The “SamudraManthan” Strategy: inspired from one of the great episodes in Hindu Mythology

In my quest to understand Indian Mythological terms and relate it to present day Lifestyle or Corporate Strategies, herewith I’m writing an another point of view. Previously I blogged similar ones including “Vairagya”, an ancient Indian art of Dispassion, The “Agyaatvaas” Strategy, and Mahabharata Vs Iliad.

Above pic is of “SamudraManthan” art at the Bangkok Airport.

Now lets understand what is “SamudraManthan”. “Samudra” is Hindi word for Ocean. “Manthan” is Hindi word for Churn. There is detailed wiki page already on this topic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samudra_manthan. (it explains the origin of amrita, the drink of immortality.)

So what lesson it is imparting. (I won’t be going to write the story of this great saga which anyone can easily refer to numerous online available articles.)

My takeaway from this great saga is:

“even in our lives sometimes we are required to do samudramanthan and then venom (read “vish”) will come out first and nectar (read “amrita”) will come out last”.

Case 1:

Talk about Indian politics. What is happening currently in India. The whole nation is boiling it appears. It has become BJP VS REST. Almost all intellectuals in this country target the current govt. on routine basis with remarks intolerance; anti dalit; anti students; etc.

Why??

If we see these all intolerants were harbored by the previous Govt.s. Now instead of accepting the fact that winds of change has arrived under charismatic leadership of Shri Modi, these guys are coming out of their holes and getting exposed to their disadvantage.

Hence what Modi Govt. is doing is nothing but the great “samudramanthan” of India.

Now leave the politics apart.

Case 2:

Talk about Corporate Strategy. We all know what is Change Management. Taking hard decisions, lay offs on a big scale, closing of loss making factories, etc. in order to achieve growth, prosperity, and sustainability as a result.

So there also we are doing nothing but “samudramanthan” in a modern way.

Case 3:

Now consider personal lives of ours. In today’s honeybee life where majority are harboring big liabilities such as house loans, car loans, education loans, etc. and living a bovine life.

….sometimes we fail to do “samudramanthan” and then we fail overall….

Now instead of fear from change if we embrace it and get ready to take a big leap in our lives which is essential then probably we can have a better life as a result.

That what is taught as The Breakthrough Management. (Fortunately I studied this subject from Management Guru Prof. Shoji Shiba during my year at IIM-C).

I feel that sometimes we all require to get ready ourselves for the breakthrough or adopt Resilience i.e. “bouncing back” with new zeal towards life. But of course one need not to do this churning of things on frequent basis. That is the caveat here. Better follow Japanese Zen after the “samudramanthan”. In my view we require “samudramanthan” once in a decade at max. Also “samudramanthan” can be done only on bigger stages of life. Not here and there.

For my foreign friends who does not know about this great saga, I briefly put some text here:

The legend goes like this that in ancient world a fight erupted between Gods and Demons. After mediation by Creator Vishnu Bhagwan, Devas formed an alliance with asuras to jointly churn the ocean for the nectar of immortality and to share it among them. The churning of the Ocean of Milk was an elaborate process. Mount Mandara was used as the churning rod, and Vasuki, the king of serpents, who abides on Shiva’s neck, became the churning rope. Even Creator Shiva Bhagwan swallowed the deadly poison in order to save living creatures on earth. (please read online articles for full saga)

Needless to say that SamudraManthan teaches us the road to purity and prosperity.