‘It’s all about using the right mix of Lakshmi, Saraswati & Durga’

How would you use this insight in an organisation?
Let’s say you are a venture capitalist and you have given money to someone. Now when do you celebrate that person to whom you have given money? When he builds the company or when his business shows profits? Of course, when it shows profits. That is the preservation stage and not the creation stage. You don’t worship the creator. I can give money and anybody can build a hotel, but only when the hotel becomes profitable do you worship him. So you worship not Bramha but Vishnu. And when the business stops making profits, you will celebrate the guy who knows to sell it off and make maximum money out of it. At no point does a VC actually celebrate a guy who builds the organisation. He celebrates the guy who makes the organisation viable and he celebrates the guy who is able to close down the operation when viability ceases. So, venture capitalist celebrates preservers and destroyers and never creators. Lakshmi is with the preserver, with the one who makes the business viable, i.e. Vishnu, and not with the creator or the destroyer.

A businessman works really hard and builds an empire. He is at a stage wherein he wants to divide his empire between his two equally competent and ambitious sons. How can he do so by using insights from mythology?
Look at the Ramayana. The Ramayana is about three sets of brothers. There is Ram and his brothers; there is Sugriv and his brother Bali; and there is Ravan and his brothers. Ram and his brothers are willing to give the kingdom to each other. Nobody is obsessed with wanting the throne. Ram gives it to Bharat and Bharat gives it back to him. Sugriv and Bali are like animals fighting over the territory. Ravan is an animal who throws his brother out and takes over the territory. These are three examples in mythology, which talk about people over property.
In each case there is no division, one takes over. The moment you divide, the narrative says there will be a conflict. Division is Mahabharat. Because I don’t like you, I want to break away from you. The moment this conversation starts to happen, conflict is bound to happen. The fact that the father is also thinking about dividing the property means he is not being able to raise his sons in a way that they would care for each other. And if they don’t care for each other, and they don’t feel they can share an unbelievable amount of wealth, then there is something wrong in the upbringing. There is a serious emotional rupture, which cannot be solved using L, the problem is in D. It’s not about S. The problem is not in the wealth, while we invested a lot of energy in building the empire, we did not invest adequate amount of time in talent management within the family and one part of the talent management is the ability to empathise with each other. I think, somewhere along the line that was forgotten. And as you sow, so you reap.