Leadership Lessons From Hanuman

Hanuman is one of the central characters of the Ramayana. Hanuman was known as an ardent follower of Lord Rama. The qualities he displayed reveal that he was a great leader himself. Through the many vicissitudes of life he displayed his leadership qualities with great alacrity.

In the epic, Hanuman was entrusted with the task of travelling to Lanka and finding Sita. The Gods and the Gandharvas who wanted to test his intelligence, courage and integrity put him through a lot of challenging situations. The Ramayana enlists numerous obstacles that Hanuman faced in this journey.One such situation occurred with the serpent Goddess Surasa when Hanuman was flying to Lanka. The Gods approached Surasa, the mother of the Snakes, and asked her to assume the form of a terrible demoness in order to test Hanuman. Surasa agreed and waylaid Hanuman in his journey and informed him that the only way he could reach Lanka was go through her mouth and be expelled on the other side. Hanuman knew that this was impossible as Surasa would close her mouth as soon as he entered and devour him. Hanuman pleaded to with her to let him go; however, she did not agree. Left with no other choice, Hanuman challenged her to open her mouth wide enough to devour him. She started expanding her jaws to the maximum extent possible. In the meantime Hanuman expanded his form too as he had decided to overwhelm her with his massive form. But he realized that his insecurity caused him to rely on his ego. He took a step back and re-examined the situation and changed course! He assumed a tiny form, the size of a thumb and zoomed out at the other end before Surasa had time to close her mouth. His ability to abandon ego and think of the higher good with his quick thinking earned Surasa’s blessing!

Many leadership lessons can be harvested from Indian Mythology. Different heroes had different styles of leadership; however, one thing that stood out is that they were all great personalities who displayed leadership qualities that others desired to emulate.  Leadership training that uses the learning from the lives of people, who have left an undeniable impact on generations, is an excellent way to learn desirable leadership skills.

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