Videos

While most of us would like to have an influence on people around us, wanting them to respond beautifully to us, to shower their love and appreciation on us, to give us acceptance, respect and recognition, we should stop and consider why anyone would want to spend their time with us unless we have something valuable to offer them at a deeper level, be it encouragement, love, ideas, or a new perspective.

If someone were to find us a source of stress, if they feel threatened by what we say, if all we do is bring them face to face with their own inadequacies, and keep them on the edge of a precipice all the time, they will only run away from us. But if they are tied to us in some way, they may be physically chained but emotionally, they wish to escape.

Only if we have a positive, encouraging and attractive presence, people will like to be around us. Madhav Mohan then recites the Sanskrit words Akarshayati iti Krishna, meaning ‘one who attracts is Krishna’, to suggest we aspire to become like Krishna with the magnetic personality, to radiate magnetism so that people want to be with us by choice, for their own self-esteem is built in our presence… that’s the true meaning of attraction, we should evolve, by Krishna consciousness, by being aware of how powerful we are, not in our potential to destroy but to create.

V.K. Madhav Mohan elucidates that self-esteem is about faith in oneself, it is all about our track record and how we’ve lived and experienced life. Our reputation is built on this track record, on our competence, integrity, reliability and honesty…

Faith in ourselves is built by facing a problem and then overcoming it and successfully delivering results, taking a knock and coming back again, dealing with problems builds faith in ourselves, and this enables us to enjoy sustainable success.

Success is a succession of results — all add up to our stock of self-esteem, it is built up through micro experiences, but that’s where others doubt, then it is subtracted from our stock. Madhav Mohan states that this is why he keeps talking of the need to encourage people, strengthening their stock of self-esteem, without which a human is nothing as can be seen in the case of people who are living in abject poverty, with all hope extinguished.

Mother Theresa has said: “The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty.” Mother Theresa embraced lepers, showing us that humanity is divine; by loving them she built their self-esteem.

V K Madhav Mohan ends the talk by stating how our own self-esteem is linked to helping others build theirs. Instead of berating others when they make mistakes, we should devote our lives to strengthening self-esteem in them, thereby strengthening our own… which is what life is all about.

In this video, V K Madhav Mohan says that most of us do not wish to step out of our comfort zone, for in doing that, there is a danger that many of our established beliefs may be proven wrong. That is a very painful thing, and we all avoid pain, which is why we refrain from doing so, but we must step out of our comfort zone for it is mandatory for personal growth. It’s like the risk-return principle – the higher the risk the higher the return. We don’t have to be a gambler speculator but we do need to take a risk in order to gain something of value.

Sometimes we must have the courage to risk everything that we have to explore and get the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow… which is why they say, “Fortune favours the brave.”

Madhav Mohan offers his unique perspective on why it’s better to take risks at the right time; else we might regret it when we’re on our death bed and focusing on what we could have achieved. If our consciousness aligns itself with the Lord as we are leaving the body, then we could be at Vaikuntha. It would be worthwhile therefore, to train ourselves to chant the Lord’s name, or the Mahamantra into our consciousness so that maybe at that moment, we’ll be chanting it. That is the task before us.

Author of the book ‘Lonely At The Top’ V K Madhav Mohan talks of how we can protect our self-esteem, which is the key to life and success, when we’re in a toxic, 3D environment, where we are being doubted, discouraged and demoralised.

Chanting the Mahamantra is the key, suggests Madhav Mohan. In the Srimad Bhagvatam, it says that when you chant the name of the Lord, He is present. And in the presence of the Lord, toxicity just cannot survive.

The continuous chanting of the Mahamantra is like a shield carried by soldiers during a war. It ensures that nothing can get through, it will protect you and strengthen your self-esteem, for you build yourself from the inside and become self-reliant.

All of us have to realise the need for self-reliance, for nobody cares for you, your prospects, career, life, health, money, standing or future. So in order to build that bandwidth, you can begin by being physically and mentally fit.

Author, speaker and management expert V K Madhav Mohan talks about how CEOs are always told only what they want to hear and rarely the truth as it should be told and how he bridges that gap. It’s a universal phenomenon that has nothing to do with the personality of the boss in question; rather, it’s about a person in power and how people who are subject to that power are always eager to please by saying what the boss wishes to be told.

Since these two things are different from each other, a top boss tends to listen and make wrong decisions based on faulty premises and if that happens, the amplitude of that decision is so great that it can destroy an organisation.

According to Madhav Mohan, a CEO also needs to get a different perspective and hear the truth. But who shall bell the proverbial cat? Certainly not someone who’s in the hierarchy, but somebody who has no vested interest, who can tell it like it is, without being a source of threat, without doubting discouraging or demoralizing.

We must also remember that often, CEO is a lonely person with all kinds of problems who has no one to share his fears with. He certainly will not turn to someone within his own organisation, for fear that this knowledge will be used against him.

VK Madhav Mohan shares a teenage experience that created deep within him an internal strength and reaffirmed his faith in values and principles and how his friends respected him all the more for it, despite initial disagreements. “I’ve gone back again and again to that experience and revisited it at least a million times,” he says.

When he was in his teens, he was one of the top tennis players in the country, studying at St. Xavier’s College, Ahmedabad… and because he was the Gujarat State junior tennis champion, and a Gujarat University champion, he was allowed certain privileges. While in the Second Year, he was told by the college that for the coming year, he had complete freedom to could select the college team, for he was the University champion the previous year and therefore the defending champion now.

He thought, in all fairness, it would be the right thing to have a tournament in the college to select the best team — the winner and the runner-up would play in the college team. They had the tournament and the top two were Madhav Mohan and one of his friends who was the runner-up.

He talks of his best friend who was a good tennis player, who had lost in the semi-finals…A group of four boys approached Madhav Mohan and tried to pressurise him into using his discretionary powers to select his best friend, but Madhav stood his ground and offered to step down and thus accommodate his best friend who was the second runner-up. He was even prepared to lose his friendship with all of them, but was not willing to compromise his principles.

As a society, Madhav Mohan feels most of us have grown up hearing that it is our circumstances that holding us back, that have always prevented us from becoming successful…. And we have conveniently believed it, for it’s a very comfortable way of shifting the responsibility and accountability for our own growth on to somebody or something else.

How often have we heard: “I can’t do this because my family circumstances won’t allow it,” or “I can’t do this because I don’t have the money,” or “I can’t do it for society won’t permit it,” or “I’m unable to do it, because my company won’t grant me leave.”

In other words, “You, see, I’m okay, I want to do this, but it’s my company / family / circumstances / lack of money which doesn’t allow me to do this, it’s all these external agencies that prevent me.” By shifting responsibility, there is no sense of threat or fear.

For those who drop the fear and those who dare (to change) after having taken the first step, the second step will become visible. “Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” — V K Madhav Mohan quotes Martin Luther King Jr. in context to helping people overcome their limitations. Only after one takes the first step does the second one come in view, and then the third, and before one knows it, one is at the top rung of the ladder.

In this video, VK Madhav Mohan talks about Karna and KARNA SHAPATHAM, his father’s work, which is today considered the greatest Kathakali ever authored in the 20th century. This poignant story, which has caught people’s imagination on an unbelievable scale, is something deeply embedded in Madhav Mohan’s consciousness.

As the drama unfolds on stage, people are moved to tears, chiefly because his father Madhav Nair ‘Mali’ could tell the story using simple, yet powerful language and metaphors. He also introduced innovations in music for the first time in Kathakali, in the musical elements of KARNASHAPATHAM. This is the reason for its immense success – the combination of music, innovation, and the simple lyrics, all three put together have captured the imagination and emotions of people.

Karna is one of the greatest characters in the Mahabharata, known for his generosity. Whoever came to him would never be sent back without being given that what he came for. He was the very embodiment of generosity. There is an extremely complex yet beautiful relationship between Karna and Duryodhana, it is something for us to read and ponder.

On the eve of the Mahabharata war, when Kunti tells Karna that his association with Duryodhana is bad for him, bad for mankind too, and therefore he ought to go with her and join the Pandavas. Karna gets very angry at Kunti’s audacity to suggest that he forsake his beloved King Duryodhana and join the enemy! Kunti pleads with him to accompany her, and tells him the true story of his birth, how Karna was born to her, making him the eldest of the Pandavas, and these words hit him with the force of a million thunderclaps, he is completely shattered for he discovers that he’s now his enemy’s eldest brother.

He then tells Kunti he can never leave his King, his friend, ever… And Kunti goads him on, saying you’ve to be with your younger brothers and protect them, it is your duty, and how can you turn me away with my wish unfulfilled, she reminds him. That is when Karna takes his Shapath, his Shapatham, his oath, his promise… Madhav Mohan relates how Karna forsook his own brothers for his King and friend who had given him everything … Gratitude and loyalty overcame family ties and family relationships.

The story of Karna is so powerful, it shaped Madhav Mohan’s own psyche to such an extent that at age 17, he took a stance and was prepared to lose his friendship on the basis of certain values…

A powerful story indeed!

Author V K Madhav Mohan shares here his thoughts on change being fundamental, yet having an unchanging core. While everything around us does and must change, be it our bodies, the environment, the weather, our goals, our perspective, tools and technology that change at such a fast pace that what was state-of-the art yesterday will be obsolete tomorrow, within all this change, some things are stable, unchanging and permanent. And these are values and principles, a central core that holds everything together, giving stability through every possible vicissitude of life.

When you have chosen to adhere to these timeless values and principles, it allows you to remain calm when all around you are losing their heads. Once you understand the essential harmony between human beings, then no change can touch you, stresses Madhav Mohan.

But change we must; we should anticipate it and be two steps ahead of it. A lot of people spend time reacting to change; he then uses the allegory of a marksman shooting at a moving target, such that the target meets the bullet.

According to Moore’s Law, the amt of computing that you can compress on a silicon chip is doubling every 18 months, so with increasing information, knowledge also needs to be updated and therefore we have to keep changing and adapting. It’s alright to change your decision today which you took yesterday, provided the principle behind the decision is ‘win-win’ and benefits everyone, and that is the best way we can learn to change.

In this video, the incomparable Madhav Mohan discusses how we can embark on a dangerous, painful and yet exciting journey from Selfishness to Selflessness which is what personal growth is all about. This is the only journey we have to undertake in life. He likens this tortuous and traumatic trip to a jungle trek in which we are certain to encounter wild animals such as jealousy, hatred, anger, stress, insecurity, inadequacy and helplessness, which, when conquered, will surely have an exponential impact on us and on the world.

All it requires from us is to take one small step towards change, it is for us to stop and think for instance how we can make marginal improvements in our approach to anger, and impatience, how we can mitigate jealousy, or how we can stop feeling envious of other people and their success…

Personal change is painful and scary, therefore it’s much easier to ask others to change. We do that all the time and when we do that, we only shift responsibility from ourselves onto someone else. Deep within, we are struggling to protect ourselves from threat, for when there’s a threat to the inner self, we push it out and put the onus onto somebody else, suggesting, “I am ok, YOU are not ok – there’s nothing wrong with ME, but YOU are the one who has to change.”

Madhav Mohan reiterates the maxim that we should practice what we preach, for if we don’t, we are sure to lose the credibility and respect of those around us. Forget about changing the world, he says, changing ourselves for the better is a full time job. In order for someone else to benefit a bit from our life, it is important that we first clean up the mess inside of us, that we demonstrate personal change within ourselves.

That is how we can inspire someone else. We change ourselves, aim for continuous self improvement, go from one level to the next in terms of our behaviour, thought processes and actions, undertaking an internal journey from selfishness to selflessness.

If just for a moment we can stop being selfish and self-centered and think, “Can I do something for somebody else?” sans expectation of a reward, start giving for a change, especially when we give without having anything for ourselves, the value of that gift is infinite, that’s Karmayoga.

In his distinctive style, internationally acclaimed speaker and management expert V.K. Madhav Mohan offers a fresh perspective on the achievements of master blaster Sachin Tendulkar and analyzes the impact he’s had on 1.2 billion Indians.

Throughout history, we have been bereft of true leaders and statesmen. While assigning importance to immortal, time-tested values such as integrity, honesty, softness and serenity, we have sadly neglected to live those very same principles.

But Sachin Tendulkar is an embodiment of all that is great in mankind and the overriding lesson we can learn from his achievement is that if you live in a particular way: chasing excellence without compromising on excellence itself or on values such as honesty, integrity, patriotism, sportsmanship, humility, gratitude, respect for all and all that the game stands for, then success is yours, and you shall have awards, recognition, accolades, adulation, and millions of people loving and respecting you.

Madhav Mohan points out that for 60-70 years, our so-called “leaders” have only led an unethical, subverting kind of lifestyle, in fact these leaders are the worst role models, for they spend their whole lifetime exploiting and manipulating others, subverting law, they merely occupy positions of authority are not necessarily leaders. Having reached the top, they have developed no other skills, they’ve always been lying cheating and manipulating, and their core competencies have been all these toxic areas and this is the only way they will lead their organisations. It is not surprising that India today is a cesspool of corruption, incompetence, and toxicity

We’ve been conditioned into believing that this is the norm, and generations of Indians have believed it and have gone out and done exactly that.

Madhav Mohan succinctly explains the phenomenon that is Sachin Tendulkar, who, in his 24 years of cricket, wearing India colours, has demonstrated the exact opposite of what all of us have been taught to believe about what it takes to succeed in India, the validity of these eternal principles – chasing excellence while being straightforward, humble, etc. This is the lesson Tendulkar has inadvertently taught us, it’s an illuminating path shown quietly, sans fuss, sans tomtomming his own achievements and that’s a lesson for us to learn and internalize.

It is not for nothing that the Govt. of India has conferred the Bharat Ratna on him.

In his inimitable style, internationally acclaimed speaker and management expert V.K.Madhav Mohan talks of the power of encouragement, a force so powerful that it can catapult a person from the ordinary into an orbit of extraordinary and limitless success.

In the mistaken belief that criticism will take people to the next level, most of us wind up discouraging people, telling them why they won’t succeed, focusing on their mistakes, and pointing out why their ideas won’t work.

If self-esteem is high, the probability of success is very high but through criticism, we undermine that person’s self-esteem so completely that they feel threatened and stressed, which is no way to help someone. If we have to correct someone, we must make sure to show them how to do better, and by eliminating the sense of threat.

V K Madhav Mohan goes on to share his experience of finding encouragement in his own family through love, acceptance and an unshakeable faith in his abilities.

He sums up by reaffirming that it is better to fuel a person’s creativity and zest through encouragement, rather than censure. Encouragement is an unbelievable force that fuels motivation; one then wants to measure up to the beliefs and aspirations of others. It empowers and projects them on the path of success; from a place of limited thinking, it places them in an orbit of unimaginable possibilities.