Three Types Of Projects Which Are Difficult To Manage

“Brahma, it is I, the Personality of Godhead, who was existing before the creation, when there was nothing but Myself. Nor was there the material nature, the cause of this creation. That which you see now is also I, the Personality of Godhead, and after annihilation what remains will also be I, the Personality of Godhead.” (Shrimad Bhagavatam, 2.9.33)

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अहम् एवासम् एवाग्रे
नान्यद् यत् सद्-असत् परम्
पश्चाद् अहं यद् एतच् च
यो ऽवशिष्येत सो ऽस्म्य् अहम्

aham evāsam evāgre
nānyad yat sad-asat param
paścād ahaṁ yad etac ca
yo ‘vaśiṣyeta so ‘smy aham

If you could only do everything yourself. Then there wouldn’t be these silly deadlines that no one is able to meet. No problem dealing with this person or that. You would have the full information store. Everything would go through you, and more than anyone else, you have faith in your ability to deliver.

The real world is not so simple. The projects can become large in scope. They can span many years due to concurrency issues, i.e. working on more than one task at a time. The discipline of project management exists for a reason. The training involved deals with the issues that are identified through many years of experience.

1. Software development

Again, if there is only one programmer involved, perhaps not as many issues. Let them concentrate on one thing. They do all of the design. They know which function does what. They remember the different versions to the code, how every enhancement was configured and how the discovered bugs became fixed.

Yet to hire a programmer to work on only one project is not the best use of time or money. If you can get three people to help you move, the job typically takes much less time. The same thought applied to software development yields a large team of expert coders.

The difficulty, of course, is in managing everything. One person writes only the front-end piece, i.e. what the end user sees. Another deals with the foundation, the database portion. One coder is waiting on another. This programmer only has access to this portion of the repository. Moreover, two people could be working on the same section of code at the same time, and so how to resolve the changes they apply? For these reasons a project which might take a single person a few months to do can extend out to several years for a large team.

2. Construction

Here more manpower should yield greater efficiency, but again there are many issues which have to be managed. If the builder reaches a snag in a particular section, all the previous work might have to be scrapped. Go in a different direction. There is the clock looming in the background. The project has a deadline; otherwise there would be no incentive to work hard.

3. Planning a wedding

Everything has to be right. The cake, the food, the flowers – one slipup and the entire event gets ruined. Let there be enough vacant rooms in the hotel for the expected guests. Ah, but there is no way to accurately predict who will accept the invite and who won’t.

There is the wedding planner for this very reason. Pay some money up front and let them deal with the headaches. They stay on top of the organization, making sure everyone is where they should be. The last thing you want is someone to get the date of the event wrong, which is possible with even the parents of the two people getting married.

…

From the Shrimad Bhagavatam we get a set of four important verses which accurately describe the Supreme Lord. The setting is a conversation with the creator, Lord Brahma. If we thought project management was difficult, imagine being in charge of populating the entire world. Not just the types of bodies inhabited, the species, but also the infinite variety and beauty found within every aspect of the creation.

Brahma needed some training first, and in that moment the Supreme Lord Vishnu explained to Him the secrets of time. God was around before anything manifested. He remains while everything can be seen, and He will also exist after the eventual annihilation.

This means that Vishnu is the actual coordinator. He is the greatest mind, capable of juggling as many tasks at the same time as can be conceived. He remembers everything that has been done, by every single person. He is the all-pervading witness, antaryami. Everything is in Him, but He is not in everything.

मया ततम् इदं सर्वं
जगद् अव्यक्त-मूर्तिना
मत्-स्थानि सर्व-भूतानि
न चाहं तेष्व् अवस्थितः

mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ
jagad avyakta-mūrtinā
mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni
na cāhaṁ teṣv avasthitaḥ

“By Me, in My unmanifested form, this entire universe is pervaded. All beings are in Me, but I am not in them.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 9.4)

The best manager also has the ability to take control over the most difficult task of finally escaping the cycle of birth and death. Maya creates such an illusion over the otherwise intelligent soul that a person can’t help but dream about their office environment at night. The place to which they reluctantly travel, merely for earning a living, becomes a permanent fixture difficult to escape.

दैवी ह्य् एषा गुण-मयी
मम माया दुरत्यया
माम् एव ये प्रपद्यन्ते
मायाम् एतां तरन्ति ते

daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī
mama māyā duratyayā
mām eva ye prapadyante
māyām etāṁ taranti te

“This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 7.14)

Imagine, then, the effort required in escaping illusion altogether. This world is difficult to overcome, but those surrendered to the Supreme Lord can easily cross beyond it. This is because He helps them, in the same way that He originally guided Brahma.

In Closing:

Concerns in Vishnu confided,

So Lord the creator guided.

Largest scale keeping in mind,

Other difficult projects also to find.

Escaping illusion of largest scope,

But even then a light of hope.

With Divine help made easy the leap,

Bhagavan track of complexity to keep.