Mantra of courage

We have been told to keep in mind that one who loses courage loses all. It is courage alone that makes one overcome and face any obstacle in life. Simply put, no courage, no success; brilliance and experience are of no use if you lose courage.

All the great achievers were men/women of great courage and confidence. Gandhiji was among the weakest, physically, but among the strongest in conviction and courage. And that helped him become a fighter, to come out a winner.

Recall Captain Scott’s brilliant story. He died while exploring the South Pole in a blizzard. His body was found with his diary and some letters. One of the letters was addressed to Sir James Berry, British author.
The letter described the ‘life-taking’ problems he was facing in the Polar region. And yet, he was full of courage and determination. At the end of the unfinished letter, he had somehow managed to scribble ‘COURAGE’.

It is said Berry developed ‘writer’s cramp’ soon after he received the letter. But Scott’s letter and the word ‘courage’ scribbled in bold letters helped him come out of depression. Berry continued to unfold his success story.

In this context, the magic of courage is told beautifully by Winston Churchill: “Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.”

One who sees light in darkness finds his way out; but one who fails to do so faces his moment of fatality. Courage is that beacon of light that shows you the ways and means to get out of a messy situation. If you lose it, you are messed up in life; and we are left no better than animals.
Courage can be cultivated to overcome the difficulties in life. After all, courage is nothing but determined will to do something; and ‘will’ can be cultivated with positive thinking and by recalling the problems you have overcome in life.

Who had said that the brave may not live forever, but the cautious don’t live at all? This could be our daily morning mantra.

Way to solve a problem

All of us face problems. How we solve them determines whether we will succeed in doing so or get entangled in it and lose our peace of mind.

In the Mahabharat, Dronacharya is a very important character. In his childhood, he became friendly with Drupada who later became a king. Dronacharya became a saint and he used to spend his time in meditation.
His family had very measly income. They could just manage two meals a day. Unable to tolerate this sorry situation any longer, he remembered his childhood friend Drupada, who had by now become a king.
Maybe, he would help, as they had parted after taking a vow that they would share everything in future.
When Dronacharya met Drupada, Drupada instead of helping him made fun of him. Dronacharya felt most insulted, especially when this humiliation came from his childhood friend, who was very close to him during his childhood days.

Dronacharya now vowed to teach Drupada a lesson, which Drupad a would never forget; Dronacharya decided to annex the kingdom of Drupada, which he duly did with the help of Kaurava princes, whom he had trained in warfare, having become a paid tecacher of Kauravas.

He was now tied to the kingdom of Hastinapur. In the subsequent war between Pandavas and Kauravas, he was obliged to take the side of Kauravas, who were in the wrong.

He was killed in the war having discredited himself, having taken the side of adharma.
Dronacharya made the same mistake we all do; we gather facts about the problem and focus on them without including the rest of the world, i.e. we try to solve our problems by isolating ourselves from the rest of the world, whereas the world has much to do with our problems.

The ideal way to solve a problem, its evaluation, analysis and consequences, requires inclusion of the rest of the world and also its superintendent – God.

If Dronacharya had thought of the wider ramification of his problem, he would have never acted the way he did. He lost both his dharma and life.

Be consciously joyous

The best thing that you can do in life is not service or spiritual teaching, though they are important. The greatest thing that you can do in life is your becoming a joyous person.

The best thing that you can do to the people around you is that you be a joyous person.
What kind of people do you want to work with and live with? Miserable people or joyous people? Naturally, there would be no controversy, no debate over this. The choice will be clear and easy for all .
The best thing that you can do to anybody in this world, the greatest thing that you can of fer this world is to be a joyous person. So, why are you becoming miserable?

Everybody wants to be joyous. By choice, they want to be joyous, but they have become miserable because they are unconsciously choosing misery. Their whole life happens in unconsciousness and there is no determined effort to come out of it.

Let us see, in 24 hours time, how many moments are you truly conscious of who you are? Very few, isn’t it?
So, your whole life is happening unconsciously. And, a majority of the people around you will be anyway miserable. So, in a democratic country like ours, the majority rules. When it happens unconsciously, your whole life is accidental.

When it is accidental, whatever the situation around you, you become that.
You came to this earth with nothing. All these things, your identity, your name, your clothes, your gods, your beliefs, your heaven, your hell, everything you picked up on the way. Everything that you know has been taught to you, including your gods and demons — everything.

You only picked it up on the way. When you go, anyway you have to go empty-handed.
So you must be happy, always, because you have lost nothing. In fact, you have gained a lot while being on this planet; and you must be thankful for that.

The principles of peace

The first principle is to watch our reaction to any misfortune that befalls us. In this materialistic world, no one can escape from unfortunate circumstances. Our scriptures tell us that these are results of our past ‘karmas’ (deeds). The same scriptures also inform us that this material world is a place of misery. Therefore, getting suffering is inevitable whether as a result of past karmas or due to the miserable nature of this material world. If it is so, why bother about trying to pinpoint why something nasty has happened to us, unless there is something to learn from it.

The second principle is not to speculate about what is likely to happen. If we are doing something important, we would like to speculate about the likely outcome. Having done all the hard work, we have to leave it to higher authorities, because there are generally many factors which affect any result. We can never be sure fully. Therefore, the second principle for peace is not to speculate about any result, having done one’s best. All actions bear appropriate fruits at their appointed time; speculating is entirely a futile exercise; it takes away our peace of mind.

The third principle is not to get attached to some result either in the positive manner or in the negative sense. Let me explain. Don’t we want something desperately like success in some endeavour and also not want something if we can help it like getting sick with some horrible disease. Unfortunately, as explained earlier, we cannot control results; they are in the hands of higher authorities; God being the highest. Such attachment gives rise to many problems like becoming fearful or depressed.

The next principle is to take the shelter in God, who can protect in the real sense. But devotees of God also get sick and die, for sure. Then, how did God protect them? The answer is: God has formulated the principle of ‘karmaphala’ i.e. all karmas must bear fruits; God does not interfere in this even for devotees.