International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics Volume 118 No. 20 2018, 289-293 ISSN: 1314-3395 (on-line version) url: http://www.ijpam.eu Special Issue ijpam.eu Modern-day leadership concepts inspired from Lord Sri Rama’s “Kalyaana Gunas”: Excerpts from Valmiki Ramayana Sreejith.A Dr.Jeayaram Subramanian Department of Management Assistant Professor Amrita Vishwa Vidypeetham Department of Management Amritapuri Campus,KeralaIndia Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham [email protected] Amritapuri Campus,Kerala India [email protected] Abstract—The leadership concepts have been developed since ancient times. Valmiki Ramayana demonstrates II. LITERATURE REVIEW each and every situation of human life. According to A. Leadership Valmiki Ramayana Lord Sri Rama is the only person in the earth with all the good qualities of an ideal leader. Leadership is the skill of influencing and motivating people This paper mainly deals with analyzing the leadership and achieving acommon goal. Leadership makes society, characteristics (Kalyaana Gunas) of Lord Sri Rama and Organization,and country effective and prosperous. Every incorporating it with current leader’s characteristics in King ruled the world, they had theirown leadership styles an organization and how leadership traitsof Lord Sri and management styles. Valmiki Ramayana has been Rama influence leaders in an organization. Here we used inspiring millions of people in India and other countries qualitative research methodology named as hermeneutics since many years ago. Lord Sri Rama’s Kalyaana gunas which is an interpretation of ancient classical wisdom have attracted many people and many researchers quoted literature and found that leadership characteristics of him as an ideal leader. Real leaders never bend their heads Lord Sri Rama is a good motivation and role model for down. They never run away from problems and challenges. current leaders in organizations. Lord Sri Rama was such a leader who is known to be anincarnation of Lord Vishnu. In the paper (Pathak, P., I. INTRODUCTION Singh, S. and Anshul, A., 2016), Lord Rama is depicted as the ―Maryada Purushan‖ (Perfect man) showing the epitome of mannerism of a leader who is capable of leading a group HEleadership traits have been passed down for of people. This is a treatise related to the problem-solving T centuries. From the ancient times to current scenario we capability of a leader with good governance. (Balakrishnan see a lot of leaders and their numerous traits. The branches Muniapan, 2007) explained the transformational leadership of which had started from earlier generations. Burns (1978) styles demonstrated by Lord Sri Rama and how it influenced illustrated transformational leadership as a process that his followers. According to (Sivananda, 1996) quoted motivates followers by appealing to high ideals and moral Valmiki Ramayana as one of the most influential and values. Transformational leaders can create avision for the majestic epic depicting dharma through the description of organization, society,and country and also they could thelife of one of the greatest kings, Lord Sri Rama. He also transform their followers into good leaders. The described the life of Lord Sri Rama as a role model for all transformational leadership characteristics were already the men to attain the highest embodiments of exhibited by Lord Sri Rama thousands of years back. righteousness.(Balakrishnan Muniapan and Mohan Valmiki Ramayana demonstrates Lord Sri Rama as the only Dass,2009) tells about Indian leadership perspective from person living on the earth to have theembodiment of sixteen literary works of poet Kannadasan and demonstrated content analysis besides leadership interpretations from ancient different auspicious qualities (Kalyaana Gunas).This paper Indianliterature like Ramayana. (Vikasa, 2000) in his work illustrates the leadership characteristics of Lord Sri Rama explained how the verses of Valmiki Ramayana were widely and how it influenced his followers. The review and sung in nook and corner of India. He also explained that the literature of this paper are based on research methodology daily usage of Valmiki Ramayana in everyday conversation named as hermeneutics which is an interpretation of ancient of Indians astonished even the British missionaries. In classical wisdom literature. Thailand Ramayana is called as Ramakien, Serat Rama in Indonesia and in Malaysia it is known as Hikayat Seri Rama (Rosen, 2002). In the study done by (Balakrishnan Muniapan and Biswajit Satpathy, 2010) cites how Ramayana enhances managerial effectiveness. (Wah, S. S., 2003) highlights leaders as the most important element in leadership and he also explains that personality, conduct,and character the leader possess as amost critical ingredient for 289 International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics Special Issue the success of any company. He also adds that organizations A person is said to possess the quality of without a leader are just collection of people. ―Sousheelyam‖ when he/she comes down from his/her elite level/standard to the lowest level and accepts B. Lord Sri Rama as a leader everyone unconditionally. For instance, we can see this According to Valmiki Ramayana Rama is the world- quality in Rama wherein when he goes to the forest, he renownedgentleman who is keenly into the path of accepts Guha, the leader of the hunters as his younger righteousness. Rama inspired many of his followers in many brother. He accepts Sugriva, the king of the Vaanaras stages of their life with his values and thoughts same way (Monkeys) as his brother. He accepts Hanuman as one Burns (1978) illustrated transformational leadership as a of his best devotees, who by nature is born in the clan of process that motivates followers by appealing to high ideals monkeys. He then proclaims Vibishana, a person who’s and moral values. A leadership happens in either of two born in the Rakshasa (Demon) clan as his brother too. ways: transactional and transformational. (Bass and Avolio, So, in all these cases we can observe that Lord Rama 1994) explained four dimensions of the leadership like treats everyone equally without any variations, whoever inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation,and they are and wherever they originate from. This noble individual consideration. Swami Vivekananda once quality is called Sousheelyam. So from this, we can described Lord Sri Rama as animmortal character and infer that a good leader should come tothe lowest level ancient idol of heroic ages who is embodied with truth, and treat every team members equally and he/she should morality ideal son,and husband. not discriminate their subordinates and should give value to team members. III. METHODOLOGY Through this paper, we want to incorporate the leadership B. Veeryavaan: characteristics of Lord Sri Rama with modern leadership This can be interpreted as ―Strength‖. It’s well known qualities. We have taken 8 Kalyana Gunas (good qualities) that Lord Rama was a great and a fierce warrior with of Lord Sri Rama from Valmiki Ramayana and relating extraordinary powers and strength.Lord Rama and his these characteristics to modern management. Here we used alliance of vanaras had to face the powerful and qualitative research methodology named as hermeneutics sophisticated army of the Demon-King Ravana, the one which is an interpretation of ancient classical wisdom who singlehandedly defeated the formidable Devas and literature. vanished powerful kings. Lord Rama was not frightened but was courageous enough to fight the odds and drive IV. ANALYSIS AND RESULTS away the fear. He was strong mentally, morally and physically. After the war, the Demon-King Ravana was “Konvasmin saampradam loke gunavaan kasya veeryavaan! defeated and was given the eternal bliss of mukthi from Dharmagnyascha kritagnyascha sathyavaakyo his sins by Lord Rama. Similarly, a good leader should dridavrathaha!! (1) be courageous to take risks and decision making at right Chaarithrenacha koyuktaha sarvabhooteshu kohitaha! time and also protect or support his/her team members Aatmavaankaha jithakrodaha dyuthimaan konasuyakaha!! in tough situations. A great leader creates and nurtures (2) other leaders. Also, a leader should be mental, physically and morally strong enough to fight the odds Vidvaankaha kaschamarthascha tasyayika in the organization. During a crisis, the leader should priyadarshanaha! leave his/her objective, but s/he should be mentally Kasyabibyrathi devaaschajaatharoshaschasanyuge!!”(3) prepared to face the difficulty and develop strategies to The above three slokas (verses) taken from BaalaKanda of overcome the situations and find solutions for the crisis Valmiki Ramayana explains the sixteen kalyanagunaas of and emerge victoriously. Lord Sri Rama. As answered by Sage Narada to Valmiki Maharshi’s question;who is the only person in the earth C. Dharmagnya: filled with all the sixteen good qualities of a leader? Here we A person who stands by his ―Dharma‖ (Righteous path) have explained eight Kalyaana Gunas of Sri Lord Rama at all times.When the war started on the first day relating to modern leadership qualities. Let’s analyze all the Ravana, without adequate preparation marched to the eight Kalyaana Gunas of Lord Sri Rama one by one: battlefield and fought with vanaras and Rama’s alliance, he was rendered weaponless by Lord Rama. Taking into A. Gunavaan: consideration the code of chivalry, Ravana was allowed (Sousheelyam): This is the crux of the very purpose of to return to his citadel. This shows