In this dog eat dog, greed is good world, what is the role and relevance of righteousness & honour ? What behaviour should the leadership should emulate; is the behaviour of winning at any cost relevant or winning with the right cause ?
The Holistic Approach for Modern Day Leadership – ‘Dignity in the face of Adversity”
Lord Ram/Rama is revered as a God/deity in Hindu Scriptures (He was the seventh incarnation of Lord Vishnu) and his attributes have been described across Ramayana in many forms.
Among the various names/forms attributed to him, the most popular one has been ‘Maryada Purushottam’ which loosely translates as ‘Maryada’ – Honour and righteousness and ‘Purushottam’ – The supreme man.
For the purpose of this article, we will focus on Lord Rama’s attributes as a Leader during his journey from being a Prince of Ayodhya to Maryada Purushottam.
If, in the essence of Ramayan the collated virtues of King Rama could be captured in a tweet then it would be said as ‘Dignity in the face of adversity’. King Rama, despite being a divine avatar never displayed any magical/divine powers through his journey, instead he set an example by displaying the ideal characteristics of a vulnerable human.
Despite being a vulnerable human, Lord Rama ensured that he observed his duties as a Son, a Brother, a Husband, a King, and a Friend. In all these duties he chose to follow the most Righteous and Honourable Path and thus emerged as a supreme human or ‘Maryada Purushottam’.
The Nine Lessons from Maryada Purushottam
There are at least nine lessons that we can learn from the behaviour of Maryada Purushottam (Lord Rama). Theses lessons encapsulates and highlights the virtues and attributes of a leader who unwaveringly believed in and displayed ‘Meaningful for All’ and ‘Righteous for All’ behaviour in all of his actions and decisions, whether as a Prince of Ayodhya, or as an exile to the jungle or as a Warrior in the epic War and later as the King of Ayodhya.
He demonstrated these nine attributes as a ‘way of life’ rather than a specific sermon or lesson to be taught/preached. However, the lessons we can glean from his life are in-fact a derivative / interpretation / inspiration of his natural conduct. The beauty is that these lessons are far more relevant today in our personal and corporate lives than they were thousands of years ago, especially in the way we conduct ourselves.
Here are those Nine lessons:
- Vulnerability is Strength
- Duty Bound / Dharma is Divine
- In the Present (Now & Here)
- Harnessing the Potential
- Beyond the Comfort Zone
- Compassion to Accommodate
- Devoted to Commitments
- Self-Aware
- Empathy over Equity
