Business Sutra: A Very Indian Approach to Management (26 page)

Seduction needs to satisfy both parties

Seduction is an essential component of the yagna. Who does the seduction benefit: only the yajaman or also the devata? When the seduction benefits only the yajaman and leads to material growth for him, the yajaman is Menaka. When the seduction benefits both yajaman and devata and also generates intellectual and emotional growth, the yajaman is Mohini.

Menaka is an apsara sent by Indra to distract the tapasvi Kaushik from his austerities. Menaka dances in front of the aspiring hermit and compels him to open his eyes. Menaka thereby successfully seduces Kaushik much to Indra's delight. On Kaushik's failure rests Indra's success.

Mohini is the form that Vishnu takes when the devas and asuras fight over the distribution of amrit they have churned out of the ocean of milk. She offers to distribute the nectar fairly, and spellbound by her charms, everyone is eager to believe she will be fair. But she is not. It is some time before the asuras realize that Mohini pours the amrit selectively down the throat of only the devas. By then it is too late. The devas become so powerful that they drive the asuras back to the nether regions and rise to the sky laying claim over every treasure that has risen from the ocean of milk.

On the face of it, it seems a simple story where Vishnu as Mohini tricks the asuras and favours the devas. What is left unsaid, though, is more interesting. By giving amrit to the devas, Mohini liberates them from physical death but condemns them to mental boredom. For life has no purpose, and the devas end up chasing thrills and excitement to fill their waking hours.

By denying amrit to the asuras, Mohini grants the asuras a sense of purpose. They feel like victims and are determined to get back what the devas stole from them. The devas can kill the asuras but sanjivani vidya resurrects them, so they keep coming back, again and again, denying the gods the pleasure of peace.

The asuras do tapasya for power; the devas do yagna for pleasure. Asuras crave justice only for themselves. Indra craves only his own happiness. Neither sees the other, or anyone else. Vishnu seeks to provoke thought in the sons of Brahma. For only when they stop fighting and are at peace can he go back to sleep.

The promotion was given to Radha and not to Maithili. Maithili was very angry and accused Devesh of favouritism. Or was it a sexual favour? Devesh was annoyed by the accusation but did not get upset. He was well aware that both ladies were extremely competitive besides being competent. Neither liked losing which made them star performers. Unfortunately, he could not promote both of them. It was clear that Maithili would resign and join a competitor. In Devesh's view, both girls won. Radha got her promotion and Maithili got a chance to expand her experience by working with new colleagues. Radha would have to learn how to deal with old colleagues who would resist reporting to her. Maithili would have to learn how to deal with new colleagues who would see her as an outsider. Like the devas, Radha would gradually stop feeling obliged to Devesh, and like the asuras, Maithili would never stop resenting him.

Sometimes, the yajaman also needs to be seduced

Only a son of Shiva can kill Indra's great enemy, the asura-king, Taraka. But Shiva has no hunger, no desire to father a child. He seeks no tathastu and offers no svaha. A desperate Indra sends legions of apsaras along with Kama to seduce Shiva. But Shiva's eyes remain firmly shut. The arrows of Kama have no effect on him. In fact, an irritated Shiva opens his third eye, releasing a missile of tapas that reduces Kama to ash.

Vishnu then enlists the help of the Goddess who takes the form of Kamakshi. Kamakshi is another name for Gauri. In Tamil folk literature Gauri is often called the sister of Vishnu. She approaches Shiva not as a damsel but as a devotee, determined to marry him and have his offspring. Impressed by her devotion, Shiva marries her and together, they produce Kartikeya who becomes the commander of the devas and goes on to kill Taraka.

In lesser-known versions, Vishnu as Mohini makes Shiva father a son known variously as Manikantha, Sastha or Aiyanar, the great celibate warlord who defeats many asuras and is much revered as a folk god in South India. Shiva rejects Indra's overtures but accepts those of Kamakshi and Mohini. Why so? Indra wants Shiva to be seduced for his own pleasure. Kamakshi and Mohini want Shiva to be seduced for the benefit of the world.

Mohini and Kamakshi transform Shiva, the hermit, to Shankar, the householder and lead him from the icy peaks of Kailas to the riverbank city of Kashi, the great marketplace.

But Shiva has no need for the marketplace. He is described as digambar, the naked one. He wears nothing. At best, he is wrapped in animal hide and smeared with ash. Vishnu, on the other hand, is draped in silks, anointed with sandal paste, and bedecked with garlands of fragrant flowers and leaves, and necklaces of gold and pearls. Implicit in Vishnu's costume is the existence of different communities: farmers, spinners, weavers, dyers, miners, smelters, smiths, jewellers and traders. In other words, Vishnu's form symbolizes the idea of sanskriti. Vishnu sees the market as a great place to engage with humans. Every yagna is a great opportunity to pay attention to other people's hunger.

Indra does not care for the hunger of others. For him, the yagna exists only for his pleasure. Daksha looks at the yagna merely as a process, a duty, or burden to be borne. To make Indra and Daksha widen their gaze, Shiva's intervention is needed. Only he can teach them the futility of seeking happiness through Lakshmi alone. Happiness will come only when material growth is accompanied by intellectual and emotional growth. And this can only happen when they start paying attention to the hunger of the devata, expand their brahmanda to include that of others and make themselves dependable. And so, Kamakshi appeals to Shiva's grace. Shiva may not need the marketplace, but the marketplace needs him.

Business is not merely an instrument to generate wealth for shareholders or provide services to customers; it builds an ecosystem that provides opportunities to entrepreneurs and creates markets that benefit society at large. Indra sees industry as an end in itself. Vishnu sees industry as an essential ingredient of society at large. For the perfect marriage between industry and society, a perfect balance needs to be maintained between consumption and restraint. While the devata's hunger needs to be indulged, the yajaman needs to work on outgrowing his hunger. That is why Shiva needs to descend from Kailas and be in Kashi.

A similar transformation can be found in Buddhist literature when the wise Buddha of Thervada Buddhism (original school; popular in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia) is gradually transformed into the form of the compassionate Bodhisattva of Mahayana (later school; popular in China). Buddha is serene and distant with eyes shut, while the Bodhisattva is more engaging and participative with his eyes open and his many hands reaching out to comfort people. Often Bodhisattva is visualized as the female Tara, or accompanied by her. In Vajrayana Buddhism (latest school; popular in Tibet and Bhutan), the two are often in passionate embrace indicating the union of intellect and emotion. In many ways, Tara performs the function of Kamakshi and Mohini. She is the glue of sensitivity and compassion that binds the hermit and the marketplace.

It is no accident that Shiva, who outgrows hunger, gets a wife who is also known as Annapoorna, the provider of food. He embodies the human potential and she embodies nature's resources. Both need to be realized.

Radhakant loves manipulating people, making them feel wanted, and getting them to do exactly what he wants. Many people fall for it, until one day they realize they have been used and leave the organization with a broken heart. Radhakant is Indra who hires Kama and Menaka to get his job done. He does not care for others. His brother Lakshmikant watches this and wonders where Radhakant's desire to manipulate people comes from. All his life Radhakant tricks people and gets his way. He calls this "winning". He is convinced he is right and everyone else is wrong. He wonders why his wife and son constantly fight with him; they refuse to be manipulated by him and get angry when he tries. So many times, Lakshmikant has thought of leaving the firm and working on his own, away from Radhakant's pettiness. But that would be like going to Kailas and finding peace in isolation. He feels he has to stay in Kashi, and help his brother find happiness. The more he watches people get manipulated by Radhakant the more he realizes how desperate people are for affection and love. They let themselves get entrapped and hunted by wily predators, and then feel like victims and martyrs. This realization makes him occasionally smile.

Churning

An organization is made up of various forces: production, marketing, sales, audit, legal, finance, logistics and so on. There are times when each force has to dominate and times when each has to submit. In a churn, one needs to know when to let go otherwise the act of churning turns into a tug-of-war where the organization becomes a battleground.

The organization is ultimately a set of people

Organizations are like the sky; it does not really exist. It is a visual illusion. What really exists are the taras or stars and the grahas or planets (celestial bodies, actually), and the relationships between them as perceived by observers. Sky-gazers are actually stargazers. Taras and grahas are people who make up the organization. The taras are the nameless workers while the grahas are the talent who determine the fate of the organization.

No one knows the names of individual taras; they are identified through the constellation they belong to such as the twelve solar houses (rashi) or the twenty-seven lunar houses (nakshatra). Stars are natural, constellations are not, yet it is constellations that enable us to map the sky and make sense of it. Likewise, in an organization, less value is given to individual workers and more to the group they belong to. An individual worker is not as important as the group he belongs to, as he is viewed as a replaceable set of skills. Teams, regions and departments are artificial divides, yet they are critical for the organization's efficiency and effectiveness. Replacing a team is not easy.

Every graha matters. Each one has a name and a detailed personality. Using information available in Jyositha-shastra or Vedic astrology, people who make a difference to an organization can be classified as:

• Ravi, the sun, who is radiant and attracts attention wherever he goes
  
• Soma, the moon, who is emotional and moody
  
• Mangal, or Mars, who is an aggressive go-getter
  
• Budh, or Mercury, who is an excellent communicator, slippery and silver-tongued
  
• Brihaspati, or Jupiter, who is rational and relies on data
  
• Shukra, or Venus, who is intuitive and relies on gut feeling
  
• Shani, or Saturn, who procrastinates and obstructs
  
• Rahu, or the eclipse-causer, who is secretive and hates being transparent
  
• Ketu, or the comet, who is restless and spreads anxiety