The Perfect words of my King
An audience is never easy to garner. Especially an audience with attention riveted on you. An audience which hangs onto every word you say. An audience which is all ears.
But that was exactly what happened as His Majesty Jigme Khesar stood on the dais with the red curtains drawn aside, offering a striking contrast to the white pangtsi gho he was wearing, as he spoke at length about the way he viewed life and leadership at the Madhavrao Scindia Memorial in New Delhi.
His Majesty’s humility was unmatched when he started with: “Even though I am here today as a Head of State, this auditorium fills me with the same reluctance to speak. I wish I was here to listen,” invoking amused laughter from some of the audience.
But it was very evident that those present would rather have His Majesty talking.
Talking about what? Talking about transition and values. Talking about changing times and paradigm shift.
There are two kinds of transition-dynamism and regression. Dynamism points to something which builds. Regression is destruction.
So how do we make out what kind of transition it is? Simple. Positive values point to dynamism while negative values indicate regression. And values are important because it is what dictates the age.
Undoubtedly His Majesty was talking about the former when he spoke at length on the values he believed in, what defined his perspective in life, what drove him on. His Majesty’s message was simple. And meaningful.
“I am neither an academic, spiritual leader nor philosopher and I can only bring to this important topic my own personal thoughts,” said His Majesty.
“I had always wanted to think more deeply about how one might find an enduring place for simple human values in a world that is becoming unrecognizable from one generation to the next. And how, sadly, while the need for values is stronger and more urgent than ever, the climate in which they would flourish grows more and more unfriendly.”
In a brief meeting with the Bhutanese journalists accompanying the delegation on the second last day of the visit, His Majesty said that he feels most at home when he is at home interacting with people at the grass roots.
So did His Majesty say at the talk: “If someone in a village has something to tell me, I stop and listen. If an old man’s house must be rebuilt after a natural disaster, I try and stay there to see it through.”
His Majesty repeatedly emphasized the word “simplicity”.
Simplicity means stripping everything away to its barest minimum. And His Majesty has inculcated this value in a unique way. He has stripped away all his defenses against the needs of his people. He has reached out to his people in a way few leaders can by becoming “The People’s King.”
“You must break everything down to its fundamentals, break it down to basic human instances. For in the end, no matter what country we may be from, we are human beings-no matter what our cultures and beliefs may be, we share the same needs and abide by the same fundamental values.”
These very values, His Majesty said, could guide the world through the great problems of environmental degradation, terrorism and world poverty. “Perhaps, the first of these values is the sense of a shared planet. This is a world that is shared-not between governments and nations but among, the people.”
His Majesty said that “modernization and political change have raised the individual’s freedom, but it has also led to a less desirable and unconscious freeing of the individual from his obligations to society and the greater good. An inherent sense of values has gone missing.”
Such “a less desirable and unconscious freeing” is bondage. Bondage to materialism and development at the cost of human happiness as evident in most countries around the world where GDP is the be-all and end-all of a country’s development policy.
Talking about Gross National Happiness, His Majesty said GNH is development guided by human values and it acts as the national conscience guiding Bhutan towards making wise decisions for a better future.
His Majesty also emphasized on the role values play in his life, as an individual and as someone in a position of leadership.