The Story of Avatars

Sri Krishna and Arjuna were sitting by the riverside a few years before the Mahabharata war. Krishana wanted to worship the goddess Durga, so he asked Arjuna to get red flowers from a nearby orchard. Arjuna leapt to his feet and strode off to the orchard, his bow Gandiva swinging on his shoulders. There was a small door barring entry to the orchard. Arjuna opened it and strode inside. He plucked all the flowers he needed and started heading back when a voice prompted him to stop. He turned around to see a small monkey sitting on a branch. The monkey reprimanded him for taking flowers from the orchard without permission and said they were specially grown to worship Lord Rama. Arjuna asked the monkey his name, who replied that he was called Anjaneya.

“So you are Hanuman,” Arjuna said in a challenging tone. “Why do you stop me from taking flowers for my Krishna? Your Rama may have been a great soul, but his time passed centuries ago. Today my Krishna is the greatest soul on this planet, and you stop me from worshipping him.” Hanuman could not take a word against his Rama, so he lashed out. “I know about your Krishna. Everyone knows about his exploits in childhood of stealing butter and clothes. You cannot even compare him to Rama”.

Now it was Arjuna’s turn to get angry. “How dare you talk about my Krishna like this? Your Rama could not even build a single bridge across the ocean; he needed monkeys like you to do it for him. I would have fired arrows and created a bridge that spanned the sea in minutes.”

Hanuman laughed hard. “I knew that your ego surpassed your skill, son of Kunti, but I underestimated the degree of your stupidity. Build a bridge with your arrows across this river behind the orchard. If it can hold my weight, I will grant you any boon you wish. “

Arjuna threw the basket of flowers down and leapt into action. His hands moved faster than the wing flaps of a hummingbird, and within a few seconds, he created a bridge of arrows across the river. He smirked and threw a challenging look at Hanuman.

Hanuman took Rama’s name and started expanding in size. Within a few seconds, he was bigger than the river, and as Arjuna was muttering in protest, he put a foot on the bridge, which collapsed like it was made of matchsticks.

“This is unfair,” Arjuna sputtered indignantly. “You have invoked Rama to assist you, so it’s only fair that I invoke my Krishna.” He left the basket of flowers on the ground and ran off to summon Sri Krishna. Arjuna narrated the whole story, and Krishna gave a mischievous smile. He had orchestrated this situation to teach Arjuna a lesson and to ask for Hanuman’s services in the war.

They both went to the orchard, and Hanuman smiled and bowed to Sri Krishna. Arjuna again created the bridge at breathtaking speed, and as the last arrow left his bow, Krishna quickly changed into the form of a tortoise and slipped into the river to support the bridge. Hauman placed one foot on it, and the bridge did not move an inch. Hanuman knew his lord Rama now incarnated as Krishna, was under the bridge, so he refused to put his second foot on the bridge.

“I concede,” Hanuman said with folded hands. “Tell me what you want from me.” Sri Krishna immediately slipped out of the river and requested Hanuman to take his position on Arjuna’s flag in the war of Kurukshetra. Hanuman bowed down to Sri Krishna and promised he would be there.

When the war happened, Arjuna’s chariot was hosting two gods. Sri Krishna himself was his charioteer, and Hanuman waved and roared from his flag. Arjuna’s chariot stood untouched in a war where everyone’s chariot was destroyed due to the intensity of celestial weapons.

One day when he was dueling Karna — the sun of Surya — he made a small point to Sri Krishna. “Everyone calls Karna a great warrior. Yet look at how my arrows push his chariot back. My chariot does not even shift an inch. I don’t know why we make such a big deal out of him”. Sri Krishna smiled and got down from the chariot. The next few arrows Arjuna fired did not even stir Karna’s chariot. He sheepishly smiled and told Krishna, “you may be lending additional potency to my arrows, but his arrows are falling off my chariot like they are made of straw. Sri Krishna laughed and asked Hanuman to step down from the chariot for a moment. Karna’s next arrow pushed Arjuna’s chariot almost back to his tent, where they camped at night. Arjuna returned to the war riding a new chariot with renewed respect for the contribution of Sri Krishna and Hanuman.

Implementing Wisdom At Work

My career is distinctly divided into two halves. The first half was where I felt I did my best work. However, I never got the results I expected from key initiatives. I was an excellent individual performer but could never drive organizational-level change. The second half of my career was a mirror image of the first half. I put in the same effort, but the organization successfully adopted almost every single initiative I tried over time. I had made only one change that led to such a dramatic difference. I had learned to acknowledge and appreciate the efforts other people put into making me successful. My colleagues, my boss, and supporting teams such as IT, HR, and even vendors were all crucial to my success. In my early years, I was a lone maverick full of myself and proud of my skills. Over the years, I realized that I owed my success to a team of people around me. The more I acknowledged and appreciated them, the more they embraced the ideas I shared. Suddenly instead of being my idea, it became our collective idea. They backed the ideas, worked hard to implement them with me, and enjoyed the success together.

We often have this notion in IT companies of super talented employees who are 10X faster or better than the average employee. When companies think they have identified such an individual, they get tremendous freedom and liberty to execute their skills with almost no boundaries. Just look at the culture scandals that rocked Uber and other major technology companies in the valley, and you will see the price we pay for encouraging a win at all costs attitude for all employees. Life is a team sport. Even the most brilliant people have at least a dozen people in life to thank for their success. Parents, teachers, librarians, book store owners, friends, spouses, mentors, colleagues, and other achievers they admire are common influences in everyone’s life. We enjoy a much happier and more fulfilling life when we pause and show gratitude.