Lord Krishna’s valuable teachings can be our learnings for the lifetime. They can go a long way in making us healthy not just in mind and body, but also financially.
Lord Krishna, one of the key characters in the Mahabharata, was incredibly judicious, extremely farsighted and exceptionally knowledgeable. His decisive role in the battle of Kurukshetra gave the world some lessons of a lifetime, and these include not just moral learnings on how to lead life, but also some critical learnings on how to manage finance and invest right. Here are some of his top mantras to lead a healthy financial life.
Define your goals
Clearly defined goals clear the path to success. That’s exactly what Lord Krishna did throughout the battle of Kurukshetra. He made sure that the Pandavas stayed focused on their goal, which was to gain Dharma by standing out righteous at the end of the battle.
As Krishna said in Ved Vyas’, The Bhagavad Gita, "Set thy heart upon thy work, but never on its reward." If one is focused on the goal, the path to success becomes clear. And this goes true for the financial goals also; having a clear picture of S.M.A.R.T. monetary goals allow one to make informed investments. A pre-planned, well-defined and farsighted approach can help one to make worthwhile and informed investments that ensure promising results in the future.
We all know how mischievous little Lord Krishna was when it came to him being the ‘makhanchor’ of Vrindavan. The story of makhanchor, where he targets dahi handi while all his friends stack up on each other to make him reach the handi is in sync with investment targets of today. It teaches us how to stay focused and select the right mutual fund scheme, or the right Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) while investing. Identifying the similarity between the two, each instalment of SIP can be our friend who will eventually become our ladder to reach our financial goal that was set before enrolling the investment plan. A consistent and persisting attitude, as Krishna, can help us accomplish our goals. Emotions cloud judgments Even though the whole sentence indicates, "Negative emotions tend to cloud judgements," it is best not to make decisions influenced by emotional biases. Arjuna's vision was obscured by the emotion of defeating his siblings, friends, professors, including Guru Dronacharya, and elders like Grandsire Bhishma Pitamah, during the battle of Kurukshetra, which could have prevented him from achieving his ultimate aim. Lord Krishna helped Arjuna see the broader picture of the conflict, which was to save the Pandavas and attain Dharma. And for this, Arjuna needed to control his emotions and maintain an objective-oriented perspective on the war. In the same light, making financial decisions with an emotionally biased outlook can do no good while making any investment plans. A prejudiced mind, just wanting to buy or participate in the market, can be quite dangerous. The short-term and high return promises can be quite enticing but it can land one in trouble. So, patience and unbiased decisions can be keys to success.
Avoid taking unjustifiable risks
In the battle, Arjuna and Karna were considered warriors of the same adroitness. Karna had the divine power of Lord Indra. Since Arjuna had no counter to Lord Krishna, he decided to shield him for some time from Karna. Only after Karna had used the weapon on Bhima's son, Ghatotkacha, ensuring Arjuna's entire safety, did Krishna bring him to confront his greatest foe.
Using this episode in today’s context, the idea is to invest without taking any risks that you cannot bear. For example, intraday trading or day trading, where share prices fluctuate all day, intraday traders aim to profit from all of these price fluctuations by purchasing and selling shares on the same trading day. Intraday trading is the purchase and sale of stocks on a single day before the market closes. It is a short-term, high-risk investment that can go wrong at any time on the same day. This might sound lucrative but is definitely an unjustifiable risk worth avoiding.
High Five:
Take decisions and strategies that have the potential to work.
Setting up realistic and right goals is necessary to attain success.
Take risks only when they are necessary, and take only the calculated risks. As investors, it is necessary to have the patience to wait.
Hold onto your investments if the market seems to be going down.
Self-control is the key to making successful returns.