Research Paper
The Bhagavad-Gita has been teaching many things to influence a lot of people started in India, and gradually his teachings were spreading to West, and eventually, it is still considered as an effective way for our modern society. These days, Japan has been known as one of the most developed countries in the world and they put a lot of effort to their development. However, due to their economic reasons, a lot of Japanese people overwork these days and some of them happen to cause heavy mental breakdowns and lead to death in the worst-case scenario. Also, not only the economical reason, Japanese culture is also possibly considered a reason to cause heavy health issues with those Japanese people who work. Personally growing up in Japan, it was able to see that Japanese people do not get educated to have their own opinions or thoughts since it is focused on being the same as others. Some people say this is the uniqueness of Japanese culture and it has been inherited for a long time. However, this leads to the issues of people have trouble with their perspectives and have a mental breakdown as working. And it has been major issue in Japanese society. Considering this issue in Japan, how this social issue can be changed by a teaching of the Bhagavad-Gita? Gita teaches the meaning of working toward goals and individual duty. I will argue whether Gita’s teaching can provide new perspectives and lessons to help people in modern Japanese society to deal with working issues.
First, as starting with more specific details of what is exactly happening to labor in modern Japanese society, according to Tim Craig, he states that Japan has been developed economically and socially after 1970 which is post war, “The Japan they grew up in was a rich country, and they had enjoyed the fruits of that wealth, having their university education paid for by their parents, traveling abroad and seeing other lifestyles, and developing a taste for the good life.”(321). Japanese social development has been shaping their perspectives toward their lifestyle and it is inherited to working in Japanese society to young people now. Developing economically may create positive consequences for a country, however, to grow economically, there needs to be required a lot of hard work by citizens and it can be considered as their physical sacrifice.
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Tim Craig also states that their working balance toward the economic development has affected their health balance as well. Japan requires a lot of overwork for a firm and statistically, it is shown that overwork has created people’s mental disorders come from stress and the number of their mental breakdowns has increased every year, moreover, the number of deaths has increased as well. (Craig, 327)
Considering this overwork issue in Japan, it is able to compare this issue with a teaching of the Bhagavad-Gita. Once Gita has taught that “Be intent on action, not on the fruits of action; avoid attraction to the fruits and attachment inaction” (Bhagavad Gita, 37). He talks about Karman-yoga, which means acting without attachment to results. It implies that people usually only view the results they eventually;lly would get, and they do not get to experience to feel every process of their actions and lose their real purpose. In a teaching of Gita, he taught people that every process on their action is important to live in a life, find their real purpose why they want to do it, what they are doing it for. Considering overwork in Japan, a lot of Japanese people think that they think they “have to” work for a company without having their own passion. A lot of Japanese people grew up without having their own opinions or desire in their actions because of their education style and culture. They are educated to follow rules and have the same opinions with other people considered as “teamwork”. They do not value one’s passion or uniqueness. Furthermore, it is important to think about what you want to do in the first place not thinking about school or company as Gita stated. Focusing on your own desire on their action and process can change the way Japanese people think about the meaning of working in modern society.
Second, Gita’s teaching has inspired a lot of people in the history, it actually can help people to make more mature ideas and decisions in the modern society. According to Divya Raina and Geeta Balodi:
They provide the information/data of the difference between the people who have gained knowledge from Gita’s teaching, and the people who have not. The result indicates that the people who have gained the teaching of Gaito have higher maturity levels than those who don’t. They have gained knowledge of how to take their own responsibilities when they make a mistake, how to handle their stress, the way to talk toward others, committed to their own work. And it is also stated that those who have not known the teaching of Gita are mostly young generation people. (134-135).
And the experiment above is from 2014, it shows that Gita’s teaching. Gita once mentioned that “Know that nature’s qualities come from me-lucidity, passion, and dark inertia; I am not in them, they are in me.” (The Bhagavad-Gita, 74). He implies that these “lucidity”,” passion” and “dark inertia” need to be understood as these three are united with “self”. They are naturally classified in themselves as qualities people need to control, and to control these, it depends on one’s self-action no matter the result is bad or good. This teaching of Gita is effective to inspire young people in Japan. As it is mentioned above, Japanese people value the importance of teamwork not individual work, so that actually leads them to lose their own real passion and purpose in working. It is considered that teamwork is also one of Japanese culture and it is their uniqueness compared to other countries. However, individual work can deliver the thinking of self-opinion, self-responsibility, self-care, and so on. As another possible reason of mental breakdown in Japan, there is always heavy pressure in a company since they have a rigid hierarchical relationship as a culture. Learning how to take care of themselves mentally and physically can help to reduce the number of mental breakdowns happen such as due to those issues of heavy pressure and overworking even though they make a mistake on their work.
Third, following the importance of individualism from the teaching of Gita, it is important to consider that self-duty actually matters to develop better management as working with others to cooperate with each other, which is an effective way to think about the problems of modern labor in Japan. According to Dr. C.V. Jayamani, Management requires an ability to be able to cooperate with others for development.
Once Krisha said that individual work interacts with other's work, whether one person does good or bad, the action possibly would flow to other’s actions as well. And this strategy works the same way to modern management.(Jayamani, 62)
In the Bhagavad-Gita, Gita says that “ A man of discipline should always discipline himself, remain in seclusion, isolated, his thought and self well controlled, without possessions or hope.”(65). Focusing on one’s own duty in the first place can provide more benefits to one’s community as well. Self-duty brings a knowledge of how to take own responsibility including health. Since Japan has health issues from working, bringing the perspective of self-duty to Japanese culture helps to manage their own lifestyle. Even the problem of overworking in Japan due to the economic development, it is essential to know how to take care of their health from overworking so they can manage themselves from stress, depression, or anxiety. Personally growing up in Japan, I have seen that a lot of Japanese people tend to care about other people’s eyes, and they think it is embarrassing to say their own opinions. Some people even feel more stress and anxiety just to speak up their own minds. A lot of Japanese people do not have a knowledge of taking their own duties, this is a very serious social issue for us as modern society is growing internationally in globalization. The teaching of self-duty from the Gita can help a lot of Japanese young people who have trouble in working. Not just to help their mental breakdown toward working, it is able to provide a new perspective and develop them as human beings and eventually build up a better society in the future.
In conclusion, from the teaching of the Bhagavad-Gita, he teaches the importance of focusing on one’s action than fruits, which implies that people only view results/rewards as following to take action and do not get to see the real purpose of the action. Japan has an issue of working in modern society, there are problems of overworking, not having a purpose or reason of working because of their culture. And the society itself requires people to do hard work to keep growing economic development due to population balance. The teaching of karma-yoga from Gita can provide lessons to Japanese people that it is important to know the process of the action they are taking rather than seeing what they get rewarded eventually. Also, there’s an actual difference in their maturity level between people who have gained knowledge of the Gita and people who have not. By gaining knowledge of Gita, people can know a way to take care of their own responsibilities when they make a mistake or their own health from stress or anxiety. Since Japan has a working issue that leads to people’s health problems, it is able to state that Gita’s teaching can provide a way to solve a way to take care of their health form working issues.
In Gita’s another teaching, he teaches about the importance of having self-duty. When considering working in a society in general, it is important to think that self-duty can interact with a way to cooperate with others. Japanese culture focuses on working in a community or “teamwork” and it is still inherited today, Gita teaches that gaining a knowledge of self-duty make it better to work in a community. Gita’s teaching can help Japanese people who work these days by providing new perspectives and life purposes as living in society. Working is a part of our society, it possibly affects our lives both positively and negatively. And it has been affecting Japanese society negatively these days. They should know their own duties as a human beings not just a laborer, one person’s different perspective and not being caught up with others’ opinions can create a gateway to save a lot of Japanese people with working issues. Furthermore, the teachings of Bhagavad-Gita is not just effective in the past, there are a lot of things people in modern society can learn as human beings no matter where they are from.
Work Cited
- Craig, Tim, Ways of Living; Chapter 6:Live to Work or Work to Live? The Search for Work-life Balance in 21st Century Japan. Doshisha Studies in Language and Culture, 2009, pp. 311-344
- Dr. C.V. Jayamani, Bhagavad Gita and Management. Cochin University of Science and Technology, Vol. I. No.1 June 2013, pp. 62-65 Miller, Barbara Stoler, translator. The Bhagavad-Gita: Krishna's Counsel in Time of War. By Bhagavad Gita, Bantam Classic, August 1986.
- Raina, Diva, Balodi, Geeta, A Comparative Study of Emotional Maturity and Values in Bhagavad Gita Readers and Non-Readers. Asian Journal of Research in Social Sciences and Humanities, Vol. 4, No. 10, October 2014
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