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EXCLUSIVE: How you can learn relationship management through Indian Mythology according to an expert
Our Indian mythology has a myriad lessons on successful relationship management if only we look beyond the main storyline of Ramayana and Mahabharata and get deeper into the complex web of relationships.
No one goes up or down the ladder of professional, personal, spiritual or intellectual success all by himself, however much he thinks he does. Relationships and how one manages them always play a vital role in this. Our Indian mythology has myriad lessons on successful relationship management if only we look beyond the main storyline of Ramayana and Mahabharata and get deeper into the complex web of relationships.
One such very important relationship management lesson we learn is from a very interesting conversation between Krishna’s wife Satyabhama and Draupadi. Satyabhama being one of the eight main wives of Krishna wanted to know from Draupadi how she managed to keep all her five husbands happy always where Satyabhama along with the other seven is always on her toes to keep one husband happy. Draupadi told her she understands all her husbands before she expects them to understand her.
She explains further. Yudhishtir is erudite on Dharma and loves to have discourses and debates on Dharma and Adharma. Draupadi keeps asking him questions and requests him to interpret Vedic texts for her. While answering them he gets the sense of loving Draupadi which keeps them both happy. Bhima is for sure the one who loves her the most out of five and Draupadi knows it very well. Doing small chores for her, cooking her favourite food and taking very good care of her gives him a sense of achievement in love and she happily lets him do that.
Arjun on the other hand knows Draupadi loves him the most out of five husbands and he enjoys that coveted status. He takes his own liberties with that and at times requires Draupadi to make extra efforts to keep him happy and she does that happily as she is in love. Nakul is the most handsome man the world has ever seen and Draupadi is his befitting wife. She enjoys the reverence she gets when she steps out with him as people look at them in awe and term them as the most beautiful couple second to Mahadev and Parvati only. They both enjoy going on holidays, trips and shopping together.
Sahadev, even after the war of Mahabharata, is like a child in the gang of brothers and finds it difficult to express his thoughts and ideas before his four elder brothers. He also gets the feeling of being bullied by Bhima and Nakul constantly and has no one else to confide in but Draupadi. She takes care of his restlessness and under confidence like a mother would and happily becomes his punching bag and lets him vent out all his feelings.
Being the Patrani and the beloved wife of five of the ablest men of those times would have made it very convenient for Draupadi to enjoy the attention and not invest much in the relationship. It would have still survived, in fact, done very well with all of them. But as she told Satyabhama, relationships are not about something that has to survive the tests to time. It is something which has to take both involved in it to a higher self and higher intellectual attainment. It does not happen without investing in the relationship.
Sustaining a relationship is one thing and finding a better version of yourself and inspiring the same in the other person in that relationship is another. Not only you have to make the other person feel special by giving them love, attention and care but you also have to let them attain the intellectual satisfaction they get by loving, caring for and giving attention to you. This is what is meant by “investing in a relationship”. This is what is meant by “understanding before being understood”.
About the author: Atul Satya Koushik - Motivational Speaker | Mythology Interpreter | CA | LLB
