Dialogue with Guru

Atma-dharma and Atma-prerana

Loneliness is the absolute truth of life, but feeling nervous, loosing heart, in the performance of righteous actions while alone, is considered the greatest sin. Loneliness is a state to awaken the infinite range of possibilities that are hidden in our inner-personality. We can realise our ultimate powers by being self-dependent.

Should we all sit idle and wait for the right time to come? Should we continue to feel helpless, incapable and believe that others will come to our rescue and help us? The principle of hardwork states that it should not be so.

Every architectural marvel once was only a vision somebody had, and every great person was once only a weeping child. Our current standing doesn't matter, what matters is- where do we see ourselves in the future. We should awaken the power of relentless and rigorous hardwork within ourselves in such a way that even the Supreme God is forced to bestow success on us.

The Arousal of self-confidence

What can I do? The condition and situations are not favorable to me? Nobody wishes to help us, there is no opportunity for uslikewise many more such excuses are completely meaningless. Actually, we say these sentences in order to pass the burden of our flaws onto the shoulders of others and thus create a false sense of justification in our hearts. Sometimes, people believe in their prarabdha (the impressions of our past life) and consider it as a cause for their suffering and sometimes they rub their nose at the feet of deities; all these things show an utter lack of self-confidence: How can a person trust others, if he himself does not possess selfconfidence? when our self-confidence rises, then alone will our inner soul motivate us to surge ahead, crushing all forms of obstructions on the way.

We often question the justice meted out by the Supreme Personality on observing the happiness of other people, but we forget to question our own self whether we have the same commitment as these people possess? God is fair and even-handed to everyone. He has given everyone the requisite potentials to achieve success equally.

Here we present a story depicting the defeat of materialistic might in the presence of atmasakti (inner strength):

When Sikandara (Alexander) decided to attack 'Bharata' in his quest of becoming the conqueror of the entire world, his master Arastu told him to bring with him two gifts from Bharata: one was Srimadbhagvadgita and the other was an enlightened philosophical samnyasi (renunciate).

When Sikandara was about to leave Bharata, suddenly he remembered his master's command. He summoned his commander and ordered, "Go and search for a tapasvi (perseverant/austere) sage, and bring him here with due respect."

The commander began the search for a tapasvi sage. He met with a samnyasi, his name was 'Dandi Svami'. He politely presented the request of the king to Dandi Svami and said, "Maharaja Sikandara is in search of a person like you. He wishes to take you along with him to his native country. In lieu of it, he will endow you with enormous luxury and material wealth." The renunciate sage answered, "The land of this green earth, the bark of trees for clothes, the holy water of the Ganges and 250 gm of wheat for food are sufficient for our subsistence. We have the most valuable wealth called self-satisfaction. Can your poor king Sikandara give us something more valuable than it?"

The commander of Sikandara was absolutely stunned on hearing these words. The vanity of luxury and materialistic wealth was shattered in the presence of the power within. Our citta (mind) does not remain fixed at a place, and our self-confidence starts to diminish when we see failure and despair all around us. When we realise that we can turn every adversity into an opportunity, only then we make headway on the path of progress. If we aspire to get rid of every adversity, then we must inculcate self-confidence within us.

The following incident from the life of Jagadisacandra Basu, one of the most remarkable scientist of Bharata, ignites a continuously burning flame of self-confidence within us

Once Jagadisacandra Basu went to England, where he had to prove the hypothesis "plants are sensitive" as valid in front of a house full of scientists. Mr Basu had to prove the above statement by injecting certain dose of poison into a plant. He was to prove that the effect of poison on plants is same as on other kind of creatures. To his surprise, there was no effect on the plant by the injection. As he was a very self-confident person, so he declared in the full house that "If this poison contained injection produced no effect on the plant, then it would also not produce any effect on me as well." He then injected the second injection of the same poison in his own arm. Everybody was shocked, and apprehensive of a major disaster. But, nothing had happened to Basu. On examining the injection, it was found that the chemical contained in it was not poisonous. As it was not poisonous, it didn't produce the expected result. The experiment was repeated again with the correct chemical (containing poison) and it instantly produced the expected reaction in the paint. Undoubtedly sensitivity is indeed a great quality. There is no better friend and a ladder to success, other than selfconfidence. We should always keep this friend close by. It will give us the required impetus to progress. We must make necessary efforts from the very beginning to keep this friend with us. It is well said that enemies are made on its own, but it requires efforts to make friends.

(Excerpted from the book Divine Transformation: Building Blocks for Englightened Life, Ideal Nation & Peaceful World by Acharya Balakrishna)