The scriptures are rich with lessons for our life. I am always fascinated by the depth of information that has been provided in our scriptures. One such is Devi Mahatyam (Sanskrit: devīmāhātmyam, देवीमाहात्म्यम्). As part of the Markandeya Purana, it is one of the Puranas or secondary Hindu scriptures, and was composed in Sanskrit around c. 400-500 CE, with authorship attributed to the sage (Rishi) Markandeya. This describes the victory of Durga over Mahisashura and other demons.

One of the sections of this scripture is Tantotra Devisuktam. This is a section that praises goddess Durga in different ways. The goddess is extolled in different form. The important aspect of the terms used is the sequence in which they have been given.  I am beginning from the 17^th shloka of the 4^th chapter of the book. Each of the point given below is the way goddess is addressed in the text. They are listed in the same order as given in the text.

Durga is the form of goddess that is formed from the energies of all the gods. Durga represents power of synergy. What each god could not achieve was achieved by Goddess Durga. Each of these forms as expressed needs to be looked at as a form of power.

1.       Chetna – (consciousness)

 This refers to the cognitive power that we human has. Without this cognitive power, we human would be no different from an animal. Most successful people have excellent cognitive power. Their ability to learn from what they observe and use for success is noteworthy. Learning process is dependent on the cognitive power of an individual.

2.       Budhi – (knowledge)

 Cognitive power plays a critical role in building our knowledge. Improving cognitive power helps in improving knowledge. Knowledge refers to one’s ability to understand WHY and WHAT of anything that one deals with. Knowledge as power has played many important historical changes in society. Chanakya and many others are examples from our real life.

3.       Nidraa  — (Sleep, Slumber, Sloth)

 Sleep is an important activity in maintaining our Circadian rhythm. Whether sleep can save energy or not, sleeplessness definitely drains energy.

The Sanskrit Nidraa also refers to blindness due to sleep. Many individual with higher knowledge tend to behave as nothing more is left to learn. This actually creates a layer of ignorance around them that prevents them building competency for tomorrow. They tend to ignore the obvious signals of bad times.  One has to constantly be aware of this part of individual mind and keep it under control. This requires constant calibration of one’s level of knowledge as compared to what is required.

In other word, you should know what you do not know; you should also know what you know.

4.       Kshuda – (Hunger/ Appetite)

In place of sleeping over with a feeling of having all the knowledge, one must sustain the hunger for knowledge. This is the only way to remain competent to succeed in this competitive world. Hunger has the power to drive individual to higher levels of performance. The hunger is represented as Ambitions. There is no success without ambition.

5.       Kshaya –(Shape, Shadow)

Kshaya has different meaning. It can imply Shape and it can also refer to a shadow. In any case shadow also has a shape. It represents form and substance of ourselves and also the environment that we create around us. This shape should be based on our “Knowledge” and must allow space for changes depending upon our hunger/ appetite.

Managers and leaders in an organisation must have the ability to learn. Prof Prahalad has spoken about the need to continuous “Unlearning” and “Learning” . Hence “Ability to Learn” is a critical skill. One has to keep up with the knowledge. Competency is a combination of Knowledge, Skill and Process Abilities. 

Competencies of yesterday are of no use today;

competencies available today are not required tomorrow and

what is required for tomorrow we are not learning.

The competency building is affected by following factors:

• Knowing what to build
• Hunger or appetite to learn
• Form and content of the artefact that is being absorbed

I recollect a famous quote on knowledge

I do not know what I do not know

I know what I do not know

I know what I know

I do not know what I know

6.       Shakti – (Power, Force, Might)

Power, Force or Might is an outcome of knowledge and the shape (form and substance). The strength of the power is dependent on the level of knowledge (as applied and demonstrated) and also what has been created by us (forms and substance).

 7.       Trishna – (Thirst)

 Thirst is similar to Hunger in many ways. The difference is while hunger represents “ambitions” , the thirst often represents “desire for more power”. The thirst to acquire more power is common. One is expected to build the power through people (team). Attempting to do all alone may convert the “thirst” into “greed”.  One must recognise the positive power of thirst and safeguard against the potential to get overpower by greed.

 8.       Kshanti – (Patience/ Forbearance)

 The thirst for more power makes us lose patience. The scripture has identified goddess with Patience/ forgiveness and forbearance appropriately.  Since the “thirst” quenching  would require people around you to rally with you. This would also mean that everyone may not have same passion and hence the pace may not match. There would be many around you who would also commit errors. Not that we do not make errors, but the impatience makes us angry for errors by others. Tolerance for errors is key to manage variations in the outcome provided by others.

Patience was used as power by Gandhi during Freedom Struggle. Patience as virtue is now becoming extinct, as patience is often referred as lack of capability.

9.       Jaati –(genus)

In Indian philosophy jati (genus) describes any group of things that have generic characteristics in common. Sociologically, jati has come to be used universally to indicate a caste group among Hindus. The caste as a concept is much later in Hindu system. I do not want to deviate into the genesis of caste system in Hinduism.

When we start working with groups of people to attain larger successes, we would need to recognise the groups and subgroups with different levels of competencies and aspirations. One need not become part of any of the group, but one is expected to be like Lotus that can standout within dirty pond with getting affected by the dirty pond. Recognising these groups and subgroups would enable one to manage the group’s outcome in more effective and efficient way.

10.    Lajja –( shame, modesty)

We all know the meaning of Lajja as Shame, but in Sanskrit Lajja also means modesty. Both are relevant from management of success point of view. We must be ashamed if we are not able to understand and manage the groups and subgroups in an effective way.

One need to be part of all groups / subgroups from the member point of view, but at the same time one should become a member of a group. Ones modesty in the approach can help in doing this without much of a problem.

11.   Shanti – (Peace)

Life can become easier and peaceful if one has learnt to manage the team (groups/ subgroups) with modesty. Such approach converts existing team into high performing teams. The leaders of such team can actually be in peace and focus of future growth.

12.   Shraddha – (Respect)

The leader is respected on attaining the stages as mentioned above. At the same time, respecting each other and each other’s views is essential to sustain the peace. The respect may arise due to several factors, but the ones that come because of Knowledge and Wisdom is more permanent.

The actions and inactions of the Managers and Leaders contribute to their success. It is important to know when to act and when not to act. May be sometime not to act itself. A friend of mine use to talk about a TWS as a problem solving tool. Unknowingly many follow this method. TWS stands for “Time Will Solve”

Chānakya (Sanskrit: चाणक्य Cāṇakya) (c. 350–283 BCE) was an adviser (Management Consultant in today’s jargon) to the first Maurya Emperor Chandragupta (c. 340–293 BCE). He believed in four ways—Sama, Dama, Danda, Bheda (treating with Equality, Enticement, Punishment or War and Sowing Dissension.) Each of these methods have an application and utility in managing team performance.  However, the critical aspect is to use each method at an appropriate time to get the best out of it. This method has power to give result. This energy can be productive if used constructively.

13.   Kanti – (loveliness , beauty , splendour)

The power of beauty, loveliness is known. In corporate world the brilliance of the leader attracts all necessary resources required for the business. This enables the first impression. The scripture has brought this later because the brilliance attained artificially do not last. The characters and powers mentioned before this (e,g, Respect, Peace, Modesty etc.) gives a brilliance that would be visible and would create positive  aura around one’s personality.

14.   Lakshmi – (Money)

Lakshmi represents money. Money as power needs no explanation. However, if one gets money after the previously listed virtues it will not become lead to greed. Money is possibly one of the key outcomes of all our efforts, but this scripture has affirmed that money is important but not everything.

15.   Vritti – (Waves of thoughts)

Vritti  is the state of mind (waves of thoughts) to express a variety of feelings and emotions. Vritties are result of past actions and experiences that have left an imprint on the mind. This is closer to the reflections that one must do on whatever one has achieved from time to time. This makes one stronger and enables learning from past successes and failures. In way it is an assessment of THINGS WENT RIGHT AND THINGS WENT WRONG.

16.   Smriti – (Memory)

Memories can help one to move ahead. Good memories would motivate us. Bad memories have the power to haunt us and quiet often shake our confidence.

17.   Daya – (Forgiveness)

All our experiences relates to events in past. All events have characters. The ability to forgive the individuals who might have contributed to some of our unpleasant experiences is a powerful management tool. Forgiving actually requires more strength than to fight. AHIMSA principle is based on this fundamental.

18.   TUSHTI – (Satisfaction)

Being satisfied with what has been achieved is important. This does not mean one should not ambitious. The satisfaction at the current level is necessary to push the bar up. Satisfaction is possible only when we have retained sweat memories and erased bad recollections. Forgiving the individual who have contributed to poor experiences can also give immense satisfaction.

19.   Matri – (Mother)

Mother is creator, developer and caretaker of all entity. The manager must behave like a “mother “ to all his/her subordinates

20.   Bhranti –( Mirage)

The success is always temporary. While it is important to rejoice and celebrate but one must also remember that the Mantra for success constantly changes. One will have to keep renewing the organisation. It is important to quickly come out of celebration and start working for next level of performance/ maturity.

The organisational performance and results need to be absorbed in a positive manner. Learning from successes and failures is key to have success in succession.

The shloka from where this was written is reproduced below:

विज्ञानमयकोश Vigyanamaya Kosh (Intellect Layer/ Budhhi – Knowledge/ Ahankara- EGO)

A common man and a common organisation have everything that can be related to अन्नमयकोश Annamaya Kosh (Physical Layer / Physical Body) and प्राणमयकोश Pranamaya Kosh (Vitality Layer/ Pranic Body/ Life). A better person and a good organisation have elements explained within scope of मनोमयकोश Manomaya Kosh (Consciousness Layer/ Senses).

True success comes through the competencies built and developed by individuals. The knowledge often leads to EGO. Sigmund Freud has defined a structural model of the individual psyche. They consist of Id, ego and super-ego in terms of activity and interaction of mental life. According to this model of the psyche, the id is the set of uncoordinated instinctual trends; the ego is the organised, realistic part; and the super-ego plays the critical and moralising role. EGO perse may not be negative, unless the ego is used to undermine other’s knowledge and/ or capability.

An organisation needs to build a set of competencies to succeed. This creates centres of excellence in the respective area of business. 3M, GE, Google are institution that has built competency and innovation management. Such organisations thrive on creating and exploiting their core competency for the benefits of Mankind, society and finally to the organisation. Ability to establish as Knowledge Leaders ( also known as Domain or Technology leaders) is key for success of organisations that have lasted long and spread themselves beyond their initial geography.

Competency is combination of Knowledge, Skill and Process Abilities (KSA). Often we also include attributes or behavioural aspects. However KSA is demonstrated through the behaviour of an individual. For example, an individual may have strong knowledge of Problem Solving techniques and also possesses skill and Abilities to do so. However, such KSA is useful only when they get demonstrated. In fact competency is regard as demonstrated behavioural performance in an area of interest.

The competency levels can be described in simplest form as Novice, Proficient, Expert and Master. If loosely compared with Freud’s Model, it may look as below:

EGO of an organisation can be dangerous if they fail to appreciate and understand the competitors strength. What we call as EGO TRIP is common among organisation who tend to ignore competitor’s strength. This behaviour can be explained as Ostrich Management. Like Ostrich organisation is so deep inot its strength that it ignores the threat from competencies growth in competitors organisation (potential threat).

आनंदमयकोश Anandmaya Kosh (Blissful Layer / Ultimate Joy)

This is the final outcome that we all strive for. Be it philosophical need or materialistic need, the ultimate goal is same. This is common to both individuals as well as organisation. The life span of this stage is often short. Sustenance of this stage is rare and calls for excellence in every aspect of business organisation or individuals.

Yoga is all about planning, controlling and improving our body system at all stages.

About Maharishi Pathanjali

Before moving into the Patanjalis’ Yogasutra and its interpretation for Management Science, a few words about Maharishi Patanjali himself.

A traditional prayer often chanted to remember Patanjali is

Maharishi Patanjali, believed to have lived sometime between 500 and 200 B.C. The life of Maharishi Patanjali is an enigma to modern historians. It is only with the help of legends that one can draw inferences about him. Maharishi Patanjali, universally accepted as “father of yoga,” codified his thoughts and knowledge of yoga in “The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali.” This compilation of 195 sutras is considered to be a blueprint for living an ideal life and also incorporating the science of yoga into one’s life.

He is also the author of the Mahabhasya, a major commentary on Panini’s Ashtadhyayi. 

According to one legend, Maharishi Patanjali was the avatar of Adi Shesha the Cosmic Serpent upon whom Lord Vishnu rests. While watching a dance by Lord Shiva, Adi Shesha found it unbearable to support the weight of Lord Vishnu. Amazed at this, he asked Lord Vishnu the reason for the same. Lord Vishnu said that this was because of his harmony with Lord Shiva’s energy state, owing to the practice of Yoga. Realizing the value and benefits of Yoga, Adi Shesha wished to be born amongst humans, to teach them the great art.

In another popular legend, Patañjali was born to Atri (First of the Saptha Rishis) and his wife Anasuya (this would make him go back to the time of the creation by Brahma). According to this tradition, Anasuya had to go through a stern test of her chastity when the Trimurti (Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva) themselves came as Bhikshuks and asked her for Bhiksha. She passed their test by accepting them as her children and fed them. She got the boon where all the three Murtis will be born to them. They were SomaSkandan or Patañjali, Dattatreya, and Durvasa.

According to another legend, he fell (pata) into the hands of a woman, as an offering (anjali), thus giving him the name Patanjali. Maharishi Patanjali’s Jeeva Samadhi is within the precincts of Sri Brahmapureeswarar Temple, near Trichy in Tamilnadu, India. (visit http://www.brahmatemple.org/brahma_YogiPatanjali.htm) 

A stamp on him was released by Government of India is 2009

We will explore the Sutras from next issue onward.

Management Sutra – Preamble

Human race has always led a life that required efforts in Managing the environment in which he lived. Though all other living system has its own mechanism to manage its environment, mankind was unique in many ways.  The word environment is used here in much larger context. Human was probably the most expressive and thoughtful product of nature. The method of expression and language used may have changed over a period of time. The essence have remain by and large same.

I am personally a curious reader of this such literatures as close to its original form as possible. I attempt to seek relevance of the Practices explained in the books of History and Religion including Mythology in current context. While many may ridicule the mythology or may look at them only a passion of “devouts”, I see them as a way of communicating “Best Practices”.

I intend to share some insights, through these books of past, on current days Management Practices and Concepts. Some may even label it as Old Wine in New Bottle. I cannot disagree with them. That is why the Old Wine are precious and we should not loose them in oblivion of disbelief or modernism.

1. A Hindu spiritual and ascetic discipline, a part of which, including breath control, simple meditation, and the adoption of specific bodily postures, is widely practiced for health and relaxation
2. Hindu discipline aimed at training the consciousness for a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquillity that is achieved through the three paths of actions and knowledge and devotion
3. A system of exercises practiced as part of the Hindu discipline to promote control of the body and mind
4. Yoga (Sanskrit, Pāli) refers to traditional physical and mental disciplines originating in India. The word is associated with meditative practices in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.

Wikipedia link on Yoga (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga) describes it further as below:

Major branches of yoga in Hindu philosophy include Rāja Yoga, Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, and Hatha Yoga. Yoga based on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, comprises one of the six main Hindu schools of philosophy (darshanas), together with Kapila’s Samkhya, Gautama’s Nyaya, Kanada’s Vaisheshika, Jaimini’s Purva Mimamsa, and Badarayana’s Uttara Mimamsa or Vedanta. Many other Hindu texts discuss aspects of yoga, including the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the Shiva Samhita and various Tantras.

The Sanskrit word yoga has many meanings and is derived from the Sanskrit root “yuj,” meaning “to control,” “to yoke” or “to unite.”  Translations include “joining,” “uniting,” “union,” “conjunction,” and “means.”

The word yoga may also derive from the root “yujir samadhau,” which means “contemplation” or “absorption”.

The attempt to define the term Yoga is more to do with the market of Yoga as mean to gain control over mind and body. In the process, the strength of Yoga in wholesome is lost. Yoga has become a Packaged Product like any other Premium FMCG product in the market. Like any other product and services, it attempts to capture the attention through something that is Sulabha (easy). The wholistic approach of Yoga is explained in Patanjali Yoga Sutras and several other texts.

Our body system is made up of a system called panchakosha पंचकोश, which literally means – five layers of existence; Kosh means layers of existence.

The existence of human beings has been described having five layers (Tattiriyopanishad). This is the primary Upanishad for Krishna Yajurveda. The five koshas are –

अन्नमयकोश Annamaya Kosh (Physical Layer / Physical Body)

प्राणमयकोश Pranamaya Kosh (Vitality Layer/ Pranic Body/ Life)

मनोमयकोश Manomaya Kosh (Consciousness Layer/ Senses)

विज्ञानमयकोश Vigyanamaya Kosh (Intellect Layer/ Budhhi – Knowledge/ Ahankara- EGO)

आनंदमयकोश Anandmaya Kosh (Blissful Layer / Ultimate Joy)

The existence of a business organisation can be depicted as below:

The outer layer represents the अन्नमयकोश Annamaya Kosh. They are physical in nature. They decay. They change. They get revived, renewed, lost, discovered etc. Most organisations that have lived long enough would realise that their products & services have gone through changes in form and content through the period. Some of these changes may be driven by external or internal needs. The new Body makes way for new Body. Windows and Apple made DOS based system redundant. The market segment undergoes change. Rural Market that was once considered “Not”worth has become “Note”worthy for most marketing professionals.

अन्नमयकोश Annamaya Kosh from organisation perspective can be shown physically in form of Men, Machineries, Materials in various forms, Infrastructures. Each of these undergoes change over period of time. Let us look at the change that has happened to each of them. These changes made the science and art of management challenging.

Men

Men (here indicated workforce without any bias to a specific gender) has undergone significant change in its intellect (Knowledge), ability to perform (Skill) and behaviour (Attributes).

At a basic level we correlate knowledge to education level (though that may not be always true). One cannot fail to notice the increase in number of qualified people in almost every field. If one want to ignore the qualification, the understanding and vastness in knowledge that the next generation demonstrates is far from imagination. While the early men were also good at reasoning and thinking, which is the base for “knowledge”, the number of such people has increased.

“Ability to Perform” refers to one’s ability to do or perform a task. The advancement in technology has enabled even ordinary people to perform extraordinary both in terms of quality and quantity. In today’s job market if an organisation wants a hire an accountant who may not know how to use accounting software is next to impossible. Stephen Hawking (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawking) is an example of how technology can enable people to achieve feats that are unimaginable earlier. With advancement in office automation, the role of secretaries is disappearing.

Behaviour (Attribute) of job seekers and Job providers has also changed. Job Seekers are more open to path less travelled. Job Providers are now moving from industry specific experience to generic skill background. The traditional employment process driven by “apprenticeship” associated individuals to an industry or trade. A “papermaker” was “papermaker” for life. Today people migration from one industry to another and one function to another function is order of the day.

Machineries

Machineries have changed that way home or factory used to operate. They have influenced people’s ability to work. Many have become obsolete. For example it extremely difficult to locate a convention printing press. It is not possible for one to now use statistical machines that were used in colleges earlier for large scale computing.

Material

Material in almost all area have either already become rare or on the verge of becoming one. The conservation of material is the key. Most struggles between countries today can be traced to a desire to gain control over Material.

Infrastructures

The change in infrastructure need not be highlighted. Almost every form of infrastructure has undergone change since mankind discovered wheel. Thinking Global and Acting Local is feasible only because of reduction in the geographical boundaries.

I will continue with other Koshas in next issue.