There is a classical Hindu belief about how one goes about Prayers and rituals to seek ultimate happiness and in contrast not to go this route but still aim to seek happiness. Hinduism and Buddhism illustrate the two schools of thought.

The two schools of thought are compared to the two tiny cubs for the monkey and the cat family. In case of the monkeys, the little one holds the mummy’s tummy tightly, ‘monkey grip’ and when the mother jumps from one branch of tree to another or one building another and any where else, the baby’s survival, in terms of not falling, depends solely on its grip. If due to ill health or any other weakness the grip fails, the baby would fall off and may die, depending on the fall.

In the case of Cats, the kitten is helpless and can only make sounds, quite sad and pathetic to hear. The mother then takes the weakest one first by holding / grabbing the scruff of the neck (the simple bite on the scruff of the neck would not hurt the kitten). The kittens depend solely on the mother to do the act of saving them or moving them when they are young and all their faith is on their mother.

In religion it is compared to a person depending on his prayers and following protocols to please God and this is the monkey cub principle. The responsibility is resting on the individual and not on outside force. Whereas, there are others who feel that these prayers and rituals are not necessary and God would save them if they put their faith in God. There is no need to follow the path of Gyana (knowledge), or Karma (action), Just Bakti (prayer) would suffice to attain God. Other religions would have similar stories to preach similar truths to their followers.

Where as this blog is not to preach the best way for practicing religion, there is an important management lesson to be learnt.

In management, we usually come across people who are ‘Leaders’ and the rest ‘Followers’.

Leaders do take initiatives, follow opportunities presented, direct others “followers’ on how to reach the company objectives and meet other targets. Followers are crucial to carry out the orders and undertake tasks as directed by the Leader. They may lack skills for taking initiatives and skills for motivating and training others except but quite adept when they are shown how to do these tasks.

All company needs Leaders and also plenty of Followers, as there are innumerable tasks, needed to be carried out for the growth and success of the company.