The royal code demands that a messenger be treated with compassion and respect.
Indeed, the messenger may bring a war notice, or bad news of any sort, but the king is obliged to treat the messenger with respect. Indeed, the phrase “Don’t shoot the messenger” captures this obligation.
Though Hanuman was captured and taken to Ravana’s court, he was a messenger who brought a message from Rama — and not a prisoner. Ravana had little care for such trifles (though heart-to-heart he knew this), and not give the proper respect to this annoying monkey.
The least one can do to respect a visitor is offer them a seat. Ravana did not offer Hanuman a seat — making his disrespect to Hanuman blatantly clear.
Did Hanuman take offence? Not in the least.
Hanuman made himself a comfy seat.
Hanuman made a nice seat with his tail.
A seat that was longer than Ravana’s throne. He mounted on the seat and sat comfortably, looking down on Ravana.
As members of today’s outrage culture, if Hanuman had chosen to take offence, and said “How dare you disrespect me! You’re discriminating me because I’m a vanara (monkey). And you’re not disrespecting me, you’re disrespecting Rama. My ego is hurt, and I’ll throw a hissy fit, and show you who I am …”, we would empathize. Odds are that we have responded in this fashion more than once.
But Hanuman was above such trifles. His entire life was filled with finding solutions to seemingly hard problems.
He didn’t know to recognize the Sanjeevani herb required to save Lakshmana. No problem! He lifted the entire mountain.
Surasa forced him to enter her mouth. No problem! He made himself extremely huge, forcing her to become huge in turn, and then made himself very tiny, entered her mouth and exited it.
Mahiravana used deception and subterfuge to abduct Rama and Lakshmana. No problem! Hanuman traveled to the Patala Loka, found the location of Rama and Lakshmana, killed Mahiravana and rescued Rama and Lakshmana.
Whatever problems life placed before Hanuman, His response was “No problem” and He came up with the most innovative of solutions!
A solution-oriented approach goes a long way in, well, finding solutions!
“What next?” is one of the most powerful questions we can ask. The past should be used only to learn. We should not visit the past to relive traumas.
A calm mind can think clearly and come up with multitudes of solutions. It, then, follows that creating a good mindset should come high in our priority list. We could do this with:
Meditation
Yoga
Reflection
Spending time in nature
Deliberately practicing and cultivating virtues
Spending time in spiritual pursuits
Service
Karma Yoga — doing actions without hankering for specific results
Devotion
Breathwork
Keeping our home and workspace free from clutter
Among other ideas.
Evolution has wired humans to keep a lookout for danger around us.
It is imperative for employers to make sure they assure safety for their employees. If managers shoot down ideas and play power games, employees cannot feel safe, they will not take risk and bring about innovation. On the other hand, when employers assure the safety of their staff and lend a warm and sympathetic shoulder, that is a ripe environment to foster innovation.
Liz Wiseman introduced the concept of a multiplier — a person who brings out the best in others. There are many talented people in the workforce. The people who bring out the best in others — those are a rare breed. When organizations actively encourage people to be multipliers, the morale boost is sufficient to ensure a exponential rise in productivity.
Human beings have a superpower: The ability to choose.
Animals can’t help but follow their nature. A scorpion cannot help but sting. A carnivore cannot become a vegetarian. Humans have the unique ability to choose.
We can choose to whine. Or we can choose to be solution oriented.
We can choose to berate our subordinates. Or we can choose to empower them and be a multiplier.
We can choose to complain that the world is going to the dogs. Or we can do our small part to make the world a better place.
We have the choice.
Cultivating devotion to Lord Hanuman is the most beautiful way to lead a meaningful and rich life. He is known as Sankat Mochan or someone who takes away your difficulties. He also bestows devotion to his devotees. Download the free and incredible Vedic Sadhana app to deepen your bond with Lord Hanuman by performing Abhishekam, Hava, Japa, Nitya Pooja, and Sadhana of Lord Hanuman.