Every one of us aspires to achieve what we desire. We dream about it. The only force that drives us to realise our dream is our hope that we will achieve it one day. Hence, hope is the sustaining power of the life. Hope is the indispensable power that motivates us to act. Mere hope cannot fulfil the desire to achieve. Without hope we only exist but with hope we live, think and act. When we act with the sincerity of purpose and purity of heart focussing on our hope to achieve, will certainly produce the result that we seek so ardently. Therefore, creating a hope and sustaining it for the veritable realisation of our dreams must be made an essential part of our imaginative thinking leading to our wellbeing as well.
What is hope? It is an intense feeling of a desire, an expectation that we are going to have our desire fulfilled. The inherent power of the human being for survival is so great in each one of us when faced with the utmost severe adverse crisis, it is the hope for survival that comes to our rescue against heavy odds and clinging to our hope we act and mostly we survive the crisis. “Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one’s life or the world at large.” As a verb, its definitions include: “expect with confidence” and “to cherish a desire with anticipation.”
As human beings we are fickle minded because of which we tend to lose our hope very easily when our expectations are belied. Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu Holy scripture states, “The non-permanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.” It is our perception that everything is lost when we fail to realise our hope. Since we do not have the perseverance to pursue further action to achieve our goal, an overwhelming feeling that every thig is lost embraces us. It must be our determined endeavour to succeed keeping our hope alive unmindful of the number of times we fail. Always remember that our sustaining power is our hope. It is admitted that the suspense of the life is the nature of the unknown future and until the mystery of human being’s future is revealed the human wisdom suggests, “WAIT AND HOPE”.
“Hope is not easily defined, but impossible to embrace without faith. The more we search for meaning in what seems hopeless; we realize that our “hopelessness” is a state of mind, not a reality.” When we seek our destination through the unquenchable hope that we entertain with in us, any failure coming in our way should not be allowed to deter us from our focussed objective of fulfilment of our hope. “Anybody who has ever struggled to plant his feet onto the floor in the morning knows that life can be hard; it can be stressful; it can be overwhelming. But each of those negative, less than optimal feelings immediately takes a back seat to the inspirational power of hope.” Hope is a perennial force that gives us the inner strength and toughness to face any adverse happenings in our life and nursing it to keep it alive forever must be our foremost effort. Irrespective of number of times we fail, we must be determined to succeed and not to give up hope easily.
Is hope a myth or a mirage? A feeling of negation overtakes us when we find that our hopes are shattered despite doing our best under the given circumstances which raises the doubt in our minds about the efficacy of hope and our beliefs in it. The problem is that we do not analyse and articulate what we hope for, how it relates to us, how focussed we are, and the steps taken by us are enough to realise our hopes. But the most important aspect is that we consider the negative happening as the final tragedy and end of our hopes. The result is that we tend to be losing hope and falling into self destructive habits instead of facing the challenge to discover our inner strength to withstand the adverse impact and tide over it to come out of our crisis for which we must understand that we are more than we know about ourselves. When we do not understand our own self and the hidden power that we possess without being aware of it, we accept defeat and indulge in self-pity, frustration, dejection, depravation plunging into feeling of helplessness and allow ourselves to be dependent and exploited by outside forces leading us into self-destruction.
How to come out of negative impact? Bhagavad Gita states, “The meaning of Karma is in the intention. The intention behind our action is what matters. Those who are motivated only desire for the fruit of action are miserable for they are constantly anxious about the results of what they do.” If the intention behind our action is pure and the purpose is legitimate, and the action is righteous, then we need not be anxious about the result and avoid being miserable because if our actions are positive and beneficial, then the result also will be beneficial and positive. “Good things come to those who believe, better things come to those who are patient, and best things come to those who don’t give up.” Faith, hope, belief, courage and love are the traits we must cultivate in us and be followed. We must implement and practice the following sermons;
“Hope is wishing something to happen.
Faith is believing something will happen.
Courage is making something to happen.”
And
“Faith makes all things possible- Believe in yourself.
Hope makes all things brighter-Believe in your future
Love connects us all together- Believe in others.”
T.R.Radhakrishnan
(The author can be contacted through his e-mail: trrk1941@gmail.com and he also invites comments from readers.)
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Very inspirational..