Focus and you Succeed

A well known mythical tale from the Hindu epic 'Mahabharata' speaks the most inspiring moral that could be packed over and carried along throughout the journey of life. The lesson could be the path indicator in every turn of living. All chores could be a success if only is that cliche applied into every move.

The tale of the best archer of history- Arjun. Arjun was the son of Pandu- the king of Hastinapur. During his days of learning, he was the disciple of Guru Dronacharya. Once Drona, in order to test his pupil, ordered them to aim at a bird's eye and then asked each one to describe what was visible and it was only Arjun who said that he could see the bird's eye and nothing else. The others gave vague replies, like they could see the tree, the leaves, the birds and so on. This reply itself reveals the minutest clandestines of Arjun's success as an archer. Even in today's world, the great archer is remembered for his skill and dedication.

This short excerpt from the Mahabharata teaches us to be focused in whatever task we perform. Arjun wasn't able to sight anything else but his goal, and so he succeeded in shooting at the minute eye of the bird. Its all about focusing completely onto whatever we tend to do.

The rays of the Sun could only heat things up. But when focused onto a paper with a convex lens, the papers burns off. That depicts the strength of being focused. The lens of a camera would click blurred image until the focus is set properly. So if we don't focus on our aims, the blurred image of our goals would not aid us in achieving them.

A horse is equipped with a blinkers or blinders, that cover the side of their heads in order to abstain them from turning to the sides and makes them focus on the path they need to move on. Even in our lives, we homo sapiens must put this method into practice. Our blinkers must be the determination and dedication to toe the course set up for our dream.

A labyrinth has several lanes to enter into, but those are the delusions from the appropriate path. If we focus completely on the maze and prevent ourselves from being distracted by allowing ourselves to step into the wrong direction, only then can we achieve our aim of successfully crossing through the labyrinth. Similarly, in our lives, once we go off- track we get stuck into the delusions and then it becomes very difficult to be on- track. So its all about focusing on our way and the shot we get is of our aspired goal.

One of the great poems "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost with its lucid wordings, teaches us a vital chapter of life. The poet says that he is astonished by the sight of the ravishing  snow- covered forest and wants to sit gazing at the wonder of nature, but that he oughts to fulfill his duties and walk miles before he rests. The scenario created in this poetry is one to be related to that of reality, there are mere beautiful and exult giving things of life that stray us from our aim, but we must be stubborn enough to focus our mind and our deeds onto our ambition.

The stubbornness must be much more than that of a child. A tyke cries for a particular toy, but that child doesn't know what focusing for an aim is. So, once the parents diverts her from her aspiration, the baby is back into control and the toy is out of her mind. This diversion is a part of human nature. So our stubbornness to keep focusing on our ambition must exceed to the adamant nature of a child, only then can the diversions not divert us.

In a hurdle race, the athlete jumps over every hurdle because his foucs is upon touching the ribbon first, and that's what takes him to the finish line in shortest of duration. Just like the athlete, non of the diversions should bear the energy to impede our footsteps leading to our aim.

We the Vishwamitras musn't be seduced by the Menakas of our life. This famous anecdote could be linked to life. Lord Indra's maneuver to break Sage Vishwamitra's meditation availed only because the sage's focus might not have been firm enough to abstain the lecherousness. Our focus and concentration mustn't be blown off even by the catastrophe creating hurricanes. We are the Vishwamitras and the Menakas are not only the seducing distractions but any other form that could divert our focus upon our aim. It could be anything ranging from a socialism to individualism. It could be Facebook, or a face or a book. But if our aim is being a painter, no other colours of life must replace the colours in our pellet while our task of painting a masterpiece is into practice. 

The focus should be such that even bodily needs like hunger could not distract us while we are working on our goal. The sages used to not only abstain relations with the material world but even the systems and organs of their body didn't urge them to get up, stroll and nibble a piece of food. 

"Ichhamrutyu"  or death upon ones own wish used to be the aims of certain saints upon the completion of their role in life. Their divinity and their focus upon death used to be such that none of the aspects of living used to distract their need to die.

Such are we humans built that our physique could adjust every circumstance. So, without any further excuses, we must attach our soul to our goal so that our focus won't stroll into any other directions. That's the formula of success. Focus and the victory becomes our refuge. Stray away and temporary pleasures shall lie by us, but when the slumber breaks, it could be quite too late to wake up and chase our dream. The eternal bliss  and rapture lies only in the attainment of the reason we are born for. And if we elucidate the reason to ourselves and concentrate completely on what is to be done, even the strings of time would be our captive and our goal would be held in our fists.

So focus, just like Arjun did, and all the Karnas of life could be defeated. Just link the soul to the goal, and our goal will start the journey towards us.