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INSPIRATIONS FROM LORD GANESHJEE FOR MANAGERS

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INSPIRATIONS FROM LORD GANESHJEE FOR MANAGERS

Pramod Batra

Ganesha is known throughout the length and breadth of South Asia as the fountainhead of Wisdom and courage. When laying the foundation of a building, Ganesha is invoked before placing the first stone. No new business or industry is started without a prayer to him. Prayers to Ganesha precede all religious ceremonies. Travelers on lonely roads stop and pray at roadside Ganesha shrines, comforting themselves that Ganpati will remove all dangers in their path. In Maharashtra and Orissa, Ganesha Chaturthi becomes a frenzy, which has to be seen to be believed. At Diwali and New Year many greeting cards are Ganeshas, and so on…

For a few years Ganesha has fascinated me as a student of management. I did some research on the subject, which I want to share with you so that we can all become more effective managers. Management is always 86% of the problem – on the job, in business and at home.

Symbology has been one of the most effective ways to communicate ideas since the dawn of civilization. It is an effective visualization-cum-association, and during a training session it becomes an audio-visual show! Let’s go to the symbols of Ganesha to get our managerial inspirations.

Ganesha’s background
Ganesha’s background is very interesting. His excellent image took thousands of years to evolve. In Hindu civilization, Brahma stands for creation, Vishnu for preservation and Shiva for destruction. Ganesha is unique because he emerged before and alongside, and took his place among these principal deities, as the son of Shiva and Parvati, because of his wisdom and courage and the depth of his influence in the population.

Ganesha started emerging as early as 1200 B.C., about the time of the Mahabharata, and was worshipped by several sects in different parts of the country. Ganesha is believed to embody OM, the sound from which the world was created, and VAK, the first word.

Early representations of Ganesha show an elephant-headed warrior with the beard of a rishi, with a sword and snake in one hand and quill pen in the other, and a trident to one side –the embodiment of courage and wisdom combined.
Later, in the Deccan region, Ganesha is pictured with a sheaf of corn and sugarcane, and driving a rat – his wisdom and courage made it possible to conquer the farmer’s worst problem, namely rats, and assure a bountiful harvest. Here Ganesha is the guardian and protector of success, in this case a good harvest.

Different stories of the origin and qualities of Ganesha arose in different parts of India over the years. Many of these - often contradictory - are contained in the Puranas. These stories teach the truths and beliefs and values of the religion in the simplest ways possible – including by laughing and poking fun at the gods in their all too human predicaments. It leaves a lasting image in the minds of adults and children alike. These stories are important and interesting, and I would strongly suggest that my readers do their own research in this area.

What Ganesha Means for Managers
What I have found to be the common thread in Ganesha’s long evolution is his wisdom and judgement, his ability to solve problems and remove obstacles, his capability as a communicator, his goal orientation, and his adaptability. When you think about, it these are the qualities that our forefathers needed as they advanced from hunters to agriculturalists and citizens. More and more they needed wisdom and judgement, not just strength, to survive. These qualities are no less at a premium today, especially for managers, as we approach the 21st century.

A Ganesha manager likes people, all different kinds of people, and he likes to work. He enjoys doing things better. He is always looking forward, with clear and friendly eyes. He likes to set goals and solve problems, and because he likes this challenge he is becoming better and better at it. He likes to help others realize goals. He nurtures his own understanding and discrimination by reflecting on his own and other’s experience. He always operates at 150% of capacity; he knows that is what keeps him happy and growing.

The opposite, is Gobarganesha. He’s so full of himself that he doesn’t have time for others. He’s always oppressed, always put upon. He mistakes his rump for his head, and piles up problems there, carrying them around instead of solving them. He just can’t seem to get up any steam. He’s terrified of change. He can’t lead others; he’s got no goal. The fact is, he doesn’t know what he wants to be or do. It never occurred to him that this is something he has to decide for himself. He makes others feel tired and unhappy; such a huge potential getting wasted!

The Ganesha way
Ganesha is Vigneshwara, the remover of Obstacles. Ganesha was the son of Shiva and Parvati. Shiva and Parvati, as husband and wife, had differences like any husband and wife have today. Shiva travelled a lot. It was like this:
Shiva came and went as he pleased and Parvati was irked by his intrusions on her privacy. Parvati posted Nandi, Shiva’s attendant, at the door of her palace with specific instructions not to allow anyone to come in when she was having her bath. As usual, Shiva walked in, and Nandi did not stop him.

Parvati had no choice but to get an attendant who was loyal to her. According to mythology, Parvati, in her own right a goddess, made a son out of the saffron paste she removed from her own body and created a boy. She liked her creation so much that she made Ganesha her son. Shiva came again one day from his travels and was stopped by Ganesha from entering his own house without the permission of Parvati. Shiva, known for his quick anger, went away in a huff.
Well, according to our mythology, Shiva had to use his army, his associates and their armies, but still could not defeat Ganesha. Eventually he had to behead Ganesha by unfair means. Parvati was furious, and used her Shakti to create Ma Kali and Ma Durga. It was confusion compounded.

Eventually, Shiva realized his mistake and used his powers to revive his son Ganesha, with the head of an elephant. Shiva blessed his son and decreed him to be worthy of worship forever. He also gave him the name Vigneshwara –one who can remove obstacles.

With an elephant head, a pot–belly, and a tiny rat vehicle, Ganesha had a lot of obstacles to overcome from the outset! Did he run away and hide? Did he try to bluff? No. He met the obstacles head –on. He converted his disadvantages into advantages!

Ganesha is the symbol of wisdom and judgement.
The elephant head is the over-seeing, all seeing, eternal witness, the Unmanifest Supreme. Below the head is the belly, the symbol of the manifest, the mortal. Ganesha is the Lord of all, Manifest and Unmanifest.

The memory of an elephant is of course, legendary. Ganesha’s twisted trunk represents the zig-zag path to wisdom. It reminds us that there is no direct path, that we must turn right and left in the search for truth.

The elephant uses his ears to winnow his ideas and experiences, to separate the essential from the non-essential. All experience must be subjected to scrutiny to determine what is essential and what is non-essential. This is a critical aspect of judgement. The wise do discriminate as to what to do and what not to do.
Ganesha’s great belly is equated with space; it is vast enough to hold all wisdom and all life! Moreover, the potbelly has endeared him to the population as it makes him look like a loveable child – full of sweets, natural and guileless.
Gentle and harmless, Ganesha uses his great strength only when provoked. Good managers can learn from this!

Ganesha is goal-oriented.
Ganesha’s progress was very slow and steady. The elephant seems to swerve, but is only swaying in the straight. He makes it to his goal with unhurried grace. Ganesha rose from the ranks to hold high office. He was in the right place at the right time. Lokmanya Tilak began the tradition of making the Ganesha Chaturthi festival a community event in 1892 to bring the people together to achieve the goal of independence!

Ganesha’s vehicle, the lowly mouse or rat, stands for the dark, feral forces of the earth into which it burrows, avoiding light. As a recurrent threat to the harvest, it had to be overcome. But the rat also represents swiftness of movement; he burrows with his sharp teeth, chews through anything, squeezes through the smallest hole. In this way, he is an excellent transport for Ganesha, who has to be everywhere and anywhere at short notice to remove obstacles.
Gobarganesha, by contrast, avoids action and movement. He does not like to be in the spotlight. He does not like a challenge. He does not set goals. He prefers to wallow in his own problems and pre-occupations. He may do what he’s told, but not without grumbling.

Ganesha, the writer and communicator.
It is believed that Ganesha wrote the Mahabharata. The sage Vyasa, under instructions from Brahma, dictated the Mahabharata to Ganesha, who used his tusk to write.

There were conditions to this arrangement. Vyasa was to dictate without a pause. And Ganesha was to understand every word and thought and its implications before writing it down. Ganesha increased his wisdom. There is a lesson for us as managers in this arrangement, namely that whatever we tell or are told, we must understand and see through to the implications of spoken and written words.

Mahabharata, or for that matter any important document, should not be read in a hurry. It should not be understood and digested and reflected upon. Further, to benefit more from Mahabharata, it should be listened to one small part at a time.
The ability to write is one of the basic traits of a good manager. Good writing and good communication is only possible when thinking is clear and understanding is deep. In Ganesha, the manager will find the needed inspiration.
Amen.

Ganesha’s quick thinking solves problems
Once Shiva and Parvati got a pot of the nectar of supreme knowledge. Both sons, Kartikeya and Ganesha, wanted it. The parents had no choice but to set up a competition. They declared that whoever went around the world seven times and returned first would win the pot. Kartikeya instantly started circling the world on his peacock…

Ganesha, using the mental library in his big head, analysed the situation, did the SWOT (strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats) and realized that because of his bulk and slow mount in the form of the tiny mouse, he could not compete with his elder brother. He went through the Vedas floppies in his mind, where he found that one’s parents are bigger than anything else in the world. So, Ganesha went around his parents seven times and staked claim to the pot.
Shiva and Parvati had no choice but to give Ganesha the pot of nectar. When Kartikeya returned he was deeply hurt, and after that both brothers went in different directions. It happened then and it happens now between brothers.

Ganesha is adaptable.
Due to his unique form, Ganesha could absorb symbols over the centuries. He is the most adaptable God. In fact, adaptability became his way of life. He acted, observed, reflected and changed constantly over the year. When he found a better way, he adopted it.

Ganesha travelled abroad, and changed with ease. Of course, he suffered in status and stature like any Indian going abroad, but his essence remained intact – an inspiration for any world-traveling manager!
Gobarganesha, by contrast, is a fixed lump. He can’t conceive of change with time or circumstance. He does only what his father and grandfather did.

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