From Mahabharata To The Meeting Room

I was in a board meeting last month, watching two executives go at it over market strategy, and suddenly I'm thinking about Shakuni and his loaded dice.

Same energy, different century.

Here's what nobody tells you when you're sitting in those glass-walled conference rooms with your lukewarm coffee and quarterly projections – you're basically living out the Mahabharata in business casual. The epic isn't some dusty relic your grandmother recited. It's Tuesday morning at 9 AM.

The Pandavas and Kauravas weren't fighting over a kingdom, not really. They were navigating the eternal human mess of ambition, loyalty, ego, and that tricky question: what's the right thing to do when there is no clear right thing? Sound familiar? That's every strategic decision you've ever made where the data points both ways and your gut's doing gymnastics.

I've learned something living through enough corporate battles and enough late-night philosophy deep-dives... the Mahabharata works because it doesn't give you answers. It gives you mirrors.

Arjuna's crisis on the battlefield? That's you, paralyzed before launching that product you're not sure about.

Krishna's advice? That's your mentor telling you to focus on the action, not the anxiety about outcomes.

The genius of that epic is how it refuses to make anyone purely good or purely evil. Duryodhana had his code of honour. Yudhishthira, the righteous one, lied when he had to. In your meeting room, your competitor isn't a villain – they're playing their game well. Your difficult colleague isn't an enemy – they're protecting something they value.

And here's the kicker... the war was won, but at what cost? Everyone lost something. Every Mahabharata has a Kurukshetra – that moment when you realize winning the argument, the deal, the promotion... it came with collateral damage you didn't account for.

What I'm really saying is this: we think we're so modern, so evolved, building our startups and disrupting industries. But we're still asking Krishna's questions. We're still making Arjuna's choices.

We're still tempted by Shakuni's shortcuts.

The difference between a meeting that builds something real and one that just burns political capital? Same as the difference between fighting for dharma and fighting for ego. Know which war you're in. Know what you're actually protecting.

Your ancestors knew something we keep forgetting – wisdom isn't about having all the answers. It's about asking better questions in the chaos.

So next time you're in that meeting room, before you speak... pause. Ask yourself what Krishna would ask: Are you acting from your highest self, or your smallest fear?

The battlefield changes. Human nature?

That script was written long ago.