Determination (part 1)

[Guest guest]

" R D " <jaguarxox

<ramakrishna >

Wednesday, August 07, 2002 01:37

Rays from the Light Fountain

 

 

> By Sri Swami Chidananda

 

Success in all undertakings is attained as a result of

effort; effort put forth in the firm conviction that

sincere and earnest human endeavor never goes

unfulfilled. Success is not achieved by never

encountering failure. Failure is often a part of

success. Failure is not final. Success is final.

Failure is merely incidental. In our effort to attain

perfection, failure may assail us many times. This

doesn’t matter. Failure is not a sin. It is giving up

effort that sinful. Failing is not a great fault. But

wanting to sit down where one has fallen, refusing to

rise up and struggle on, that, indeed is a bad fault.

Ultimately, success is built over failure, won by

persevering effort.

 

There are many examples of this great quality of

perseverance. You remember in what thrilling words

Lord Buddha expressed his determination to attain

enlightenment. After going to so many gurus, following

so many paths, practicing so many austerities,

becoming emaciated finally and losing his health, he

decided to give up extreme austerities and physical

tortures, self-inflicted, in the name (the false name)

of penance. " Extremities, " he realized are not good.

Penance is necessary, a certain degree of austerity,

and mortification is necessary, but extremes are not

in accordance with the law. " So saying, he took a

little nourishment and sat down under the Bodhi Tree.

" Now, no matter what happens, " he resolved, " come what

may, I am determined to attain enlightenment. If this

body has to shrivel up, if the skin has to wither and

fall away, if the very bones of my body have to dry up

and crumble away, yet Siddhartha will not leave this

seat, until and unless illumination is attained. Let

the body dry up, let the flesh wither and fall away,

let the bones crumble and collapse. Until

enlightenment comes, Siddhartha will not budge. " Then

what a great inner struggle, what a storm and a

hurricane he had to pass through! But Siddhartha did

not move.

 

Such should be one’s determination. Such should be

one’s dedication to the life of lofty virtue, the path

of light, the great goal of self-realization. Whatever

one is engaged in, whatever type of life one is

leading, inwardly one should be ever rising upward,

God ward, divine ward, up, up to this great

attainment. If there is this determination and

dedication, there is such ceaseless striving and

effort, ultimately realization must come.

 

The grandeur of life is in dedicating it to a noble

cause. If you do not win, it does not matter. It is a

small mind that is always thinking of winning. Let the

mind think greatly, grandly. Life should be lived

nobly, based upon lofty sublime principles, with a

wide vision.

 

In the Upanishads, there is a naïve, but wonderful

little story about a pair of birds who built a nest on

the sea-shore, close to the waves. The birds were

sand-pipers. They had three beautiful little eggs laid

in their nest that where beginning to hatch, when, one

day, while they were away getting soft things to line

the nest, there came an extra big wave, rolling in

from the sea, right up to the place where they had

hidden the nest among the dunes. In one lap, it

swallowed the nest and swept it out to sea: eggs, nest

and all. The birds came back and could not find the

nest. The reeds and the ruses were all wet, all white,

all covered with foam. And the sea murmured.

The birds flew up to the water’s edge, and demanded of

the sea that their nest be restored to them. The sea

continued to murmur and the waves to break. But there

was no answer. Then the birds decided, " The sea has no

business to take what does not belong to it. The sea

shall give up what is not its own. We shall empty the

sea. We shall regain our own. " Then the father bird

flew back to a clump of grass, and plucked one tiny

blade, few out to sea, scooped up a few drops of

water, flew back to the sands, shook the drops of

water to the shore, and returned to the sea. This

process, back and forth, flying out to sea, dipping

and scooping, flying back to land, shaking water on

the shore, again, and again he repeated. Then,

exhausted with hunger, he gave the blade of grass to

the mother bird and foraged for food while she

continued the process. The birds didn’t look at the

sea. They didn’t try to calculate its depth or its

magnitude. They concentrated fully upon the task at

hand.

 

Day’s passed. They poured themselves into their work.

Then a great sage who was wandering past, saw the two

little birds shuttling back and forth between shore

and wave, and paused to watch them, puzzled. Then he

addressed them, " Little ones, what your engaged in? "

And the father bird replied, " Oh sage, I seek to empty

the ocean. " The sage’s eyes widened. The little bird

narrated the story of the wave, and the capture of his

nest and eggs. He spoke of his determination to regain

them. So saying, he sought the sage’s blessings and

flew out to sea. The sage was astounded at the

greatness of the spirit of this little bird. And he

addressed it, (for he was a man of great realization,

established in cosmic consciousness and at one with

nature). He demanded that the ocean restore that which

the wave had taken. And the ocean brought back the

nest and the eggs, and laid them at the sage’s feet.

And the birds were satisfied.

 

Determination .....to be continued in part 2