MEANINGFUL LIFE
Achievement
AN express train is tearing at full speed towards its destination. A continuous spectacle of lush crops and brimming streams and brooklets flashes by on either side. However much the scene attracts attention towards itself, the express train shows no interest in it. It ploughs through plain and mountain, over land and river, without reducing its speed. Small stations are dotted along the line, but even they do not interrupt the train’s motion. It carries on, as if it will stop nowhere.
It is much the same with a purposeful life. One who has adopted a purpose in life will fix his attention upon it. He will not waste his time with peripheral issues. A purposeful person is like a traveller who seeks to spend every moment of his time steering himself towards his destination. Alluring worldly attractions hover enticingly before this traveller, but he closes his eyes to them. Luxurious shade invites him to be cooled from the scorching sun. Lavish mansions call him to rest his feet from the long, hard road. But he has no time for these things; all he sees is the goal he has set before himself. All kinds of different requirements confront him, but he steers clear of them and continues on his way. His determination to reach his destination does not alter with the ups and downs of life. The speed and direction of his journey remain constant through thick and thin.
For life to be invested with meaning, it is essential that one should set a target for oneself. One should be absolutely certain of the worthwhile nature of one’s chosen target.
A purposeful person is quite unlike a wayward traveller who, lacking direction, sometimes sets off in one direction and sometimes in another. He knows where he is going. The road that he must tread clearly stretches out before his eyes. There is no question of him interrupting his journey or diverting his attention towards other things. He travels on and on until his purpose is fulfilled, his destination reached.
For life to be invested with meaning, it is essential that one should set a target for oneself. One should be absolutely certain of the worthwhile nature of one’s chosen target. In pursuit of it, one must have the total support of one’s conscience. It should permeate one’s entire being, running through one’s body as blood runs through one’s veins. It is by concentrating his mind and setting his heart on a certain target that man becomes different from animals. If he lacks a target in life, there is no difference between him and beasts of the jungle. When one adopts a dominating purpose, one’s life undergoes a drastic change. One becomes a completely different person. So total is one’s absorption in one’s quest in life that one has no time for petty side issues. One pursues one’s goal with unswerving dedication, not resting until it is achieved.