This talk titled Discovering the Connection between Work & Joy: Insights from Bhagavad Gita is given Prof Mahadevan B . In this talk Prof. Mahadevan discusses the changes in the notion of work in past fifty years in India. He explains how work today has become a cause for stress and burnout making work deprived of the meaning. He emphasises that there is a path of working which we have followed to end up in this mess. He explains importance of meaning in lives of human beings and humans are not finding the current state of work meaningful.

He talks about the flaws of current system of work and rewards, where quality of work is measured through performance metrics, rewards are commensurate to those performance metrics. He points out that every individual has a internal mechanism of risk aversion which comes into play when that individual is exposed to this system. Now the individual is more anxious about achieving those performance metrics as the outcomes are now linked to it because of which quality of work starts suffering. The work which is supposed to be the source of joy now becomes a source of stress for the same individual.

In order to introduce the Bharatiya idea of work he introduces five axioms from by quoting shlokas from Bhagwat Gita.

Here are the five axioms:

1. There is no state of no work.
2. Work is the only means for self-evolution.
3. Work is superior to no work.
4. Focus only on the work.
5. Work without “what’s in it for me.”

These five axioms are based on from these five shlokas below.

He explains that after understanding and imbibing the notion of work through these five axioms derived from shlokas of Bhagwat Gita work will feel joyful.