Dealing with dereliction of duty

Whenever things do not work like clockwork in our society we never fail to make feisty comments on the lackadaisical system. At such times we seldom fail to realise that we too are an integral part in the scheme of things “To err is Human” alright!

However, to accept errors continually as a part of our lives can prove to be detrimental to the society at the micro and macro levels. A story from the Shiva Purana speaks about the  sensible stringent steps taken by a Yaksha to pull up the compromise of professional ethics by  his employee.

Kubera the lord of wealth and the king of Yakshas had appointed a certain Yaksha to fetch newly bloomed lotuses for his daily worship.

The Yaksha would get up at the crack of dawn and go in search of lotus ponds in the snow clad Himalayan region to fetch flowers for his master.

After some time, he got married. He was besotted with his wife and found it very difficult to stay away from her. His job seemed like a cheerless chore to him. He found it increasingly difficult to wake up before sunrise day after day.

Therefore, he decided to pick lotus buds towards late evening and hand them over to his master the following morning. This new method seemed to work well for him. After a couple of days a bee trapped in the half bloomed flower stung Kubera when he was worshipping Shiva.

The prudent potentate immediately realised that the lotuses were not fresh blooms. He was very angry with his minion for breaching his trust and exiled him for a year.

 When we examine the story as an instance of dereliction of duty, it is apparent that the Yaksha had no compunctions about pulling wool over his employer’s eyes. Kubera was forced to take disciplinary action against the Yaksha because he wanted to show that breach of trust is not acceptable.

The punishment of Kubera to the Yaksha may sound very harsh by today’s standards of justice. However the fact that the  Yaksha is taken to task for dereliction of duty sensitises us to the fact that if  suitable actions are taken to nip the problem in the bud, then one can look forward to a society that moves forth on well-oiled wheels.