Faith in self is path to glory

The recently-released Hindi film, 3 Idiots, has a character — an engineering student, who, overcome with personal difficulties and out of fear of failure, turns to worshipping all kinds of gods and goddesses and has rings on all fingers to bring him good luck in exams.

The recently-released Hindi film, 3 Idiots, has a character — an engineering student, who, overcome with personal difficulties and out of fear of failure, turns to worshipping all kinds of gods and goddesses and has rings on all fingers to bring him good luck in exams. But after he has fared poorly in exams repeatedly, his friend makes him realise how his over-reliance on faith had weakened him. This makes him pull up his socks. He does what he should have been doing all along — studying hard with faith in his own capability. Gradually, he wins back his confidence and emerges a winner.

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Faith is not a crutch of the weak. It is the attribute of the strong. True faith must emerge from self-belief. How can one believe in gods and goddesses when one does not believe in himself? Rather than having such superficial faith, it is better to have no faith at all. As for the problems of life, who doesn’t have it? What to talk of man, even gods faced them whenever they took incarnation in the human form.

Take Rama. He was born as a prince of Ayodhya and was the darling of one and all. And yet, he had to suffer not only the banishment to forest for 14 years but also the humiliation of his dear wife having been abducted by Ravana. And how did he overcome his problems? He sought out allies like Hanuman, Sugreev and Ravana’s brother Vibhishan, forged a formidable army against Ravan and defeated him in war. In other words, he did what any human being should do under the circumstances.

‘Bina marey swarg nahin milta’ (You have to court death to go to heaven). Thus goes a Hindi saying. In other words, in the battle of life, there is no alternative to struggle. Abiding faith should propel one to do one’s best with greater vigour than looking for short cuts and easy options. Also, hard work never goes unrewarded. Maybe, it takes a little time. That calls for patience.