| Within
and without us spreads a boundless creation. With all these created
things, the mind is at war without a pause. We cannot say that, in
this war, victory will be ours in every battle. He who wins in the
end is the true conqueror. It is the final decision that prevails.
If on many occasions one earns honor, on many others one earns
dishonor. Disgrace or defeat is no cause for despondency. If after
nineteen strokes, the stone does not break, but it does at the
twentieth stroke, have the first nineteen been wasted? Did they not
make possible the success of the twentieth?
17. So lose hope is to become an
atheist. Have the faith that the Lord is our protector. To develop
self-confidence in the child, the mother allows it freedom to
wander; but she would not let it fall. When she sees it about to
fall, she rushes to its help. The Lord keeps watch over you. He
holds in His hand the string of your life's kite. Sometimes He pulls
the string taut, at others leaves it loose, but be sure the string
is ever in His hand. At the ghats of the Ganga, they teach swimming;
a rope is tied to a tree on the bank and the other end to the waist
of the learner, before he is thrown into the water. But the teacher
stands in the water ready to pull him up. The novice sinks and rises
up a few times, but in the end masters the art of swimming. In the
same way, the Lord teaches us the art of living.
|
