This is how a visionary accomplishes his mission.

This is how a visionary accomplishes his mission.

कार्ये कर्मणि निर्द्दिष्टे यो बहून्यपि साधयेत्।

पूर्वकार्याविरोधेन स कार्यं कर्तुमर्हति॥

श्रीमद्वाल्मीकिरामायणे सुन्दरकाण्डे

kārye karmaṇi nirddiṣṭe yo bahūnyapi sādhayet|

pūrvakāryāvirodhena sa kāryaṁ kartumarhati||

śrīmadvālmīkirāmāyaṇe sundarakāṇḍe

കാര്യേ കര്‍മണി നിര്‍ദ്ദിഷ്ടേ യോ ബഹൂന്യപി സാധയേത്।

പൂര്‍വ്വകാര്യാവിരോധേന സ കാര്യം കര്‍തുമര്‍ഹതി॥

ശ്രീമദ്വാല്മീകിരാമായണേ സുന്ദരകാണ്ഡേ

When a person is deputed to complete a mission, if he finds that he could accomplish many more things during the spot operation, he should not hesitate to execute the additional work too, provided this supplementary operations are not in conflict with the original mission.

This is the decision taken by Lord Anjaneya.. He has reached Lanka, the abode of Ravana, and had met Sita who had been held in captivity. He had delivered positive messages from Rama and his signet ring also to Sita, consoled her and assured her that Rama with his army would soon arrive in Lanka and would release her after defeating Ravana. Hanuman collected all the information about Sita, and her Chudamani too as a matter of identification and his further action would have been to jump back to Indian peninsula, and report to Rama, and wait for Rama’s further orders

But Hanuman was an astute strategist.. He found that Lanka was flush with affluence and power too. Only if all the wealth of Ravana and his city were destroyed and all his military were annihilated, the fierce Demon Chieftain could be subjugated.. So Hanuman decided that he would do his best to cause all possible damage and destruction to the City, the army and the ruler too before he left for India..

It is at this juncture that Hanuman is disclosing his plan through the above statement. If he could cause as much as damage to Lanka and its armed forces, that would definitely make Rama’s efforts in defeating Ravana that much easier..

Of course, Hanuman acted true to his words. He destroyed Ashokavana, killed thousands of demons including many Generals and finished off Aksha Kumara, one of the sons of Ravana..

And when Hanuman’s tail was set to fire on orders from Ravana, Hanuman managed to jump from street to street, mansion to mansion, all over the city of Lanka, and set fire on every place he could see.

So, by the time Hanuman doused his ignited tail in the Indian Ocean and started to jump back to India, a huge portion of the City of Lanka and a huge chunk of the Army of Ravana had been destroyed..

This is how a visionary accomplishes his mission.