My Friend, I hope I can call you as my friend. I may have not met you before or I might have. I am quite sure that you might not recognize me. I do not stand out from the crowd. I was not born in royalty nor do I have any special quality to stand apart as one in a hundred men. But I see you every day; I can sense your presence. I might have walked past you in a busy market. I might have gotten down from the same bus that you boarded at the next stop. In spite of my quaint anonymity, my “average-ness” of mundane existence, I sense your presence. I feel it when you fight the same wars as I did. I sense your agony and frustration when no one listens to you. I sense your disappointment when you are deprived of things you think you deserve. I have been there, fought that.
My Friend, Let me tell you a secret. A secret that would bring more joy, than all the victories of yours combined. A secret which would make you feel victorious even though you have lost everything. Before I reveal the secret, take a good look at yourself. I can understand why you are frustrated. You see your friends climbing the ladder faster than you, travelling, earning more, settled down and romancing life. You feel lost when you know you are better than them but you have not seen the brighter side of life. You prepare to fight for what you think is your right. You fight, you spill blood, you fall and you stand up. The cycle goes on forever. There is no end to this.
I am not asking you to stop fighting. Before you got your war tomorrow whatever it might be for, work, love or money. Ask yourself, are you fighting for the right reason? Are you fighting the right war? Are you fighting the right way?
You cannot win a war because you feel entitled to win. You cannot become rich just because you need money. You cannot become a CEO because you worked in a company for 25 years. That’s the war children fight, they want something that they feel entitled to and cry until they get it. That war is not for brave men, that’s how kids fight. It’s not fight in any sense, there is no bravery, and there is just desperation and beggary involved in such an achievement. Shame on those, who fight like that!
Stand up my Friend, fight like a samurai, fight with a sense of dignity and self respect. Go to your war, swing your sword harder, perfect your poise, control your breath, and increase your awareness. When you fight, don’t expect the enemy to fall, don’t expect money to come to you, don’t expect people to hand you victories. They are fighting for themselves as well. Don’t worry if you lose few battles, learn from your mistakes and never beg for victory.
Stand up for your rights but before that, understand whether it is actually your right or it’s your want. What are you fighting for? Look around you and see there are million men fighting for the same thing. Ask now are you better than others? Are you good enough to win amongst these million men? If so why and how do you prove that? The general who commands has more scars than the foot soldier. If you aspire to be the general, get the scars first. Rise every morning with a sense of duty, a sense to perfect your skill and with complete devotion to your art. Earn your scars and earn your crown.
Remember my Friend; the sense of entitlement is the lazy man’s path. He is no better than the gold fish which waits for food in a bowl. Such a fish will not survive in an ocean. The world out there is ruthless, it’s painful and it’s not going to feed you daily. You will have to fight for your food, your want and your ambitions. In this incessant carnage of day to day battle, do not lose your self-respect. Keep fighting but never beg. Keep pushing hard but never crib that you did not win. Kings come and go, but warriors live forever. Be a samurai, fight with grace, like poetry in motion, like a simple folk song with charm. You will fall one day like every other soldier and when you do, even your enemy would stop for a moment to pay respects. Earn that respect from those who defeat you.
Tomorrow I go for my war and you go to yours. Here is the secret “Victory is not permanent, Honor is”
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