All you need is self-belief, determination and hope, writes AJIT KUMAR BISHNOI
Read the following stories and you will know what is missing from your efforts. louis Braille lost his eyesight in an accident when he was three years old. This did not discourage him, and he entered the National Institute for the Blind in Paris. He was a good student, who had a lot of self-belief and determination. He never lost hope of leading a normal life as far as possible. He was good in science and music. He even became a church organist. He, as we know, developed the Braille system, which is still used.
louis Pasteur was a great theoretical scientist. He was the first to show that living things come only from living things. He showed that the spread of bacteria can be controlled. His most famous discovery is the vaccine for rabies. He spent endless hours in his laboratory seeking a vaccine to prevent this disease. One day in 1885, a small boy was bitten by a rabid dog. His parents begged him to save their son. He agreed and after several weeks of treatment, the vaccine proved successful. Again, the qualities which stood out were self-belief, determination and hope.
Thomas Edison was probably the greatest inventor in history. He defined genius as “One per cent inspiration and 99 per cent perspiration”. He demonstrated this belief by working for days at a time, stopping only for short naps. Edison once admitted that he “tried everything” while working on his inventions. Failure never discouraged him. He was determined to succeed and he always hoped that he would succeed. Invariably, he did most of the time.
Joseph lisler founded antiseptic surgery. He had realised that something needed to be done to reduce the fatality rate in case of surgical cases. He applied himself and realised that the formation of pus was due to germs, and there were many sources of these germs, including surgeon’s hands and instruments. He revolutionised surgery by insisting on the use of antiseptic on hands, instruments, and dressings, as well as on the patient. What qualities stand out in this case alsoIJ These are self-belief, determination and hope.
The last story is of a patient who suffered from anxiety. This is a fundamental emotion that influences our lives from early childhood. She was okay till she began to get headache. Now this problem had to be solved. She began looking for its cause. She underwent many tests but all proved to be negative. Finally, she was referred to a psychiatrist, who promptly prescribed medicines for it. Rather than helping her, the side effects of medicines began to manifest, ie her condition deteriorated.
Now the crunch had come. She consulted a spiritual personality, who advised taking shelter of God. Totally desperate by now, she began doing spiritual practices as instructed by him. A few weeks later, she began seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. Hope began to build in her mind that her problem of anxiety will soon go away. The journey was not too long. Yes, there was darkness in the tunnel, therefore, she could not assess how far her goal was. Patience was required and a lot of it to reach the end of the tunnel. Every person has his or her own pace, at which one feels comfortable. One must go on.
By her regular spiritual practices, she had began to have self-belief that she could do it after all. Was God also not going to help, whom she was worshiping with great determinationIJ Needless to say, she did achieve freedom from headache not too long after that. Therefore, we need self-belief, determination and hope besides the qualities which we already have and success will not be very far. I welcome your comments.
Bishnoi is a spiritual writer and can be reached at spiritual@ajitbishnoi.com