Willpower : Pujya Gurudev

Pujya Gurudev ShriRam Sharma;s Kripa

Youth Must Develop Willpower

(Akhand Jyoti,Sept-oct.2010)

Most of us have read or heard the story of Ratnakar dacoit’s transformation into Maharishi Valmiki. It is said that Ratnakar, guided and enlightened by Devarshi Narda, gave up the work of robbing people, devoted himself to ‘tapa’ and in due course composed the Ramayan as the Purnahuti (culmination) of this solemn resolve. One might be tempted to think that such miracles of willpower belong only to a bygone era, but Anirudha Singh has proved that it is possible even today to effect such a complete transformation in life. 

Anirudha Singh is a resident of village Rajkhanda under Aurai block of Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district. In yesteryears he was a leader of Motihari Diwan Khan ‘Sultan’ gang. This was a feared name among the people of this district. It was not easy to get out of this morass of robbery business. But a true resolve does not get bogged down in the whirl of ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’. With this positive thought Anirudha Singh decided to become a teacher. From dacoit to teacher - it was an awesome changeover. But with steely determination, Anirudha Singh did it! In 1987 he started tutoring poor children in a shed at the Bhairav temple of Rajkhand village. When the number of children increased he formally opened a school in that very shed. His school is yet to have basic facilities but the children studying there and their guardians do have a sense of satisfaction and hope for the future. More than a hundred students receive education there in different shifts. Anirudha Singh says – “We may not have the facilities, but we certainly have strong resolve. I want to see happening in these children the very same miracle that happened in my life. It will surely come some day. These poor children too would one day be Abdul Kalam and Kiran Bedi. If I am able to help this happen I would think that I have undergone penance for my past sins”. 

The same firm belief in the potential of willpower can be seen in Dr. Bharti. A resident of Agra, Dr. Bharti is India’s only physically handicapped woman neurophysician. In childhood a paralytic attack immobilized her right hand and the right side of her face. But this brave and resolute woman never allowed her physical incapacitation to dominate over her mind. Right from the stage of early education to her medical degree she consistently remained at the top. She cleared the medical entrance test in first attempt. During MBBS study she was awarded gold medal in biochemistry and pharmacology. In MD too she was gold medalist. Today, at 40, when asked how she felt now having achieved so much she replied with enthusiasm – “We will talk about the summit when we reach there; for the present we have to carve out a path through the rocky terrain. We have to start a caravan. We have to build a Garden of Eden amidst terrestrial abodes.” A competent and specialist neurophysian, Dr. Bharti is a good painter too. Whenever she gets time off from tending to her patients she picks up a brush to relax. Before becoming a doctor, she had to her credit many solo exhibitions of her paintings. Another hobby of Dr. Bharti is writing poems. Her compositions have mesmeric effect that spontaneously goes to people’s hearts. 

If the willpower is developed many doors start opening, many possibilities begins to take concrete shape. Be it the young physician Dr. Bharti or the dacoit-turned-teacher Aniruddha Singh, both have achieved miracles with the power of their strong resolves. Whatever they did can be replicated by other young men and women too. Those who want to experience this truth must always keep repeating to themselves that till the last breath of life defeat is not to be accepted, nor struggle given up. Body, mind and soul and all the powers contained therein have to be marshaled with single-minded devotion towards the pursuit of the right goal. Combination of will power and ceaseless striving is the potent chemical process that can turn every youth into Maharishi Dadhichi. Their bones too can be transformed into Vajra (Lord Indra’s weapon) which will vanquish every kind of demonic and diversionary tendency. 

The youth treading the path - struggle for the goal and creation through struggle – should keep in mind that besides chiseling their own selves they have to assist in sculpting others too.

Thanks GOD, Thanks Sadguru,

Shiv Sharma