Corporate Hostages: Roads to Captivity, Paths to Liberation
By Dr. N. Raj Mohan
Rupa Publications, 200 pages, Rs 295

‘Corporate Hostages’ is about the often unspoken emotional captivity felt by many in the corporate world. Based on the author’s decades-long experience in organisational training and personal reflection, it unpacks the complex realities of modern work life, where professionals constantly navigate the tug of war between personal desires and professional demands. Through honest, real-life statements, it gives voice to those who feel stuck, whether by loyalty, paychecks, or fear of change.

Dr. N. Raj Mohan, a seasoned coach who has worked with Fortune 500 firms and leading corporate, used the metaphor of a ‘hostage’ to explore the strained and shifting relationship between employees and employers, a tension that has only deepened since the pandemic. What is unusual is that the book draws inspiration from the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path to offer a blend of reflection and actionable strategies for breaking free from these invisible binds.

Here is an excerpt from the book:

Liberating the Mind

If history has taught us anything, it is that the forerunner of any freedom movement is a liberated mind. Leaders who nurtured the vision of independence began by first seeding the virtue of liberation among people. This step—liberation of the mind—has created more warriors and patriots who have sacrificed their personal and communal life for a far larger cause. Yet, when the songs of liberation reverberate in the air, their losses become healing memories. Being aware of the lasting consequences at multiple levels of their life has never deterred them from fighting for their cause. The joy of being liberated is soul-stirring; it is a joy that humanity has experienced on multiple occasions.

Is it erroneous to conclude that when people fight for their nation’s independence, their personal liberty is compromised? Is the willingness to forgo one’s personal right to liberty, power to believe, act and express, the worst misery to invite upon oneself? Social psychologists would point out several reasons that prevent an individual from fighting for their personal freedom. Paradoxically, the grit and valour demonstrated during the fight for a country’s freedom is often missing while seeking personal freedom.

The collective conscience of a nation often fails to deliver when it comes to using it for an individual’s liberation; in the long run this tends to disrupt democratic processes. Both the physical and psychological liberation of an individual are significant as choosing liberty is the most non-coercive choice anyone needs to exercise for a healthy and wholesome life.

Kill the Enemy Within
Personal liberty can never be achieved without liberation of the mind. This is probably more evident in those who pursue their achievement-oriented careers while leading a life that flounders philosophically.

The comfort achieved through career advancement often vies for status quo. When this is questioned, it often means one has to accommodate discomfort and anxiety. The thin veil of comfort around an individual is often seen as a protective cover rather than what it really is—a vicious trap. While much has been written about people who have sacrificed their lives for their country, few can deny that they resist liberating themselves. How many of us can speak of having read or heard about people who have fought the enemy within? Misplaced beliefs and personal values have led many to become non-reflective.

Many talented people live according to other people’s ideas about life, often at the cost of their personal desires and strengths. This often results in a lack of faith in their own capabilities. Career fanatics are not the only ones in this club.

At home or elsewhere, often people are brought up to believe ‘acting out’ is more normative than ‘acting on/in’. Both psychological terms, acting out is the process of impulsively expressing our unconscious thoughts, usually in a way that harms others. The reaction could be spontaneous as a defence mechanism, to avoid reflecting on one’s own anxiety and discomfort associated with one’s unconscious feelings. Two familial examples illustrate this clearly: 1) If parents are afraid of their adolescent child habitually coming home late at night, they vent their anger instead of their fear. 2) Many children choose their careers due to external and/or parental influence, suppressing their own interests.

Acting on/in arises out of our inner feelings; any outward action is only a means to express our inner feeling without distortion. There is conformity between in and out as we express from our inner space, consciously and effectively. If the parents had expressed their fear, saying, ‘We are afraid of things happening out there and we will be happy if you come home early,’ it could probably change the behaviour of the adolescent child as they too may empathize with their parents’ feelings. The misplaced feeling of anger could do more harm to the child than good.

This early institutionalization shapes our mind as a non-believer in the self. Children grow up as they are expected to rather than as they truly are within, being constantly conscious of their limitations rather than their strength. Many risk-averse employees tend to act out rather than act in. The tendency to believe in one’s own limitations have curtailed creativity and self-exploration. Potential and greatness are ignored and often go unrecognized.

Therefore, poor self-belief becomes an enemy within. It strengthens our resistance to liberating ourselves from the hostage situation—be it from ‘directed’ ourselves or from others. Liberation becomes an elusive dream. So, destroy the enemy within!

Often our enemy resides in our subconscious mind in the form of vague concepts and wrong perceptions about self and others, which we resist bringing up to our conscious mind. Only a few realize that it is our subconscious mind which drives us more than our conscious mind.

Subversion of the Subconscious
The subconscious mind is a power bank with unlimited power. The conscious mind is always subservient to the subconscious mind. Charging the conscious mind using power from the subconscious power bank needs to be done in the right way, failing which the former may run amok. If you are a budding speaker ready to address a crowd, you constantly need to assure yourself that you are confident and fearless. However, in the presence of an audience, you may have butterflies in your stomach and tend to become nervous or incoherent. This uncooperative behaviour of your subconscious mind can be altered through the proper alignment of intention between confidence and action. Should there be a conflict between the two, the outcome will tend to be undesirable. It is the same reason why people who indulge in bad habits struggle to let go of them.

Understanding our subconscious mind and its power is a privilege a select few enjoy; these people are habituated to looking within and reflecting. Until this happens, the subconscious mind remains underutilized in most cases.

[The excerpt reproduced with the permission of the publishers.]