October 9, 2021

Leadership Lessons from Navratri.

Navaratri: The nine-day festival of India. What business leaders and working professionals can learn from this beautiful festival.

Navratri is one of the most widely celebrated festival across India. Although it is celebrated four times a year, Sharad Navratri is the most prominent one. This festival signifies the divine power of “Maa Durga” and glorifies feminine strength.. The festival is celebrated over nine days, where people worship nine forms of “Maa Durga”. Business and the market in general is buoyant at this time, as the festivities are tied to gift-giving, and celebrations.

It is such a fascinating festival, that it inspired me to pen a two-three minute read on what I have learnt from it. I hope you too find lessons, ideas, and new pathways from this Festival. The next nine days, I will be posting innovative blogs corresponding to each of the nine Navratri days. Hopefully, these ideas will help us lead our lives in a more efficient manner, help us become better human beings and of course, better leaders.

Maa Durga infuses us with a distinct vibe of positivity in the holy month of Navratri. From it, we can also learn a lot of profound wisdom, knowledge to enlighten our progress in work and business. The divine teachings and truths of Navratri can help us a lot in the progressive world where technology and economic stature are changing at a rapid pace.

The literal meaning of the word ‘Durga’ is ‘fearlessness’ because the root word of Durga is “Durgam”. That means to remain courageous and valorous at the time of adversity and hardship. It doesn’t matter how rough life gets, or how many obstacles are thrown your way, one should be focused on the goal or the objective one wants to achieve. It is this precise victory over one’s own mind that Maa Durga symbolises.

Anchoring on one’s inner strength and always working on improving one’s skills should be a fundamental element of being fearlessness. It paves the way to a holistic mindset where even if one fails, there is learning gained that would help improve the skills further.

Maa Durga’s aide is the mighty lion. This signifies that one has to tame problems and situations fearlessly and be its master. One has to befriend elements that scare them.

The eight arms of Maa Durga signify resourcefulness. A leader must demonstrate resourcefulness to command the respect of his team. He should know how to select the right resource to use at the right time. Maa Durga wields eight weapons at a time, with a smile on her face, always ready for whatever life may bring.

By adopting our diversified learning and varied knowledge, we can touch the zenith of success. It can help in optimizing our progression in business and work life.

The nine avatars of Maa Durga manifest adaptability in life. We celebrate Navratri for nine days and worship nine different forms of Maa Durga on each day. Each avatar of Maa Durga symbolises a different potentiality and vigor. It teaches us to adapt to the various situation and become a better person.

I look forward to an engaging nine days filled with a lot of learning and sharing.

Wishing you all a Shubh Navratri ahead!

Srikanth Ram is the author of “Leadership lessons from 22 Yards”- An interesting comparison of cricket and corporate stories for entrepreneurs and leaders to create high-performance teams and a winning culture.