Greatness
Life is a journey spent in the pursuit of excellence. Every human being in this world has within himself the desire to evolve. Evolution is a sign of progression and dynamicity. All through our lives we keep on evolving with time; so much that at one point we come to a stage when we are hardly able to recognize ourselves. There remains within ourselves but a shade of our past as we continuously shape our present and our future.
Greatness is indeed a rare achievement. To be great is to be in every way different than everyone else. The human existence is epitomized by its many weaknesses. These weaknesses hamper man in his quest to evolve; in his quest to achieve greatness. Man on his part also loves his weaknesses and he loves to be impaired by them. This in turn greatly shunts his capability and his desire to evolve which in turn negates any chance at achieving greatness.
Greatness is built upon many things; but the most important of them all is an abject rejection of mediocrity. If any person is to ever achieve greatness, he first has to harbor in his heart an intense dislike for mediocrity. Humans naturally tend towards being mediocre. It is in our blood. We like to be in our comfort zone. We don’t necessarily like taking risks and are content with what we get even if we know deep down that we are more capable and more deserving. Such is mediocrity. Simply owing to the fact that we lack the courage and the drive to go out strive for the best; we are content to settle for the rest.
Greatness is also built upon our capability to overcome our impulses. After living through the paces of life, man often comes to a point where he needs to sacrifice his personal desires and his personal impulses in order to do that which is necessary. At such crucial junctures, the frail human spirit often fails the man and thus he foregoes the opportunity. Ultimately failure is nothing but the sum of all opportunities that we fail to capitalize upon. Many times it so happens that our instincts and our petty desires become our adversaries in the quest to achieve superlative success. We greatly love our instincts and to turn away from our impulsive desires is something that is indeed very painful. In such situation, the image of greatness no longer seems to be that alluring; and the human being readily foregoes it to indulge his heart in his petty desires. By the time he realizes his mistake, all his lost to him and the opportunity is gone.
I often say, “A thousand broken dreams pave the road to greatness.” While many may construe this to be pessimistic, I consider it to be nothing but realistic. The road to greatness is indeed paved with the sacrifices that a seeker makes in order to get there. Our dreams and our illusions are like ghostly images etched upon the mirror of life. In order to go ahead and do that which needs to be done, man often needs to shatter his own dreams and his own illusions. Imagine the road to greatness as one which is strewn with shards of broken glass; all representing your shallow dreams. The only way you can get to the other side is by walking on it. As you walk on it, the splinters of your broken dreams and your unrequited desires cut into your feet, drawing blood and yielding you great pain. But yet with courage in your heart and great perseverance, you walk on till the very end, where what awaits you is immortality.
Such is greatness…All yearn for it, many seek It and yet there are few who truly achieve it. Such is greatness…
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Tags: greatness, human existence, spirituality
admin | 
May 14, 2010 5:33 pm
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By Umesh, May 18, 2010 @ 11:57 am
Is the Greatness in conatext of spirituality? A spiritual person may needs to scarifies some of his worldly dreams if he want to be a spiritualist.
Its very true that ” Manloves his weaknesses and he loves to be impaired by them “.Why would we love our weekness?
By admin, May 18, 2010 @ 3:47 pm
We love them because our weaknesses are basically drawn from our impulses. Impulses are directly related to our desires. We love to be impulsive and it indeed gives us great pleasure.
Greatness mentioned here is both in terms of spiritual greatness and worldly greatness. Ultimately both follow the same rule; both demand courage, determination and sacrifice from the seeker.
By Umesh, May 18, 2010 @ 5:07 pm
How weaknesses like fear is linked to desire? if it is
how to overcome fear? I think impulses are related to
environmental factor; it is related to how the person is grown up since childhood.
By admin, May 18, 2010 @ 6:10 pm
fear is basically related to insecurity… it is related to the overbearing sense of identification that we bear with our own identity. We are afraid that something might happen to it. for details on how to overcome fear; check this out. http://www.thelastpilgrimage.com/?page_id=1319
By medha, May 30, 2010 @ 11:53 am
A good article by admin.I think very few people have the determination of that level.But still with lot of perseverance one should be able to build that kind of determination , courage & endurance.The quote of the day is also very good.It is comparatively easy to put the things in words than actually doing them .I think now there is need for the action.