6 October 2026 · Ramcharitmanas
I do the work quietly and the loud people get the credit — do I have to start blowing my own trumpet?
Hanumān Jī comes back from one of the hardest jobs in the Ramcharitmanas and does not tell his own story — others tell it for him. Asked directly, he lists every deed and claims none of the greatness. There is a way onto the record that is not a trumpet.
The deck took you three weekends. On Thursday someone else presented it — fluently, as though the numbers had always been theirs. At the all-hands the launch was called 'a real team effort', and then two names were read out. Neither was yours. That evening there was a post about 'what we shipped', with a photograph. You are in it, at the edge.
You tell people you don't mind. You mind. And a suspicion has been growing: that humility is a career mistake, that the ones who rise are the ones who narrate themselves, and that you will have to become one of them or stay invisible. You have even drafted the self-congratulating post. You could not make yourself press send.
The Ramcharitmanas has a scene for exactly this. Hanumān Jī has just done one of the hardest jobs in the whole story, alone: crossed the sea, found Mother Sītā, set Laṅkā alight, and come back. Watch who tells the story — and what he says when he is finally asked.
सुनु कपि तोहि समान उपकारी। नहिं कोउ सुर नर मुनि तनुधारी॥ प्रति उपकार करौं का तोरा। सनमुख होइ न सकत मन मोरा॥ सुनु सुत तोहि उरिन मैं नाहीं। देखेउँ करि बिचार मन माहीं॥ … साखामृग कै बड़ि मनुसाई। साखा तें साखा पर जाई॥ नाघि सिंधु हाटकपुर जारा। निसिचर गन बधि बिपिन उजारा॥ सो सब तव प्रताप रघुराई। नाथ न कछू मोरि प्रभुताई॥
sunu kapi tohi samāna upakārī, nahiṁ kou sura nara muni tanudhārī॥ prati upakāra karauṁ kā torā, sanamukha hoi na sakata mana morā॥ sunu suta tohi urina maĩ nāhīṁ, dekheũ kari bicāra mana māhīṁ॥ … sākhāmṛga kai baṛi manusāī, sākhā teṁ sākhā para jāī॥ nāghi siṁdhu hāṭakapura jārā, nisicara gana badhi bipina ujārā॥ so saba tava pratāpa raghurāī, nātha na kachū mori prabhutāī॥
“[Lord Rāma said:] 'Listen, Hanumān: no one who wears a body — no god, no man, no sage — has done for me what you have done. What can I do for you in return? My mind cannot even face you. Listen, my son: I have thought it over in my heart, and I am not free of my debt to you.' … [Hanumān Jī replied:] 'A creature of the branches has one great feat: to leap from one branch to the next. That I leapt the sea, burned the golden city, slew the demon host and laid waste the grove — all of that is your glory, Lord of the Raghus. None of the greatness, my Lord, is mine.'”
Source: Ramcharitmanas
Notice who told the story
Start just before these lines, with a detail that is easy to miss. Hanumān Jī comes back, and he does not report his own exploits. His companions do it. They tell their king: it was Hanumān who did the work, and saved all our lives. Then old Jāmbavān tells Lord Rāma that what the son of the wind has done could not be described with a thousand mouths — and describes it anyway.
When Hanumān Jī does speak, it is about her: how Mother Sītā is, and how quickly they must go. The one who did the work is the only one in the scene not talking about it.
Then the Lord speaks, and it is a kind of thanks you rarely hear from anyone in charge. Not 'well done'. Urina (उरिन) means free of debt. Tohi urina maĩ nāhīṁ: I am not free of my debt to you. And he says how he arrived at it — kari bicāra, having thought it over. It is someone who understood exactly what the work cost.
Asked directly, he gives the full list
Next the Lord asks him straight out: how did you burn Rāvaṇa's fortress? This is where most of us go wrong, in one of two directions. Hanumān Jī takes neither.
He does not say 'oh, it was nothing'. It was not nothing, and he does not pretend so. He lists it: leapt the sea, burned the golden city, struck down the demon host, laid waste the grove. Four items. Complete, accurate, no adjectives.
And he does not turn the list into a portrait of himself. He calls himself sākhāmṛga (साखामृग), a creature of the branches, whose one talent is getting from this branch to that one. So saba tava pratāpa — all of it is your glory. The poet names the manner: bigata abhimānā (बिगत अभिमाना), with the pride gone out of it.
That is the distinction our offices have lost. Saying what was done is a report. Saying what it makes you is a trumpet. He gives the first in full and declines the second.
Now the honest part. Your manager is not Lord Rāma, and not every room has a Jāmbavān in it. The passage does not promise that quiet work is always seen. It shows something narrower and more useful: the facts can go on the record without self-praise — and praise lands best from the people who watched.
This week
First, report the work. One short note to the person who needs to know: what was done, what it made possible. Nouns and verbs. That is not a trumpet. It is the list he gave.
Second, name what carried you. He credits the power behind him. Yours has names too — whose data, whose review, whose earlier work made yours possible. Say so, specifically. It is true, and it is the opposite of shrinking.
Third, be someone's Jāmbavān. Once this week, in a room where it counts, say precisely what a quiet colleague did. A team where people report each other's work accurately needs far fewer trumpets.
Fourth, check whose thanks you are hungry for. The all-hands applause is loud and gone by Friday. What Hanumān Jī received was one person who knew what it took, saying so after thinking it over. That kind is rarer, and it is the kind worth working for.
None of this is easy. The loud will still win some quarters. But you do not have to become them to be on the record.
Say what was done. Let someone else say what it makes you.
Frequently asked questions
- Do I have to promote myself to get ahead at work?
- Not in the sense of praising yourself. In the Ramcharitmanas, Hanumān Jī returns from Laṅkā and, asked directly, lists exactly what was done — the sea crossed, the golden city burned — and claims none of the greatness (Sundar-kāṇḍa, before dohā 33). Report the work plainly; leave the verdict on yourself to others.
- How do I get credit for my work without bragging?
- Separate the report from the trumpet. State what was done and what it made possible, in plain nouns and verbs, and name who helped. In the Ramcharitmanas it is Jāmbavān, not Hanumān Jī, who tells Lord Rāma of his deeds. Be that voice for a quiet colleague, and your team will need fewer trumpets.
- Why do loud people get the credit while quiet workers are overlooked?
- Because a room rewards what it hears, and quiet work often goes unreported. The Ramcharitmanas does not promise it will always be seen. It shows a way between silence and boasting: Hanumān Jī names every deed in full, then says none of the greatness is his (Sundar-kāṇḍa, before dohā 33).