The Bhagavad Gita’s concept of reincarnation finds a corporate parallel in two common phenomena. One is the mushrooming of business entities where the same owners repeatedly create new companies, often to evade taxes and hide behind a ‘corporate veil’. This game of hide-and-seek between businesses and tax authorities thrives especially in emerging or stagnant economies with incomplete digitisation of records. While governments generally distrust businesses on compliance, some economies see a close, often problematic, relationship between the two, known as crony capitalism. Business owners often view taxes and legal restrictions sceptically, leading to complicated paperwork and higher job security for the accounting and clerical staff.
The second phenomenon is job hopping, which contrasts sharply with past values where long tenure at one company— over five years—was respected. Today, those who stay put too long may be seen as stagnant or unambitious, as frequent moves between jobs have become more common and accepted in the evolving corporate landscape.
वासांसि जीर्णानि यथा विहाय
नवानि गृह्णाति नरोऽपराणि ।
तथा शरीराणि विहाय जीर्णा
न्यन्यानि संयाति नवानि देही ॥ 2.22॥
As a person sheds worn-out garments and wears new ones, likewise, at the time of death, the soul casts off its worn-out body and enters a new one.
Lord Krishna goes on to explain to Arjuna that just as an individual changes her worn-out clothes, so too the soul changes its physical sheath, eventually acquiring a new one by the process of rebirth.
(The text is an edited excerpt from my latest book ‘Bhagavad Gita and Corporate Dharma’.)
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