Those who know the Ramayana, the famous story of Bhagwan Rama, can understand the meaning of the topic to some extent. A line in Hanuman Chalisa by Saint Tulsidas “Vidyavaan Guni Ati Chatur, Ram Kaj Karibe ko Atur” speaks a lot about the personality of Hanuman about his intellect and his ever readiness to serve his leader Bhagwan Rama. So here in my article Rama represents the Leader and Hanuman represents his highly experienced Manager who is capable of doing the impossible. In any organisation, the leader may be visionary, may have grand plans but he himself alone will not be able to execute them. He or she needs a great manager to execute them. So every Rama Needs a Hanuman.
In the parlance of Indian Navy, where I served for 22 years plus, I can say that every Commanding Officer of a ship needs a great ExO (number 2 in the organization) who actually looks after the nitty gritty of the routines of the ship. He also executes the grand plans of the Commanding Officer and only then the ship performs with flying colors. Now it so happens that the Leader has to work on so many fronts and may be his Hanuman is not that expert as Hanuman ji was in each and every specific area. So in practice, our leader needs a specialist for each and every aspect of operations. Thus our Commanding Officer needs HoDs (Head of the Departments) for every specialist area. If each one them works with Total Ownership Mentality with full energy, intellect and enthusiasm then the success for that leader is guaranteed.
Every Rama executes his plans through his Hanuman. If I take the example of 2019 Lok Sabha elections in India, Narendra Modi got Amit Shah in the role of Hanuman. And the duo was a grand success. But the same duo could not perform in some of the states and in fact, miserably failed in the recently held assembly elections of Delhi with a drubbing defeat. So every Rama and his Hanuman have a specific level of operation. Don’t expect them to go to a very low level or a very high level or in a totally different area to go and perform. So every level in the organization should have a Rama and a Hanuman for success. Every area of speciality will also need a duo of Rama and his Hanuman. If you analyse the 2020 Assembly elections of Delhi, you will come to the conclusion that BJP neither had a Rama, nor a Hanuman at Delhi state level. So I can say with authority that we need Ramas and their Hanumanas for all levels and in all spheres of specialities of all organisations.
Modi government may be very successful in many projects like LPG cylinder for all, electricity to all and that too 24 hrs, shauchalya for all, Namami Gange, new airports, new trains, water ways and world class highways and many more. However, I am not very happy with one of his pet project, Swachh Bharat and particularly the cleanliness of cities and towns. Despite so much of effort, the results are mixed. Wherever, we have a Hanuman, the results are excellent. Some cities like Indore, Ambikapur, Mysore etc. have achieved remarkable success. Indian Railways have shown marked improvement with spick and span railway platforms, trains and tracks too. Unfortunately, majority of the municipalities in the country have underperformed on this count. Each of them needs a Leader and his Manager to accomplish this very difficult task and this combination of Leader and Manager is required at all levels in all organizations.
According to me, the most difficult and daunting task taken up by Modi Government is the Swachh Bharat mission. Because, this needs a cultural change of the mindset of millions and millions. They have to pledge that they shall not litter and keep the kachra in their hand till they find a proper place to deposit that kachra. Probably every citizen of the country, every elderly person, young or even a child has to don the role of Hanuman to make this country clean. “Neither I shall litter, nor I shall allow anyone to litter” should be their resolve. That will be the real worship of a great role model like Hanuman ji for all of us.
So if we have a Leadership role, let us awaken the Rama in us and look for a Hanuman and then repose full faith in that Hanuman. And if we are in the Hanuman role, let us work for our Rama with unflinching faith, trust, loyalty, devotion and dedication. Another very important Mantra for smooth functioning of any organisation is that every Hanuman can play the role of Rama for his team, for his subordinates but he should never try to replace his Rama unless the Rama himself retires and hands over the role of Rama to his Hanuman.
Never think that the role of Hanuman is anyway less important than that of the Rama. In fact, Hanuman is very important. Show me one temple of Lord Rama in the world, where Hanuman statue is not there. But you may find plenty of Hanuman temples with only Hanuman statue there. According to me, Rama can’t exist or perform without Hanuman while the reverse may not be true.
—-Commander VK Jaitly
Author Bio: Commander VK Jaitly is a motivational speaker, a consultant, a coach, a writer and a mentor for the corporate world. He has been an invited speaker to more than 270 universities/colleges/schools and has conducted more than 100 corporate training sessions.
Jaitly did his M.Tech in Sat Comm and B.Tech (Honrs) in E&ECE both from IIT Kharagpur and MBA from IGNOU. He was the commissioning crew of INS Viraat. Presently, he is on the Board of IIT Bhubaneshwar, SRM University, Chennai and SOA University Odisha. He is Advisor at Academy of Leadership, IIT Kharagpur. He is the National Coordinator of Youth4Nation, an organization that is involved in igniting the minds of Indian Youth to serve our nation.
He had been the Leader for an All India Motor Cycle Rally and was Oi/C for a Car Rally from Kanyakumari to Delhi. He proved his pistol shooting skills while in the Navy. He loves to trek, plays Golf sometimes and devotes some of his energies for promoting education in the bastis and also in tribal areas. His books ‘We Can! We Can!’, ‘Safalta ki Udaan’ and his YouTube channel ‘ExcellenceGuru’ EG have changed the lives of many. His latest book “100 Great IITians: Dedicated to The Service of the Nation” is getting excellent reviews. 100% profits from his books are used for the social service. He is the recipient of most sought after “Distinguished Service Award” and “Distinguished Alumni Award” from his alma mater, IIT Kharagpur. He has been awarded “Dwarka Ratna” and “IIT Ratna” awards for his contributions. Jaitly can be seen on some of the National TV Channels as a Defence Expert.
