We just concluded with our Discover India 2015 celebration over the weekend. What an event it was? Awesome performances, amazing choreography and wonderful organization. Yes, I am bragging about my wife who pulled off a great event - much beyond anyone's expectations. I am sure she is setoff to a much bigger horizon. I wish her all the luck and promise all the support needed.
One of the highlights in this year's celebration was the epic long drama - History of India. While working through the history, the performers depicted the story of how Chanakya architected the Mauryan empire. Chanakya is worth mentioning for his unparalleled contribution to politics and economics in his book "Arthshastra". He has at one point conveyed that in order to build a honest empire, the king must take care of his officials and keep them well paid and well fed. A well paid, well fed and cared for official is highly unlikely to go corrupt as his needs are completely met.
Consider a lion and a deer in the forest. The lion runs fast to catch the deer and the deer runs faster to escape being the prey to the lion. If the lion catches the deer, he can feed himself and probably his cubs too. When the lion is well fed, he can then sleep peacefully. If he does not catches the deer, the lion shall starve, since he gets nothing to eat. The deer on the other hand lives in green pastures and is surrounded by big patches of grass. Yet, the deer can never eat to his heart's content. He has to keep himself half content to be able to remain alert and run fast. The currency in both the cases that of lion and the deer is their food. However, under the fear of his life, the deer cares nothing for the food. The deer needs security.
Drawing parallels to the organization, an employee or a team member who is struggling to find security, will never be satiated by the money or the position. Even though, the goals of the organization are the utmost, it is human nature to fend for itself when pushed to the wall. It is thus an important task for the leader to understand what his team members are yearning for. the true leader shall try his best to provide for his team so that the team can provide their best.
As we saw in the past, the currency or the material, quantifiable wealth is represented by Lakshmi. And the emotional, unquantifiable, yet perceived wealth is represented by Durga. Both Lakshmi and Durga are important for the survival of oneself, however the third aspect represented by Saraswati enables one to gaze and aim better. Generosity is often referred to as the giving away of the material wealth. But seldom people realize that others might require Durga and not Lakshmi. Transfer of the emotional wealth or empathizing with the others is the exchange of Durga. Interesting point here is that the generosity of Durga requires nothing. All you need is a compassionate vision and ability to show empathy.
Not only the above is true for the humans, the gods are also seen to follow the same principles. While worshipping the gods, we sing hymns in their praise. We remind them of the great deeds they performed. We tell them how nice they are and how great they look? The expectation here is that the gods shall eventually be happy with us for singing their praises and give us what we want - mostly Lakshmi. to add to the point, observe the aarti lamp for each god. They are all different to suit the requirements of the god themselves. You'll find the lamps shaped like elephants, serpents, horses, lions, even sphinxes or half-lion creatures known as Purusha-mriga. Each of these lamps are customizations of beliefs to suit the god whom we want to please at the given instant. Customization and not standardization is key of the Indian Scriptures - why else you'll see a Tulsi leaf offering to Lord Krishna but a Bilva leaf offering to Lord Shiva?
Customization is also done to satiate one's need for the emotional wealth.
One of the highlights in this year's celebration was the epic long drama - History of India. While working through the history, the performers depicted the story of how Chanakya architected the Mauryan empire. Chanakya is worth mentioning for his unparalleled contribution to politics and economics in his book "Arthshastra". He has at one point conveyed that in order to build a honest empire, the king must take care of his officials and keep them well paid and well fed. A well paid, well fed and cared for official is highly unlikely to go corrupt as his needs are completely met.
Consider a lion and a deer in the forest. The lion runs fast to catch the deer and the deer runs faster to escape being the prey to the lion. If the lion catches the deer, he can feed himself and probably his cubs too. When the lion is well fed, he can then sleep peacefully. If he does not catches the deer, the lion shall starve, since he gets nothing to eat. The deer on the other hand lives in green pastures and is surrounded by big patches of grass. Yet, the deer can never eat to his heart's content. He has to keep himself half content to be able to remain alert and run fast. The currency in both the cases that of lion and the deer is their food. However, under the fear of his life, the deer cares nothing for the food. The deer needs security.
Drawing parallels to the organization, an employee or a team member who is struggling to find security, will never be satiated by the money or the position. Even though, the goals of the organization are the utmost, it is human nature to fend for itself when pushed to the wall. It is thus an important task for the leader to understand what his team members are yearning for. the true leader shall try his best to provide for his team so that the team can provide their best.
As we saw in the past, the currency or the material, quantifiable wealth is represented by Lakshmi. And the emotional, unquantifiable, yet perceived wealth is represented by Durga. Both Lakshmi and Durga are important for the survival of oneself, however the third aspect represented by Saraswati enables one to gaze and aim better. Generosity is often referred to as the giving away of the material wealth. But seldom people realize that others might require Durga and not Lakshmi. Transfer of the emotional wealth or empathizing with the others is the exchange of Durga. Interesting point here is that the generosity of Durga requires nothing. All you need is a compassionate vision and ability to show empathy.
Not only the above is true for the humans, the gods are also seen to follow the same principles. While worshipping the gods, we sing hymns in their praise. We remind them of the great deeds they performed. We tell them how nice they are and how great they look? The expectation here is that the gods shall eventually be happy with us for singing their praises and give us what we want - mostly Lakshmi. to add to the point, observe the aarti lamp for each god. They are all different to suit the requirements of the god themselves. You'll find the lamps shaped like elephants, serpents, horses, lions, even sphinxes or half-lion creatures known as Purusha-mriga. Each of these lamps are customizations of beliefs to suit the god whom we want to please at the given instant. Customization and not standardization is key of the Indian Scriptures - why else you'll see a Tulsi leaf offering to Lord Krishna but a Bilva leaf offering to Lord Shiva?
Customization is also done to satiate one's need for the emotional wealth.
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