STRENGTH IS LIFE

BHASKAR JYOTI BORAH                Your mind is the most wonderful invisible instrument in the world. Through it you can think ...

BHASKAR JYOTI BORAH

               Your mind is the most wonderful invisible instrument in the world. Through it you can think and by thinking itself you can manifest your thoughts into realities. You become what you think. If you think yourself as weak, weak you become; if you can think yourself as strong, strong you become. Therefore your thoughts are your tools to create your future. If you can control your thoughts, you can control your future. Therefore inculcate virtues to make yourself sufficiently strong to create a life you desire. Your every thought, action, virtues and vices produces its own result. Virtues lead to wisdom, conduct and character that finally creates destiny. Greek Philosopher Plato said, “Virtue is knowledge.” A wise person’s character can be judged by the virtues he posses. Similarly the difference between a successful person and an unsuccessful person is also that of virtues. A successful person possesses certain qualities which is absent in the unsuccessful people. And the most important virtue or quality that the unsuccessful people usually don’t possess is ‘strength’. It is strength of a person that determines the quality of his life. If a person is weak, he can’t become successful. Weakness implies death. Weakness gives birth to self-doubt, fear, frustration and insecurity, lack of confidence, indiscipline, anger and host of other vices. But it is Strength that gives you life. Where there is strength there is hope; where there is hope, there is life. In this world only those people become successful and rich, who are valorous, puissant, powerful and industrious. A person who is scared to persevere, who is not assiduous can’t get benefit from any knowledge and skill. A zealous, active and enthusiastic person always shines. Riches come to them spontaneously. The basis of all the successful people is therefore, strength.

It was in the year 2005, a sunny day in the month of June, I was in a tour to South India with my elder sister’s family. It was in the early morning we reached Chennai Railway Station. We were about to travel Chennai whole day and by the evening train we had to return back to Bangalore. That whole day we visited many places in Chennai. We visited Chennai Museum, Marina beach and also the Vivekananda Memorial where I sat down quietly for sometime in the meditation room. While coming back we had enough time with us in the Chennai Railway Station as the departure time of our train to Bangalore was late. Therefore I took little time to look around the Railway Station where I have seen a small book stall. I reached the book stall and got a small book, a compilation of some of the important writings of Swami Vivekananda. The name of the book was ‘Personality Development’. In that book I found some treasures that helped me to develop my own personality. I found a very golden statement of Swamiji. He had written, “Strength is Life, Weakness is Death.” I was naturally a very timid person. I didn’t had much courage to do something worthy in my life. I was always praying to God to settle my life but proper effort was absent from my part. That lack of courage in me pulled me down from becoming what I supposed to be. I know that I have qualities in me, but due to lack of the required strength I always ignored myself and my capabilities and I always place myself below others. But that book changed my whole belief system. It was a turning point in my life. Changes started taking place in my life slowly when I started implementing some of the principles that I had read in that book. And one of the fundamental thing I learnt from that book is that it is 'virtue' that gives strength to your personality and helps to create a life you desire. I still carry this book along with me wherever I go.

Coward dies many times before their actual death but a Hero dies once. A Hero marches forward with his own plan of life and never bows down to any adversaries. Finally the Hero becomes successful. But a coward keeps on thinking and failing. He plans thousand times. He will demonstrate that there is nothing impossible for Him. But in reality he do not even have the courage to take action. What differentiates a Hero and a Coward is that the Hero possesses strengths and a Coward doesn’t. If you want to become a successful person, you need to develop in yourself those virtues earnestly that will lead you to your goals and dreams. You must think, act or behave in the same manner as your goals require. You must be able to endure to the extent that your goals should materialize themselves to you. There is no other way to achieve success except this. The only way to accomplish any goal is not to give up. And that requires Strength; strength to concentrate on your work relentlessly, strength to become persistent, strength to love and devote to your work, strength of patience to endure, strength of relationship to get necessary support when you fail and you want to bounce back, strength to fight all your fears and self-doubts, strength to face adversaries, strength to become tolerant to insults, to bear profit and losses, physical strength to work hard, mental strength to remain determined and spiritual strength to remain integrated to your personal commitments. One virtue needs several other virtues to become complete. If you stick to one, all others will come to you involuntarily.  If you develop strength sufficiently, you will become a successful person in your life and you will also be successful in cultivating other virtues which will help you to create the life you desire.