Ramayan for Life Skills : Mistake:First Step to Success

Self-confidence, self-reliance, self-motivation and self-driven are some of the qualities we seek among our management students and potential employees today. Self-confidence means one has to have confidence in oneself. If we have no confidence in ourself , who else will generate confidence in us? If we expect somebody to trust us, we have to trust ourself first. Only a man with self-confidence will be able to bring results and achieve success in life. To develop self-confidence, one should assess one’s own merits first. Your achievements, your talents, your caliber, your genius, your special faculties or gifts etc. are to be self-assessed properly. Your failures also count. Assess the failures properly. Find out reasons and rectify them. The nature (or God) has created each one of us with a lot of talents. Nobody is inferior to the other. Some people timely exhibit their talents and some are reluctant. The reluctant one is always written – off. The odd man is out.
A person with an ambiguous mind, confused mind, will not have self-confidence. He/she will always ask: Would I be able to do it? Am I capable of doing it? Nervousness mounted up through various reasons may also block your self-confidence. Self-reliance is the ability to do a thing independently or without persuasion and without getting prompted. To achieve this ability one has to be inquisitive and laborious. We see many students or workers today without an attempt, depend on their teachers, parents or confreres to help and solve their own problems. Those who do not want to be self-reliant are afraid of mistakes. Let there be mistakes. Without committing mistakes initially no one has perfected oneself. So, don’t worry about mistakes.
Hanuman was a strange personality with a lot of amazing faculties. His prowess, his intelligence, his guts, and his daring nature – all are unique. But he had some minor personality deficiencies. He was a prankster in his boyhood. He used to visit the ashrams and disarray the puja ingredients of the saints. Saint cursed him to the effect that he would forget his own strength unless somebody reminded him.
This is what happened when he reached the Drona Hills in search of the four medicinal herbs. He lost their names from his memory. He had to pluck two peaks of the maintains , because herbs were situated between the two peaks, and carry them to Lanka instead of uprooting and carrying four small herbs in hand. Unless Jambavan motivated him he would not move. When Jambavan extolled him saying that Sri Ram had confided only in him, because it was in his hand that Sri Ram deposited the replica for Sita to trust that he was Sri Ram’s messenger, he realised his responsibility. When Jambavan motivates him he takes up everything as his responsibility and then we see Him as the paradigm personality of self-confident, self-reliant and self-driven.
Some achievers are like motor vehicles. Give a slight push and they will work wonders. This was with Hanuman and the same thing is with some of us. Give a good word of motivation and they will excel others, even beyond your expectations. Hanuman was, if not the only, one of the most devout orderly of Sri Ram. No adjectives will be sufficient to describe of him. The best ambassador, tireless, herculean and enterprising hero, simple and innocent as a person, totally committed to his duty.
He was not only a practitioner of ‘Bhakti Yoga’ but also a practioner of ‘Karma Yoga’. There is no personality in our whole Vedic literature that can be compared with Hanuman in both these qualities commingled in one. Narada, for instance, was a ‘Bhakti Yogi’ but not a ‘Karma Yogi’ as Hanuman was.
Jambavan’s role here is most laudable. He displayed an exemplary quality as a guru, mentor and motivator. One was his timely intervention. He could exactly measure all other vanars and conclude that none of them will execute this herculean task, but Hanuman. He injects courage in Him and blesses Him.
Old is gold is an adage. Some people, particularly youngsters, try to write – off the old people as Vridhas. What is the real meaning of this word? Vridha i.e old is enhanced, added with increased knowledge, increased practice, increased intelligence, increased experience. Experience is something very precious that can never be bought with money or wealth. One has to undergo it. Take this instance: How did Jambavan precisely notice the position of the four medicinal herbs, their location, their radiance and their bearing? He himself told that he had circumambulated twenty-one times at a stretch around the globe in his youth. He was the most widely travelled person among all the monkeys. Travel certainly enhances your experience and enriches your knowledge. Jambavan played the role of Viswamitra to Sri Ram in Hanuman’s life.
K K Shanmukhan ( To be concluded )