Nuggets of Leadership Part 2: Wisdom from Ancient India

NUGGETS OF LEADERSHIP PART 2: WISDOM FROM ANCIENT INDIA

MADHU KALIMIPALLI PHD 2

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

 Sincere gratitude to • “Brahmasri Dr.Samavedam Shanmukha Sarma garu” & • the Dhruva Jnanam group for giving me this opportunity and supporting the leadership initiative. • Pranamams to the lotus feet of Sadguru Sri Sivananda Murthy guru. 3 LAST TIME: SUCCESS IS REALLY NOT IN OUR HANDS.. ALL WE CAN DO IS CULTIVATE “A GROWTH MIND” SET.. Cultivating a Growth mind set

• Sraddha • Bhakti • Focus and • Devotion Determination • Prayer and faith • Discipline • Faith in one’s prayer • Rooted in Dharma (faith in one’s faith) 4 THREE SHORT STORIES: ..WITH A COMMON GOAL: TO ANSWER “HOW TO CULTIVATE A GROWTH MIND SET? “

• Story 1: • a little girl in a village (tale from Bharat)

• Story 2: • Ghanta karna (Bhagavata purana, about 5000 yrs ago)

• Story 3: • Queen Ahilyabai Holkar (1725-1795 AD) 5 THIS TIME: TWO ESSENTIAL QUALITIES FOR “ENDURING” SUCCESS “Enduring” Growth mind set

continuing or long-lasting

• Sattva • Dharma 6

THIS TIME: TWO ESSENTIAL QUALITIES FOR “ENDURING” SUCCESS “Enduring” Growth mind set

• Sattva • Dharma|Moksha • Rajasik|Tamasik forces • Dharma|Artha|kama|Moksha • Need a Right balance • Right balance • Satvik should be the • Dharma & Moksha should be guiding light the guiding lights 7 RELEVANCE FOR TODAYS WORLD (HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW, 02/2019) 8

THREE LEADERSHIP QUALITIES (HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW, 02/2019)

• Being mindful • How to achieve them? • Cultivating peace of mind. 1 • Practicing Satva • Being selfless • Being generous and cooperative, taking others’ 2 interests into account Dharma

• Being compassionate • Being Kind; compassion can be combined with 3 intelligence. According to the Sanatana dharma 9 THREE GUNAS COEXIST ( NEED A HEALTHY BALANCE OF ALL THE THREE) Sattva is the quality of balance, harmony, goodness, purity, focus Sattva constructive, positive attitude, luminous, peaceful, virtuous

Rajas is the quality of passion, activity, driven, moving, dynamic neither good nor bad and sometimes either, Rajas self-centeredness, egoistic, individualizing,

Tamas is the quality of imbalance, disorder, chaos, anxiety, impure, destructive, delusion, negative, dull or Tamas inactive, apathy, inertia or lethargy, violent, vicious, ignorant 10 FOUR PURUSHARTHAS (TRUE FOR ANY PROJECT MANAGEMENT):

Four goals focus focus

Artha Kama Dharma Moksha

Desire/ Reward expectation Fruitful Virtuous/ethical /successful completion 11 TWO SHORT STORIES: ..WITH A COMMON GOAL: TO ANSWER “HOW TO CULTIVATE AN ENDURING GROWTH MIND SET? “ • Story 1: • Sri Kurma Avatar of Lord Vishnu (Vishnu Purana, several tens of thousands of years ago)

• Story 2: • Uniqueness of Sri Kurma temple (Padma purana, 10,000+ years ago) 12

STORY 1: SRI KURMA AVATAR OF LORD VISHNU 13 DASA AVATAR OF LORD VISHNU 14

BACKGROUND

• In the second of His ten divine incarnations or Dasavathars, Lord Vishnu manifested in the form of Sri Kurma, the holy tortoise. • Lord Vishnu assumed the turtle form to help support the holy mountain Mandara and prevent it from sinking into the ocean of milk (Ksheera sagara). • The Mandara mountain served as a churning tool while Vasuki, the king of all serpents that adorns Lord Shiva, played the role of a churning rope, as Gods (devathas) and demons (rakshasas) churned the ocean of milk. 15 KURMA AVATAR ( LORD’S 2ND AVATAR) 16

SAGARA MADHANAM (HOLY CHURNING)

• Out of the churning, first emerged the virulent poison (halahala), which Lord Shiva had to absorb to prevent the world from the destruction. • Then emerged a series of divine fruits from the ocean of milk, such as the holy cow (Kamadhenu), the holy tree (Kalpa vriksha), the holy elephant (lravatham), and the holy mother (Sree Mahalakshmi) who merged with the creator, Lord Vishnu. 17 SAGARA MADHANAM (HOLY CHURNING) 18 MOHINI AVATAR OF THE LORD

• Finally, the ambrosia (amritha) sprang forth and was distributed to Gods by Lord Vishnu in the disguise of a divine damsel, Mohini. 19

IMPORTANCE

• In Kurma avathar, Lord Vishnu did not embark on slaying of any wicked. • In fact he had samatha dhristhi and was equipoised towards both devathas and rakshasas. • Of all the sacred incarnations, Kurma avathar therefore signifies benevolence or Satva Guna, and depicts the importance of potential service and love in helping others. 20 KURMA AVATAR ( LORD’S 2ND AVATAR) Let Satva rule the other two

Rajas Tamas

Satva Lord was Rajas Tamas equipoised 21 MOHINI AVATAR

• The lord came in the form of divine nymph and distributes the Amrutam to the Adharma Dharma Devathas. i.e. Dharmic/ virtuous

Lord chose Dharma 22

WORSHIPING THE LORD SRI KURMANADHA..

• will contribute to the progress in the material life, attenuate the effects of Shani Dosha and help attain Moksha at the end of mortal life. 23 FOUR PURUSHARTHAS (TRUE FOR ANY PROJECT MANAGEMENT):

Invoking Lord kurma Invoking Lord kurma

Four goals focus focus

Artha Kama Dharma Moksha

Desire/ Reward expectation Fruitful virtuous completion 24

TWO ESSENTIAL QUALITIES FOR “ENDURING” SUCCESS “Enduring” Growth mind set

STORY 2: SRI KURMAM TEMPLE 26 SRI KURMAM 27 SRI KURMAM TEMPLE 28

COORDINATES SPACE & TIME: ANCIENT

• Sri Kurma temple is located in the town of Sri Kurmam, in Andhra Pradesh, on the banks of Bay of Bengal, about 3 hours drive north of Visakhapatnam. • The temple dates back at least 10,000 years into Krutha Yuga and is the only temple dedicated to the Kurma avathar in the whole of India ( and the planet!) 29

TIME SCALE

• There are four yugas in the Hindu cosmic cycle. The total period of all these four yugas constitute about 4.32 million years, which are distributed at a ratio of 4:3:2:1 among • Krutha yuga (about 10,000 Plus years ago), • Thretha yuga( 8,000 years ago) , • Dwapara yuga (5,000 years ago) and • Kali Yuga. 30

REFERENCES

• The temple is ancient and its antecedents can be traced to Krutha Yuga, as mentioned in the Padma Purana. • In the temple's current location, originally stood a mountain called Swethagiri. the white mountain. • Veda Vyasa devoted 30 chapters of the holy text “ Padma Purana” to Swethagiri Mahathyam, where he described the significance of Sri Kurma. 31

SRI KURMAM TEMPLE 32

ORIGINS

• As Lord Vishnu assumed the form of Lord Kurma to bless a king who was His devotee, Lord Brahma Himself came down to consecrate the temple. • Lord Brahma installed the idol in Santana Gopala Yantra, while the rest of the Gods helped in the construction of the temple. • Further, the deity of Sri Kurma in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple is (not man-made but) self-manifest or swayambhu. 33

LONG LIST OF ILLUSTRIOUS VISITORS

• In the Thretha Yuga, Lord Sri Rama's children Lava and Kusa visited this temple and offered their prayers. • In the Dwapara Yuga. Yadava King Balarama visited and performed Panchamrutha abishekam to help rid of shani doshas. • In the Kali Yuga, Saint Shankara Charya, visited the temple in the 6 th century AD and offered the Sudarshana Saligrama, which still can be found in the temple • Sri Ramanujacharya, the proponent of Visishta Advaita visited the temple later in the 12 th century • In the l3th century, Sri Narahari Theertha Swamy, belonging to the Madhva Sampradaya visited the temple. • The main temple was said to have been renovated and improved in the 2nd century by the king Ananga Chola Ganga Varma. The present temple is at least 700 years old. 34 SRI KURMAM TEMPLE 35

VERY ANCIENT TEMPLE

• Survived thousands of years • “Endured” through years • Because it embodies two qualities: • Satva and Dharma 36

SACRED ASPECTS

• There are eight holy temples (theerthams) along the circumference within a radius of 10 km, with the Sri Kurma temple as the epi- centre. • The eight temples signify the holy Aashta kshari Manthra (Om Namo Narayanaya) and are respectively 1) Narada theertham, 2) Sudha- gundam, 3) Chakra theertham, 4) Madhava dhara, 5) Koutilya theertham, 6) Narasimha theertham, 7) Vakra theertham and 8) Maha-dadhi theertham. 37 TEMPLE ARCHITECTURE

• The main deity consists of two stones, about two feet long, coming out from the ground. These represent the head and body of Sri Kurma. The deity is in the form of a spherical shape and was worshipped as a Shiva Linga for a very long time. • It was Sri Ramanuja Acharya (1017-1137 AD) who revealed the true identity of the idol. Upon Ramanuja's prayers to the Lord, the deity, in the very presence of all assembled devotees, turned its face from the east to west. • Hence another Dhwaja Sthamba (the holy temple-tower) was erected on the west, facing the sanctum sanctorum, in addition to the original Dwaaja Sthamba that was standing on the east. • It is a very unique feature of the temple that God's deity is facing west and there exist two standing Dhwaja Sthamba . 38

TEMPLE UNIQUENESS

• Sri Ramanuja was also responsible for the excavation of the beautiful idols of Lord Rama, Lakshmana and Sita, after these Gods appeared in his dream with instructions to unearth them. • These idols are imbued with divine beauty and are preserved to this day in the sanctum-sanctorum of the temple. • There are altogether 108 pillars within the temple around the sanctum sanctorum. The scriptures sculpted on the walls of the temple are in four languages viz. Sanskrit, Pali, Kannada and Oriya, which explain the significance and history of the temple. 39

TUNNEL TO KASI

• Also there exists a secret door safeguarding an underground tunnel (soranga marga) in the temple corridor that is said to lead to the holy town of Kasi on the banks of Ganges; the kings in the past are believed to have used this tunnel to travel to Kasi. 40

TAKEAWAY : LIFE IS ABOUT DOING GREAT THINGS

• As participants in the same global economy, we depend on each other, while changes in the climate and the global environment affect us all. • Look at bees. • They have no constitution, police, or moral training, but they work together in order to survive. Though they may occasionally squabble, the colony survives on the basis of cooperation. • Human beings, on the other hand, have constitutions, complex legal systems, and police forces; we have remarkable intelligence and a great capacity for love and affection. • Yet, despite our many extraordinary qualities, we seem less able to cooperate. 41

THREE LEADERSHIP QUALITIES (HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW, 02/2019)

• Being compassionate • Being Kind; compassion can be combined with 3 intelligence. According to the Sanatana dharma 42 LEADERSHIP VALUES 43

ROLE OF SATVA AND DHARMA

Reinstating a commitment to the oneness of humanity and altruism is fundamental for societies and organizations and their individuals to thrive in the long run. Leadership means reinforcing 3 qualities :  being mindful, selfless and compassionate Kurma avatar teach us how ( see next two slides): through focus on Satva and Dharma 44 KURMA AVATAR ( LORD’S 2ND AVATAR) Let Satva rule the other two

Rajas Tamas

Satva Lord was Rajas Tamas equipoised 45 MOHINI AVATAR

• The lord came in the form of divine nymph and distributes the Amrutam to the Adharma Dharma Devathas. i.e. Dharmic/ virtuous

Lord chose Dharma 46

TWO ESSENTIAL QUALITIES FOR “ENDURING” SUCCESS “Enduring” Growth mind set

QUESTIONS ( HOMEWORK)

• What is Enduring Growth mindset?

• How would you cultivate it?

• What does kurma avatar teach us in terms of achieving that growth mindset? 48

REFERENCES

• Useful videos: • For kids: • Vishnu Puranam: • Guruvu gari talks: Talk 1 |Talk 2 • Leadership articles: Forbes | Harvard Business School