October 10, 2021

Navratri Day 4: Goddess Kushmanda—Fourth form of Durga

Embodies: Hope, Intelligence and wealth creation

The Goddess Kushmanda (Ku – Little; Ushma – Energy; Anda – Egg) is worshiped by the devotees on the fourth day of Navratri. When there was only darkness, Goddess Kushmanda created the cosmic egg (universe) using her energy. Hence she is considered the mother of the universe (Brahmanda) and the fourth incarnation of Maa Durga. She is also known as the Smiling Goddess, embodying the very spirit of the universal force.

Kushmanda has eight hands (hence also called Ashtabhuja Devi) that hold the Kamandal, Bada, Dhanush, and Kamal in the right and the Gada, Jap Mala, Amrit Kalash, and Chakra in the left. Her vehicle and aide is the lion.

Just as Kushmanda vanquished darkness by creating the universe, leaders should learn to nurture hope even when everything seems lost. Great leaders enhance their wisdom and search for how they can build new enterprises and businesses. The interesting learning in today’s times is that just like Kushmanda despite the void surrounding her, birthed an entire universe from the energy she summoned from within, leaders and professionals need to work through tremendous uncertainty by learning not only the past but adapting to the new way of working aided by advancement in technologies around us.

They should be self-motivated to try something new, encourage their team to innovate and think outside the box. Such innovation might just lead to a whole new universe of ideas for the company.

Every creation should follow a simple guideline – Think big, start small and scale fast. Business leaders sometimes face the challenge to “scale” a business although they build a profitable one.  Inability to scale ultimately fails to create wealth for employees and stakeholders.

Survival and firefighting may have worked in the past but will it take teams and enterprises to where they want to go? Like Kushmanda, summon your inner energy and build a future that makes you and the universe smile.

Om Devi Kushmandayai Namah

Shubh Navratri

Srikanth Ram, a life and business coach, is also the author of the No 1 Bestseller “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.