19th November 2009
THE SECRET OF MAHATMA GANDHI
Boss: Where's my pencil?
Secretary: Behind your ear.
Boss: Dammit, woman, I'm a busy man. Which ear?
- Osborn Elliot, Men at the Top
We are living in a world where all our faculties are being challenged and we are stretched. Sometimes, we are forced to accept tasks which we have to do whether we like it or not. When our abilities do not match the task on hand, we go through lot of mental strain and tension. Because of this busy life, we reach a situation of burn out by mid forties. Is there a way out? Yes. All that you have to do is to look out for examples and models. Look at a person who is busier than you and understand the strategy he / she follows to deal with a similar situation.
For example, read this passage from Sri Richard Livingstone, who spent a lot of time with Mahatma Gandhi:
More than any other worker, the leader must safeguard reserves. Gandhi is a good illustration. He impresses one as being very frail physically. Yet, where is there a leader subjected to greater strain? I think, I found the secret of his wonderful endurance when I visited him at his Ashram near Ahmedabad. The only day on which I could arrange my crowded programme so as to step off to see him turned out, as I discovered on arrival, to be his day of silence. He graciously invited me in writing to sit with him during the period, which terminated shortly after dusk. We then had a memorable conversation under the stars as he lay on his couch in front of his cottage. Among other things, I asked him toward the close of our interview to tell me what led him to observe a day of silence. He replied that he was so tired of talking and of hearing others talk that he found that in the tremendous pressure upon him, he was not only breaking down physically but also losing his mental freshness and spiritual power, and was in danger of becoming formal, mechanical, and devitalized. He craved quiet for thought and prayer. And so he resolutely observes one day of complete silence each week. He told me that someone had asked him whether he would not break the silence in order to talk with the Viceroy, and he had replied that he would not do so for any person.
Sri Richard Livingstone
N C Sridharan
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