M R LALU
“The world is a great gymnasium where we can make ourselves strong.” This distinctive declaration of Swami Vivekananda came as he confronted the complexity of life in its entirety. We frequently become desperate and unwilling to take risks in our life. But success stories of individuals who made an incomparable impact in the lives of people, often declare that there had been resounding preparations to cut their ways through the intricacies of the world around them. Vivekananda’s life itself was an example for this. He had suffered severe adversities as a young man. His transformation into a spiritual personality under the guidance of his master had given him painful testimonies. His family suffered multiple problems and Vivekananda, with the desire to become a monk had, from time to time affectionately stood by his mother and others in his family. The principle that he frequently made people learn from his life was, whatever the difficulty, the inner strength and purity of a person would help him take lessons from the adversities that the world offers him.
The complexity of the world’s multiplicity poses mounting challenges and our approach to such situations would help us strengthen our mind and body. We often have two options to choose from, either to stay away from the challenges the world offers or to face them. Every moment is a fresh lesson, and every lesson brings a fresh learning. Success or failure, the learning that comes with it carries its essential power to transform us. Vivekananda’s approach of counting the world as a gymnasium where we build our muscles and mind irrespective of the adverse outcomes it sometimes takes us through, supplies tremendous energy and succor to create a creative momentum.
Thus, we fail to surrender to defeating tendencies. Even the toughest moment in our life becomes an easy pass as the learning we receive from its toughness holds the capacity to strengthen our individual faculties. If the world is a gymnasium, it would indubitably generate tremendous energy. It becomes a space where dullness is a crime, a space that reminds us about our real potential, the space that allows us to gain confidence, composure, consistency and precision; where we realize how important it is to break the boundaries of our personal infirmities. That is what the world offers. Its multiplicity is a resource in abundance that we can play our muscles and mind with. Every moment helps us advance a little and slowly and gradually, the effect of our being engaged in the gymnasium proves the power of what we are, and the essential aspect of our real nature comes into play.
As we begin to understand the world with this commitment for self-improvement; the chaos, the irregularities and the discomforts that we see around, do not diminish our purpose. We understand the fact that we are truly designed to navigate the ship of life through the calamitous waters of the world, an analogy that would otherwise help us stick to the purpose, the goal that we are supposed to gather our activities in the gymnasium for. So, what Swami Vivekananda makes us firmly believe is that in the world, the gymnasium has only one thing to offer, that is strength. With his spiritual radiance and intellectual exuberance Vivekananda expounded for us a new outlook that we have no choice but to imbibe without a second thought. In fact, his resounding admiration for life in this world takes us beyond mere skin-deep indulgences. An ideal makeover that he calls for does bring about a great deal of realization. That life, in its spiritual and indispensable worldly impetus, is completely based on the aspect of love which according to him is part of our inner core.
Essentially, what is admirable in his dealing with this philosophy of life on the planet earth is a basic outlook. He says that the world cannot be a loveless institution. The supreme reality that puts the spark of love in every being cannot be loveless. Therefore, he aspires to call divinity that religions, especially the Indic ones, propose their people to explore as the fundamental aspect of life’s existence; without realizing which, he says, the chaos that we are shaken up on a daily basis will not end. Independence, self-reliance, purity, kindheartedness and much more, he says, would become achievable milestones of life, if these basic principles of goodness that exist in creation are recognized and explored, realizing their value. Elucidating it further, Vivekananda says that in the process of earning the resources himself to the best of his ability, what he admired to execute was his own plans and he continued saying that it was easy for him to die attempting it. “When death is certain, it is best to sacrifice oneself for a good cause”, he concludes. In principle, life on the planet Earth, especially that in India, he says, is for a cause. What Vivekananda left unspoken was his prophetic life for his country. To give back India its individuality, the glory that he specified was trampled and crushed under the nasty feet of men for centuries. This can be the principle that we can develop an eagerness for; a better reason to live for a greater cause.
