Why-Analysis – Karma

In operations consulting we used to do why-why analysis. It is a method to identify cause of an occurrence. There are other methods also available for doing such analysis. The objective of such different methods is be to find the root cause of some occurrence.

Why this happened? Because of that. Why that happened? because of something else.This why question is asked on the answer of previous question until an actionable cause is identified. Mostly a root cause is reached in maximum of 5 why’s. It is a very commonly used cause and effect analysis tool in operations management.

I watched this video and could relate to karma, our entanglement to karma (Maya) and that root cause analysis technique mentioned above. The lesson here is, one must try to find “The cause of cause”.

Guruji (Sri Sri Ravi Shankar) is saying in this video that when you stick at one or lower levels of the cause attribution you do not get to the real cause. On the contrary that entangles you, in Karma, even more.

If we do not perform Why-Why analysis correctly, we get frustrated and the operations do not get improved. Thus, properly performing this analysis will get to the root cause – mostly management. How and why a decision was made which resulted in the issue say for example high inventory or poor quality output. Thus that can help improve operations of the organization.

Similarly when we analyze karma we would reach to the ultimate – the cause of all the causes. Guruji calls it – Shiv tatva in this video.

Karma plays a role everywhere, be it spiritual life or professional. However, doing a why-why analysis on operations is easy on the contrary doing a why-analysis on “the cause of all the causes” is easier said than done.