Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Bapu's Talisman

"I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man [woman] whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him [her]. Will he [she] gain anything by it? Will it restore him [her] to a control over his [her] own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to swaraj [freedom] for the hungry and spiritually starving millions?

Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away."

- One of his last thoughts. We have read it on the opening page of every NCERT book. Do we remember?
We dream. We dream for ourselves. We earn. We earn for ourselves. We think we win. Wait, can we win unless everybody wins?
We have responsibilities in our lives. We have goals to achieve. But if there is one greatest responsibility on our shoulders, isn't it to ensure that everybody, including the poorest and the most deprived person out there, is happy? Now, is our next thought, our next action a step in this direction? If not this, what are youths for? What are IITians for?

2 comments:

Czar said...

Maybe you should think again.
Dont you fall into that everyone ?

First if you should be able to serve yourself well.

There is no need to be capitalist, but maybe you need to reconsider your thoughts. Maybe you need to think hard yourself a little bit more.

Apoorva Chandra said...

The point is you fall into that everyone and therefore you should consider yourself a part of that everyone who should be enjoying a difference in one's life because of your actions, instead of concentrating on personal gains alone.
The best way out is to achieve concurrent goals which give you everything you want for yourself thereby ensuring that even the deprived become happier with your deeds.
That is the crux of staging a fight to win schroeter or lit-soc because both your community(hostel) and you personally win in such a situation. And the experienced know that the amount of happiness gained by striving hard and achieving something that makes everyone happy defines one of the greatest moments of a man's life.