3.
Therefore, don't raise a fence round yourself, saying, "I am
stupid, I am an ordinary fellow, wallowing in worldliness."
Don't say, "What can I do? My whole being is contained in this
six-foot body." And don't raise such boundary walls around
yourself and behave like an animal. Be bold enough to move forward
and climb upward.
"Uddharet atmanaatmaanam
naatmaanamavasaadayet."
"Let a man raise the self by
the Self; let him not debase himself."
Have a courage to say, "I shall
surely lift myself up." Do not kill the power of your mind,
thinking, "I am a worthless worldly creature." Do not clip
the wings of imagination; spread them out. Take the chandul
as your model. When it sees the rising sun, it thinks it can reach
the sun, and flies towards it. We too should be like that. However
high the poor chandul flies, can it ever reach the sun? But
through the imagination, it can certainly attain the sun.
But our behavior is just the
opposite. We do not rise even as high as we can, but instead, we
cramp our imagination, weaken our power of growth, and so flutter
down to earth. Even the power that is ours, we lose by undervaluing
it. When imagination is crippled one cannot but fall down. Let the
imagination, therefore, be upward-looking. Since man progresses with
the help of the imagination, do not throttle it. |
