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Excelsior! | Guruji's Thoughts | 2 min.

No great work is achieved without great suffering and sacrifice. The worker will be required to pay a heavy price in terms of his personal and family happiness and similarly embrace a life of the troubles and dangers in treading the path of the ideal. The glowing example of Sri Rama is there as the guiding star for the hazardous voyage of a life duty. Even as a boy, he was taken from his parents by Vishwamitra, away from a princely life to a forest life, to fight the rakshasa. Later, after he had won the hand of Sita and was returning to Ayodhya he had to face the terrible Parashurama. And then before he could heave a sigh of relief and taste happiness, he had to leave for a fourteen-year wilderness in forest. Those fourteen years too were full of ordeals and struggle with rakshasa, abduction of Sita by Ravana and the great war at Lanka. As he returned to Ayodhya and was anointed as the king he had to give up Sita in response to the call of kingly duties. Lakshmana, who had followed him like a shadow in all these tribulations and was like the very breath and soul of Rama, too had to be given up to assuage the wrath of Durvasa who would have otherwise destroyed Ayodhya. Verily his was a life unparalleled by all standards of character and calibre and unparalleled in suffering and sacrifice too.

There is a small poem which tells the story of a young man who goes out in rains and tempest on a mountainous path with a banner held aloft in his hand bearing the insignia 'Excelsior'. In that darkness, after a time he sees a small hut with a light burning inside. As he nears it, an old lady comes out of the hut and stops him saying, "Where are you going, my boy, in this rain and tempest? I have no son of my own. Please stay here as my child enjoying all this property". But the young man has no mind to listen to her. By then her charming daughter comes out and addresses that handsome and robust young man in her bewitching tone: "I had not offered my heart to anyone till now. But now I have given myself over to you. Please stay here". The reply of the young man is as adamant as ever. He says, "I go forward. Nothing can stop me", and proceeds onward.

One such instance happened in the life of Tatya Tope, the great general of the 1857 War of Independence. Azijan, a young Muslim dancing girl, was struck by the manly beauty of the general. She employed her charms to captivate his heart. But Tatya Tope told her, "Well, you know that the one passion of my life is driving out the English. There is no place in me for any other thought. But if you really love me and desire to bring joy to my heart, then you also join hands with me in this noble cause". Azijan agreed instantly. She gave away all her money to Tatya Tope and, in pursuance of his designs, went to the English army camp. There she lured those captains by her charms and shadowed their movements and conveyed their plans to the leaders of the national uprising. She remained faithful to the cause up to her heroic end in the war itself.

Such are the men who can, by a mere touch, turn base metal into gold, turn the severest of difficulties into opportunities and even temptations into their allies in the grand battle for achieving their ideal.

Namaste!

[Source: Bunch of Thoughts]

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