Navaneetham - Guruvayoor / Guruvayur

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Avatars –
Corporate-Functional & Contemporary
Organizational Management
The general purpose of all avatars is conflict resolution and upholding Dharma. These
are done either by reorganising, introducing new order or by total annihilation of the
old. Different situations are associated with different problems each of which demand a
different solution. Shree Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik's article in ET had carried the following
piece which makes these 'avatars' more functional and contemporary.
Enjoy the reading – Balagopal.
The article may not be about ‘pure bhakthi’, but I enjoyed it as true applied Vedanta.
Sukumar
Many Avatars
Corporate Dossier, Economic Times, 25 Jan 2008
Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik *
Vishnu is amongst the most popular manifestations of God in the Hindu pantheon. But
curiously, there are very few Vishnu temples across India, the most popular, where he
holds his four symbols, the conch-shell, the lotus, the mace and the disc, is that of
Tirupati Balaji in Andhra Pradesh and Badrinath in Uttaranchal. Fewer still are temples
of Narayan, the sleeping form of Vishnu, the most popular one being that of
Padmanabhaswami in Thiruvanantapuram, Kerala. People mostly worship Vishnu in the
form of Ram, the king and Krishna, the cowherd-charioteer. These are Vishnu’s forms
when he walked the earth to reinstate order. Since Vishnu is the God responsible for
sustaining the world and keep things running, one wonders if these different forms are
indicative of the different roles a leader has to play as he leads a team or an organization.
The sleeping Vishnu or Narayan is associated with a time when creation has not begun or
is just about to begin. Vishnu sleeps on an ocean of milk that is still. No waves, no
currents, no movement. He sleeps in the coils of a serpent with many hoods. Only when
a Cobra is still can it coil itself and spread its hood. By showing Vishnu sleeping in the
coils of a hooded serpent, the artist is clearly representing absence of movement. The
name of the serpent, Adi Sesha or Ananta Sesha, alludes to time because Adi means what
exists before the beginning, Sesha means what remains after the end and Ananta means
endless. Thus the sleeping Vishnu represents that moment before creation when all is
still. It is the time of dreamless slumber, Yoganidra, when Vishnu is not even aware of
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