Striving towards Excellence

-Karthik Gurumurthy

Most often than not, our lives are wasted in fear! In order to drive away darkness from his house, a foolish person was found carrying out bucket loads of darkness and emptying them. Despite the many years he spent in this task, it was futile. His preoccupation with driving out darkness took him nowhere. Darkness is the absence of light. If only he had attempted to light a small lamp, darkness would have disappeared!

Fear is also similar to darkness. Absence of faith is fear! Once you have more faith, fear would disappear. If a man and woman do not have trust in each other, there can be no love or affection between them. Reflect on an incident in the life of Mullah Nasruddin, a character in Sufi literature.

Mullah Nasruddin was married just that morning. The same night, he and his wife were travelling in a boat across a river, along with their relatives. A sudden storm broke out and the river was turbulent. The boat rocked wildly. Everyone in the boat, including the bride, was in mortal fear. But Mullah remained calm.

The bride noticed this and asked in surprise, “Aren’t you afraid?” Mullah, without replying, took out the dagger from his waistband and raised it as though he was going to slit her throat.

There was no reaction on her face. He asked, “Are you not afraid of the dagger?” and she said, “The dagger may be dangerous, but the person who is holding it, is my loving husband.

So I am not afraid”. “Exactly!” exclaimed Mullah, “These waves may be dangerous but Allah who is moving them is full of love. So I am not afraid”! Mullah Nasruddin had faith in Allah. Hence, he was loving and compassionate. Without faith in God, he would have been devoid of love and compassion.

Some go from one astrologer to another with their horoscopes to find out when death would strike them. As far as they are concerned, their horoscopes are “horrorscopes.” Such people are more afraid of when they would die rather than what they would do while being alive! This fear would devastate them both mentally and physically!