DON'T QUIT !

I have gone through lots of ups and downs, while writing the blog, but i persisted. When i started initially, friends use to laugh at me, telling me, i am wasting my time. Now the same people, call me up to ask, what are you going to write today ? They have been sending me lot of inputs and material, without which, i could not have been writing today. But you come across, small section of friends, who instead of lauding the effort one puts, start behaving differently, the reason of which, I have not been able to understand. I think, it is human nature, when you cant do anything, you try to pull down the other.

I am very grateful to the defence personnel ( retd. ) who have the biggest contribution to carry this blog further. The inputs, I receive from them are commendable. That is why, i am sitting on a chair and writing with full spirits.

A seeking aspirant would, in the enthused progress towards his chosen objective, also obtain nature's support for coping with, and even bypassing, various impediments and discouraging factors from within and without. He could also obtain the needed strength and guidance, where necessary, from great pieces of writings and literature, depending upon his own mental make up and requirements.

Even with the best of efforts and intentions, the aspirant is bound to feel that his progress has been stonewalled. He could, in such a situation, do well to remember that in pursuit of all forms of excellence, a plateau is often reached and that the needed changes and progress could be taking place within, for all these to flower forth at the appropriate time. He could then take heart from Swami Krishna Prem's message that it's only when we climb upwards that the " strain begins to tell on us, when the breath comes short ". One who finds things easy could merely be drifting " just freewheeling easily along a level road ", making no real progress to the top.

Indeed, these concluding lines of the poem Don't Quit are also highly relevant, " And you can never tell how close you are / it may be near when it seems afar / so stick to the fight when you are hardest hit / it's when things seem worst that you musn't quit "

The concept of Bhagwat Gita on work without motive would thus naturally be translated into practice, by the true seeker, who would find that the very work and attempt are a kind of fun, rewarding by themselves. He would simply be amused by apparent impediments, in the spirit of these lines of Ella Wheeler Wilcox " It is easy enough to be pleasant / when life flows along like a song / But the man worthwhile is the one who will smile / When everything goes dead wrong ".

This, therefore, is the process od perseverance, persistence and patience ( the 3 P's necessary for all progress ), done with a willing, truly joyful smile, as if inspired by HW Longfellow's lines " Let us, then, be up and doing - with a heart for any fate / still achieving, still pursuing / learn to labour and to wait ".

Never intimadated or strooping to conform or compromise, the audacious adventurer would naturally have translated these lines of this great poet also into real practice : " In the world's broad field of battle / in the bivouac of life / be not like dumb, driven cattle / Be a hero in a strife ".