradigm shapes Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. However, this principle is alien to Western discourse. The Western discourse is shaped by Greek ideas of the shift from chaos to order, and by Biblical ideas of the shift from slavery to liberation.
Neither speaks of consequences. Western ideas are linear ideas. There is talk of crime followed by retribution, but no consequence of retribution. There is talk of injustice followed by rebellion, but no consequence of rebellion itself. One assumes happily ever after, as in fairy tales, where the hero defeats the villain. No one assumes that the villain will strike back and continue the cycle of violence.
The modern capitalist idea of moving from a developing economy to a developed economy or the leftist visualisation of the journey from oppression through revolution to liberation are all based on the Western model. We find this resonating even in Peter Drucker’s theory of management which is Management By Objectives (MBO).
Peter Drucker, the Father of Modern Management introduced to world ideas such as leadership, innovation, decentralisation, collaboration, and smart goals. He spoke of the value of having clear targets. However, he never spoke of the consequences of an enterprise on industry, consequence of industry on society, consequence of society on the environment. Even environmental activists like Greta Thunberg are so focussed on the objective that they do not think about the consequences of their ‘Righteous’ action on culture.
The assumption is that good actions will have good reactions. This, however, is not the Hindu view where actions (good or bad) have reactions (good and bad). This is Karma, not the sanitised hippie version of Karma. What was the consequence of the great scientific revolution of Europe on the rest of the world?
Devdutt Pattanaik is an Indian physician turned leadership consultant, mythologist, author and communicator whose works focus largely on the areas of myth, religion, mythology, and management.
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