The Divine Mother Leadership Series:Day 9-Saraswati for Peace and the Grand Finale!

Today is the ninth and final day of the Hindu festival of Vasant Navraatri and also the last day dedicated to Mata Saraswati in our series here on UCP. So today we will be looking at her as the white cladded embodiment of peace and reviewing the whole nine day cycle as we wrap Vasant Navraatri 2010. Ladies and Gentlemen…UCPers far and wide…it’s the grand finale!

Now we started our journey fighting the bad guys with Mata Durga riding on her lion or tiger, bashing the demons left, right and center! She slayed that Asura (demon) Mahish and then her tiger gave a great big roar as she finally realized she had to STOP! Let it go already! LOL! This realization coming in her Kali form when saw that her demon bashing was starting to get kinda out ah hand…so much so that she now had her husband (in her Parvati and Sati form) Shiva at the mercy of her feet!

The Mata Lakshmi came along and stabilized everything for us and gave us all the resources we need to move right along to finding our inner self…

As Mata Saraswati rode in, all cool and calm like a breath of fresh air on her swan…bringing us the knowledge that we were more than the material…all pure and white with light…as we come to this point…the point of peace…inner peace…

Leadership Lessons Learnt:

Well let’s write it like this as we have recently been having fun with our Fishbone Diagrams of Root Cause Analysis fame on our sister blog Meady’s Musings…

The Root Cause Analysis of ‘Why the Ladies Divine of Hinduism aka Devis are Leaders’ is:

The Ladies Divine of Hinduism are leaders because they display initiative, commitment and passion and know how to nourish. They also have the wherewithal to source the necessary tools and materials to get the job done and the knowledge of their self...none of their strengths and weakness lay hidden from them (their Johari window is wide open!). However above all they know how to go with the flow and find peace within and with who they are…they truly are to their own selves true!

So ladies I salute you!

Om Shaanti…shaanti…shaanti!

The Divine Mother Leadership Series: Day 2-Durga:The Big and the Small!

Image re-published from Exotic India Art where the murti (sculpture) in the image can be purchased.

As I previously spoke about on the Festival of Shiv, Hinduism is an excellent religion when it comes to capturing things on the microscopic and the macroscopic simultaneously and its ability to do that is not only illustrated by the adventures and activities of its Gods but also its Godesses! So just like on one hand Shiv can do the dance of destruction but then on the other take a seat next to his consort Parvati with baby on lap...well so too can his consort!

In fact in the same Shiv story I discussed during the festival of Shiv, Parvati's ability to be big and then small is seen when she got mad...really mad...really mommy mad in all nine forms mad with the devas (angels)! Let's recall it here as she took on the form of Nav Durga:



However other than that katha there is the time when Parvati who is also a form of Durga took on her other form of Kali and went on a rampage of demon bashing! She got so into it just like when on Day 1 of our series she was beating up Mahish Asura... well Kali couldn't stop! So Shiv decided to step in and well she was kicking his blue form too! But as she was about to as they say in Mortal Kombat...FINISH HIM! She went "Oh my Lord! It is you!" as she realised it was her husband Shiva (when in the Parvati form) and she could only stick her tongue out in shame that she had gotten that carried away! And she stopped stomping and suddenly the big became small again! :)(See Image at top of article)

So What's the Leadership Lesson Here?

Well like the fascinating peepal tree in my front yard...the ability to know when to be big and when to be small and when to be big again if need be! I mean to be a true leader you have to know when to step up to the plate like discussed on Day 1 of the series...but here on Day 2 we learn you have to also know when it's time to step down. You also need to know how to stoop to conquer. And a leader must never feel she is too small to do something but neither must she feel too big to do something...if nothing is above you yet nothing is below you well then my dear...you are a leader I'd say! :)

PS:The story of Kali stepping on Shiv has many versions and intepretations and you can read more about them here.