Dogs are considered to
be friends of man. There are many stories that illustrate the faithfulness of
dogs to his master. Dogs are said to risk their life for their beloved masters.
Dogs may out number other animals and birds as pets.
Still T.S. Eliot made
a statement in his Nobel prize winner modern epic that dogs are enemy to man.
Why?
Eliot was speaking
about memories that cause pain. In a section of his ‘Waste land’ he narrates
the religious ceremony in connection with the burial of the dead. The dead body
is buried. But dogs came in the night and dug it out.
Memories are like this.
Even if we bury them, they used to come alive.
Memories cause pain
and frustration. Memories of unfulfilled desires are pain. Hence memories are
pain.
Sree Budha, the great
saint of India proclaimed that craving is the cause of suffering. Desires
beyond the capacity of a man are destined fail. Even if we try hard to bury the
memory of an unfulfilled desire, it is brought alive at occasions by certain
related associations.
Eliot had no solution
to this problem. Sree Budha advised his followers to lead a life of complete
renunciation of all worldly pleasure. Sree Budha propagated a life without
desires.
I respect Sree Budha a
lot, especially because he was an Indian Philosopher and saint. But I doubt the
practicability of his philosophy.
Can an ordinary man
like you and me live without desires? Or are desires something to be avoided at
all cost?
Desires lead man. I
mean ambitions.
Over ambition destroys
man.
No man is ever
satisfied by material possessions. So let us not try.
Desire on a higher
level is ambition or as we often call ‘goal’ in life.
Goals motivate us to
climb higher. Killing goals is murdering progress in life.
What we need is a
detachment to goals. Detachment not in the sense as used by saints who
advocated renunciation.
We need detachment
enough to give it up if we find it beyond our capacity. The first lesson of
goal setting is to estimate our capacity to achieve it. Every goal should be a
little higher to our reach. Higher goals motivate us to stretch further. But
they should not be much higher to cause us utter frustration.
Be aware that the goal
we have set is little higher to our reach. We are stretching to reach it.
Sometimes we may fail.
Failure is not a permanent condition. It is only a temporary setback.
We sit back at
failures to recalculate our next move.
Watch a spider making
its web. A jump from one side to the other with the thin web may not end in
success. It is not frustrated. The spider knows that it is always like this.
The spider continues its jump to the other side carrying the web until it meets
success by tying the knot. A spider’s web may be the most flimsy thing for us.
But the spider has spent many hours for building it. It is life for it.
Do not go on trying
success with the same project again and again. After each failure we should sit
back and find out the reason for the failure. If we find that the goal is
surely beyond our capacity, quit it immediately.
Failures are a part of
every game.
Expect the best and be
ready for the worst.
Consider each failure
as a turning point. It is a sign pointed towards us to take deviation in
another direction.
This race is not for
us. Another is waiting for us.
No failure is a
continuous story for one who does not accept it. It is only part of the game.
Success in life is
achieved only through a trial and run method.
Trial is a must;
otherwise we will never find a new way to go ahead.
There are no failed
attempts; there are only tested ways.
It was not for us, so we
moved on to another.
As long as we move
forward, we have not failed.
Only unfulfilled
ambitions cause pain. There is no unfulfilled ambition. Our ambition is to
achieve success in life. We are still in the move.
We have nothing to
bury; hence no dog digs it out.
Professor
Jacob Abraham
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