Life can be defined in many ways, one of which is facing challenges and making them a ladder for progress. What is the significance of life without challenges and struggles? Only by struggling amid adversities, a person could come up shining like pure gold and spread his timeless radiance all around with his credibility.
A sedentary life, which is devoid of challenges, and which refrains from strife, fades away with time and loses its lustre without realizing its inherent potentials, and eventually remains devoid of the endless opportunities affiliated with human life. However, facing every challenge and moving forward is also not easy.
The apparent primary response to challenges is that of fear and escape. It seems as if the problem will wreak havoc by becoming a threat to our existence. With this apprehension, the intellect becomes crippled, which affects the decisions of life adversely. In this state of mind, which is driven by fear and insecurity, one often takes such short-sighted decisions, for which he has to repent later. As a result, he could himself feel a decline from his dignified position, and his life gets subverted by the feeling of paucity, inferiority, and infirmity. Also, he becomes trapped in the distorted devious ploys because he cannot handle the challenges properly.
This also increases the risk of indulging in the vicious circles of mutual dissension, discord, envy- hatred, and collusions of the rivals. The natural, unopposed development of the individual gets obstructed somewhere. However, challenges do not come for this purpose. On the contrary, they come to enhance the inherent capabilities of the person.
If these challenges are dealt with prudence and courage, they will serve as the steps to progress and prosperity. Challenges can be considered a kind of divine gift, which comes not to destroy or ruin the person but to make him stronger. They come to indicate one’s intrinsic frailties, shortcomings, and flaws, highlight his slackness of efforts, awaken him from ignorance, and open the gateway to his inherent infinite possibilities. These challenges allude to the imperfections of life so that one can materialize his intrinsic potentials and consciously move forward on the path to perfection while imbibing the necessary virtues.
Thus, in order to turn challenges into the ladder of development and progress, the first step is to perceive them as your benefactor and accept them readily. Confront the debilitating feelings of fear and doubt associated with them. Then, understand the significant message contained in them and use these indications to make a concrete plan of action to acquire the required calibre and capabilities and move towards the desired goal.
Having the courage to accept the challenges is essential in this context. People with a fearless attitude keep waiting for such challenges; perhaps they even invite them. They happily accept them with open hands and make the sojourn of life quite exciting. By responding to them appropriately, they move towards a worthy life.
Someone has rightly said that while challenges make life interesting, overcoming them makes it meaningful. In fact, nothing can be more contenting than the feeling of giving a befitting reply to the circumstances challenging the truth, righteousness, and integrity of existence. However, in doing so, one also needs to be cautious so that he may not get entangled in the intricate flow of the world while responding to these challenges.
It is essential to know the highway leading to the holistic development of life and imbibe the spirit to reach the destination patiently without deviating from the righteous path. When striving with challenges in this way, one has to fight on double fronts. While the external challenges indicate the inner debilities, the inherent flaws in one’s nature also come before him as a significant challenge.
The inclination of senses towards their subjects, the pleasure-craving attitude of the mind, the attachments and aversions, egoism, and mental imprints of weaknesses make the struggle of life fierce. In such a situation, a person has to deal with challenges on double fronts. They cannot be adequately resolved without a spiritual understanding. Proper understanding of human nature becomes crucial in this situation, which could develop through the company of spiritual mentors, by reading idealistic literature, and through profound thinking and contemplation.
With a spiritual outlook, it becomes easier to respond to life’s external and internal challenges. However, while facing and overcoming the challenges, we have to be careful that our steps are firm on truth, full of righteousness, and are associated with the sentiments of universal well-being.
In this way, by keeping faith in one’s inner self and feeling in the company of God at every moment, every challenge becomes a part of the solution and becomes a ladder for overall progress and leads one towards the eternal goal of life’s entirety.
Akhand Jyoti Magazine 2022 Jan-Feb