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Workshop forms the bridge between education and practice. Wherein case studies are examined, role play is offered and experiences of the participants are shared. This will eventually prepare one to learn leadership professionally.
Here is an example a case study…
After Ram completes his education under Rishi Vasishtha, Vishwamitra storms into Dashrath’s court and demands that Ram accompany him to the forest and protect his hermitage from rakshasas. Dashrath offers his army instead because Ram is just a boy. “No, I want Ram,” snarls Vishwamitra. With great reluctance, Dashrath lets Ram go.
Once in the forest, Vishwamitra first directs Ram to shoot and kill the rakshasa woman, Tadaka. “But she is a woman,” says Ram, remembering his lessons that informed him that women should never be harmed. Vishwamitra does not heed this argument. It does not matter that Tadaka is a woman; she threatens the well being of the hermitage and does not heed warnings, hence must be killed. Ram thus learns how all rules have to be contextualised. He raises his bow and shoots Tadaka dead.
Later, Vishwamitra takes Ram to the hermitage of Rishi Gautama. There Ram is shown a rock which was once Gautama’s wife, Ahalya. “Her husband found her in the arms of another man, Indra, king of the gods, and so he cursed her to turn into a rock,” explains Vishwamitra. Ram is then asked by the Rishi to place his foot on the rock. That touch turns the rock back into Ahalya and she rises to the heavens, purified as she was of all her sins. Ram realises then how there are times when one has to strike and times when one has to forgive.
The killing of Tadaka and the rescue of Ahalya are two extreme events. One reeks of ruthlessness and the other brims with compassion. In one, there is death, in the other there is life. With these two events, Ram’s practical education, which began with theoretical education under Vasishtha, is complete. By experiencing two extreme roles of a leader, Vishwamitra transforms the boy that is Ram into a man, one who is ready to take on the responsibility of leadership. The education of Ram is the story of how leaders can be made.
