Cooperation: The Forgotten Key

Cooperation or teamwork is an art of working in unison towards a common purpose, knowing fully well that we can achieve more together than alone. The word cooperation is so magical that mere thought of it has a mind soothing effect on us. It does not require a philosopher to tell us that cooperation is a divine virtue which is the key to success and accomplishment in every sphere of life. It leads to co-creation & it makes possible symphonies, bridges, and communities. One must remember the fact that human beings cannot lead a happy and comfortable life without co-operation, nor do animals can survive without this magical virtue. Hence co-operation is the foundation to the living animals and so also to human society. A society exists because of co-operation; therefore, it is both a psychological and social necessity for human beings; for they cannot lead a solitary life. Can they? In modern society, progress in the field of science and technology, agriculture and industry, transportation and communication, trade and commerce etc. would not have been possible in the absence of co-operation. Similarly social unity and integration also depends upon co-operation because it is the co-operation which mitigates the mutual differences, mental conflicts and inspires people to render possible help to maintain solidarity. In short co-operation is essential in every sphere of individual and social life. However, after reading so much positive about something that’s mandatory to life, one can’t help but ask this question: when there is so much to gain from cooperation, why is there so much competition, confrontation and lack of cooperation, prevalent in every field of activity in modern society?

Today mass degeneration of human values is seen in modern society, where everything is measured in terms of money and power. Accordingly, most of human activity is guided by greed for money and lust for power. This has led to cut-throat competition in all fields including business and industry. Most of us have become so conditioned as to believe that competition brings out the best in us and it is the competition and not cooperation, which is the key to success. The truth however is that intensely competitive structures cause high stress and moral corruption which damages physical, mental and social health. Besides, they foster a dehumanizing mentality causing distrust, rivalry and unfriendliness. A comparative study of competitive and cooperative effort situations made by experts has revealed that cooperation works far better than competition. How? Well!! it’s quite simple. Competition tends to drive wedges between human beings whereas cooperation builds bridges and fosters unity thereby promoting harmony and team-work. Any kind of specialisation can be taken advantage of in a cooperative situation, but under competitive structures, the very same specialisation tends to become a tool for exploiting. In a climate of cooperation, both encouragement and helpful criticism can be given and received. Co-operation stimulates communication and finding mutually satisfying solutions to problems. Thus, relationships and endeavours based on cooperation are more successful and lasting. Today we see people getting united in groups, big or small, but only to protect, strengthen or improve their position vis-a-vis other groups or the society at large. This is mainly because since a long time past, the entire approach to cooperation has been of ‘giving’ with an eye on ‘taking’ rather, ‘taking’ more. Over the centuries, it has been forgotten that there is another philosophy of life which is that of ‘giving’ rather than ‘taking’. Remember! if we give more to the community than we take from it, we shall always have a ‘plus’ balance to draw upon. The well-known law of action begetting an equal re-action applies to cooperation also. Hence co-operation automatically begets cooperation, so in giving’, getting is automatically reciprocated. Bhagwat Gita also says “Perform noble actions without expecting reward, Reward will automatically follow”. This is the Law of ‘Karma’ in its simplified form. In reality, even one’s long-term self-interest is best served by working for the maximum common good of all. This is because in the Universe, there is so much interdependence. Hence whatever a person does is bound to recoil or bounce-back on him, sooner or later. So why not practice the art of “giving” like our ancestors and become Devta i.e the giver.

(The writer is a spiritual educator & popular columnist for publications across India, Nepal & UK. Till Date 8500+ Published Columns have been written by Him)