IGNITED MINDS

APJ ABDUL KALAM

On September 30, 2001, I was on my way to Bokaro from Ranchi in Jharkhand when the helicopter carrying me crashed moments before landing. It hit the earth with a thud after its engin failed. All of us on board had a miraculous escape. Greatful to God but unfazed by the incident, I went ahead with my scheduled programme of addressing the students of Bokaro. At night however, a panel of doctors persuaded me to take a tranquillizer to alleviate my percieved shock. the drug made me sleep hours ahead of my usual time 1 a.m. also failed to raise at my usual 6 am. and woke up only after 8. It was however a distured sleep and sometime in the middle of it I fell to thinking why the human race the best of all of God's creation has been so deeply divided by violence. I imagined a conversation between five people who together symbolise the finest attributes of the human mind and whom I admire deeply. Thru their conversation I sought an answer. In this experience much more intense and vivid than a dream though for want of a better word i shall term it that, I saw mystelf in a desert with miles and miles of sand all around. There was a full moon and the desert was bathed in its light. Five Men Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein, Emperor Asoka Abraham Lincoln and Caliph Omar stood in a circle their clothes ruffled by the wind....

As I stood by I wondered. Why the Kalinga war, why the assasination of Mahathma Gandhi and of Abraham Lincoln and why many others life them. Has god almighty faltered in his creations, is the destruction of mankind essension for a second creation?

In that blissful silence Mahathma spoke Friends the divine message we are hearing is the message of creation. Since we all belong to planet earth we may give message to mankind, how people of different races, religions and languages can live peacefully and prosperously together.

God almighty has blessed us all with something unique that we passed on to mankind through our deeds and efforts. Is that working? Is there any divine message or doctrine? Divine beauty should enter the human soul and happiness blossom in the body and mind. Is it possible?

Asoka said " Friends, there is one thing I have realised there is no victory in causing suffering. Triump is a peaceful kingdom.

Caliph Omar said "I learned after I entered Jerusalem that all men are equal. There is no point in forcing others to follow your path. You will get only that which is ordained for you. God alone is the soverign"

Caliph Omar never saw his position in terms of the special privileges that it carried. To him government was a sacred trust and he did his best to betray that trust in any way.

It was Einstein's trun " I would like to recall my friend Werner Heisenberg's view. You know in the West we have built a large beautiful ship. It has all the comforts in it, but one thing is missing it has no compass and does not know where to go. Men like Tagore and Gandhi and their spiritual forbeares found the compass. Why can this compass not be put in human ship so that both can realise their purpose......

When the mind is without fear and the head is held high
where knowledge is free, where the world has not been
broken into fragments.......
my father, let my country awake.

Ravindranath Tagore

Whatever one can dream, begin with that dream, boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it

Goethe

When I see wealthy, powerful, learned people struggling to be at peace with themsleves, I remember people like Ahmed Jallaludin and Iyadurai Solomon. How happy they were with virtually no possessions!

On the coast of Coromondel
where the Earthy shells blow,
in the middle of the sands
lived some really rich souls
One cotton lungi and half a candle-
One old jug without a handle
these were all the worldy possessions
of these kings in the middle of the sands...

How did they feel so secure without anything to fall back upon?
I believe they drew sustenance from within. They relied more on their inner signals and less on the external cues that I have mentioned above. Are you aware of your inner signals? Do trust them? do you have the focus of control over your life in your own hands. Take this from me, the more decisions you can make avoiding external pressures which will constantly try to manipulate and immobilise you, the better your life will be , the better your society will become. The entire nation will benefit by having strong inner directed people as their leaders. A citizenry that thinks for itself, a country in which people know and trust themselves as individuals, would be virtually immune to manipulation by any unscrupulous authority or vested interests. Your willingness to use your own inner resources to invest your life especially your imagination will bring you success. When you undertake a taks from your own uliquely individual standpoint you will become a person. Life is a difficult game. You can win it only by retaining your birthright to be a person. And to retain this right you will have to be willing to take the social or external risks involved in ignoring pressures to do things the way others say they should be done..

ABDUL KALAM (WINGS OF FIRE)

(From APJ Abdul Kalam's Wings of Fire )

My Padma Bhushan evoked mixed reactions at VSSC. While there were some who shared my happiness, there were others who felt I was being unduly singled out for recognition. Some of my close associates turned envious. Why do some people fail to see great values of life because of sadly twisted thought processes? Happiness, satisfaction and succes in life depend on making the right choices, the winning choices. There are forces in life working for you and against you. One must distinguish the beneficial forces from the malevolent ones and choose correctly between them.

An inner voice told me that the time come for a long felt but ignored, need for renewal. Let me clean my slate and write new sums. Were the earlier sums done correctly? Evaluating ones own progress in life is not an easy task. Here the student has to set his own questions, seek his own answers and evaluate them to his own satisfaction. Judgmenet aside, eighteen years at ISRO was too long to stay to leave without pain. As for my afflicted friends, the lines by Lewis Carroll seemed appropriate:

You may charge me with murder

Or want of sense

(We are all of us weak at times)

But the slightest approach to a false

prentece was never among my crimes...

I am the Indian Ocean
Surge of my waves and their mystical themesEmbracing Bombay and Dar-es in holdWe all belong to the cradle of earthSame human civilization pervades us allGenerations of life in these lands were like wavesRising and falling and melting in time baobabs andBanyans stood witness to these cyclesBondage of slavery and foreigners yokeAre gone with the past and power now to peopleGandhiji and Nyerere’s nobility and soul strengthGot thy the freedom, and now you have a missionEnlightened youths, now you have to sweatFor making thy people prosperous and happyFor ye are the greatest hope, for this part of globe
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

My National Prayer

The grand Scene of birth of Independent India In that mid-night, the flag of the ruler of two centuries lowered; The tri-color Indian flag flaps in the Red Fort in the midst of National Anthem.The first vision of Independent India was dawned.The rejoice everywhere, happiness all around,There was a tender cry: where is the father of the nation? The white clothed soul walking in the midst of sorrows and pain,Injected by hatred and ego, the result of communal violence.The father of the nation, Mahatma, walking bare footedIn the streets of Bengal for peace and harmonyWith the strength of blessed soul of Mahatma I pray the Almighty: When will be the dawn of second vision?Create thoughts in the minds of my people,And transform those thoughts into action. Embed the thought of Nation being bigger than The individual, in the minds of leaders and people.Help all the leaders of my country to give strengthAnd bless the nation with peace and prosperity.Give strength to all my religious leaders to bring 'Unity of Minds' among all our billion people Oh Almighty, bless all my people to work and transformOur country from a developing into a developed nation. Let this second vision be born out of sweat of my people,And bless our youth to live in Developed India.
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

Men often become what they beilieve themselves to be. If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it even if I did not have it in the beginning...

Mahathma Gandhi