Let us listen to one of the incidents to understand this. Once, Ganesha
and his brother Kartikeya were sitting in front of their mother, Goddess Parvati.
The Mother wanted to test the abilities of her beloved children by conducting
a test. Accordingly, She said to them, “I will present this necklace, which I am
wearing to one of you who will be first to go around the earth and your time
starts now…”
Kartikeya’s vehicle is peacock, it is capable of racing ahead of the mouse,
which is the vehicle of his elder brother, Ganesha. Accordingly, Kartikeya
swung into action without any further delay to win the game by racing ahead
while sitting on the back of the peacock his ‘vehicle’. But, Ganesha realized
that with his vehicle is the mouse, it would be impossible for him to win the
game. Hence he thought alot. The out-of-the-box thinking enabled him to
realize that his mother Parvati was the Divine Mother and the whole universe
is contained in Her. He realized that going around his mother Goddess Parvati
was equal to going around the universe. Hence He did a ‘pradakshina’ (walking
around) around his mother and prostrated(Dandavat Pranam) before her with
devotion. To Kartikeya, it appeared throughout his journey at lightning speed
that Lord Ganesha was always ahead of him due to the fact that he was doing
the ‘pradakshina’ around the Divine Mother. Goddess Parvati was pleased
with the out-of-the-box thinking faculty of her son Ganesha and his powerful
convictions. She immediately gifted the necklace to Ganesha who was the
clear winner in the game. Finally, when Kartikeya arrived to his mother after
completing his journey around the earth, he realized that Ganesha was sitting at
the feet of His mother with the necklace gifted by her.
Conclusion; doing things differently
- The willingness to look at things with a new perspective
- Thinking about any matter with an open mind.
- Enjoying the challenges that come in the newer ways of doing things.
Many a time we do things by habitual manner and take decisions on our past
experiences. But an out of box thinker should have willingness to look with
a new perspective. Then only new ideas are possible, eg.Mobile phone with
camera, radio etc.