The Groundhog Day

What would you do if you are stuck in a seemingly endless "time loop" in a way that you are living the same day again and again. To understand it better, let's imagine a scenario where one is living every day of one's life in exactly the same manner i.e one is seeing the same people daily, facing the same set of scenarios and one's life becomes nothing but a perfect sequence of predictable events.

Well this fictitious, yet very interesting, scenario was the plot of a movie called "Groundhog Day" released in 1993. This was the story of an egocentric TV weatherman named Phil Conners (played by Bill Murray) who while carrying out a hated assignment covering the annual Groundhog Day event (February 2) in Punxsutawney, found himself repeating the same day over and over again.

Now think about the significance of this plot in day-to-day context. Try to see how true and valid this concept is in our lives ? I am sure most of you will agree that more often than not, we find ourselves complaining about the humdrum of our daily lives while at the same time knowing (from the deepest core of our hearts) that we can NOT do anything to break this vicious cycle !!!!

This movie presents some very beautiful ideas to beat this monotony of life, the lessons which Phil Conners learnt after lots of trials and errors !!

Well you gotta watch this movie by yourself to believe me :-)

Some Lessons from "Groundhog Day" :-

a) Find meaning and purpose in your life.

b) Experiment with new thoughts and behaviors till you find what works for you and what does not.

c) The only variable which you can change in the whole world is YOU.
(i.e one has absolutely no control over external factors as external reality is fixed)

d) Recreate yourself by focusing all your attention on Inner change; on becoming a more mature, loving and giving person.

e) Inner change is the key to all our personal growth and happiness.

Essence of Karma-Yoga

"I owe my success to the basic, underlying philosophy of India. It goes back to the fundamental philosophy of the Gita, which is that you worship work and do it for its own sake and don't judge it by what results you achieve. Concentrate on doing your best in what you do."

- Rajat Gupta, Ex-CEO of Mckinsey & Co.


This is the man who by becoming first Indian CEO of Mckinsey in 1994 made waves all over the world on successfully breaking through the "glass ceiling" of corporate America. This is the man who by sheer grit and determination overcame all vicissitudes of life (it's noteworthy to mention here that Rajat lost both his parents by the time he was 18) and went on to become one of the true icons of Indian diaspora, the face of global India, and hence making Indians all over the world proud by his towering achievements. When a man of this stature attributes his life success to Gita philosophy, then that is something to pay heed to.

Karma-Yoga, as defined by Sri Krishna in "Bhagavad Gita", is working to the best of one's abilities without becoming selfishly attached to the fruits of work. It is Doing One's Duty to the best of one's ability abandoning worry and selfish attachments to the results, and remaining calm in both success and failure. This calmness of mind is the essence of Karma-Yoga. It can also be defined as doing work for the greater good of all without having "what-is-in-for-me" mindset. Paradoxically enough, the Karma-Yogi, by giving up the fruit of his action, does not lose it, but gains it in infinite measure.

As can be seen above, Karma-Yoga is a philosophy of life which if adopted in true spirit, has the potential to alter the course of one's life by giving it a sense of purpose. This purpose driven life has the power to uplift the collective destinies of Individuals, Societies and even Nations alike.

So let's all earnestly seek (if not pledge) to follow this philosophy of Karma-Yoga in our work and strive to become true Karma-Yogis who can make difference to our society and World at large.