The Power of Construction

The Chinese thinker Confucius once said: “Lighting a small lamp is better than cursing the darkness.”

This simple sentence carries a deep truth. Cursing the darkness doesn’t remove it. But if you light even a small lamp, the darkness begins to disappear on its own.

If the night has spread darkness around you, raising a storm of complaints won’t help. But if you quietly light a candle, you’ll see that even in the night, your surroundings begin to glow.

If you want to end evil—then start doing good.

If people treat you badly—treat them kindly.

If people are unjust—be just.

If people treat you unfairly—be patient and focus on correcting your own shortcomings.

If people criticize you—ignore them and stay focused on your real work.

This is the only real way to solve problems. All other approaches only add to the complexity.

There’s a real-life story about a young Muslim man who was appointed as the imam of a mosque. This mosque had a bad reputation. No imam ever stayed long. The people paid poorly and didn’t treat the imams with respect.

But this young imam had a constructive mindset. He thought: “What my predecessors couldn’t achieve through complaints, I will try to achieve through actions.”

He quietly made up his mind. He would not only fulfill his duties—but would go beyond expectations. He began improving the cleanliness of the mosque. Next to the mosque was an empty plot of land. He cleaned it, planted flowers and vegetables, and turned it into a beautiful green space.

He also began teaching the neighbourhood boys who used to loiter around.

He responded to harsh words with kindness and continued his work despite the people’s attitude.

The result? He won their hearts. They increased his salary on their own. He began receiving gifts. People treated him with honour.

Eventually, they built him a small residence next to the mosque, so he could bring his family and live there in peace.

This is the secret of life, captured in the spirit of Shakespeare’s message: Whatever you want, try to get it with the power of a smile, not the power of a sword.

Most people act impulsively, driven by emotions. But if they stop and act with thought, they’ll realize that what they hoped to get through confrontation could have been achieved far more easily through a positive and gentle approach.

In life, a person needs two things:

•  Money, to fulfill their material needs.

•  Good character, to live peacefully with others.

Most people focus only on earning money, and neglect to develop good character.

A Chinese saying beautifully explains this balance: “If you have two coins, use one to buy bread and the other to buy a flower.”

Bread gives you life—and the flower teaches you how to live.

Life’s Battle

“Even after losing everything, the future still remains.”

This quote by the American author and Scholar Christian Nestell Bovee expresses a vital truth of life. It means that if someone has lost something, they’ve only lost their past opportunities—not their future.

No matter how bad the loss, it’s always a thing of the past.

The future is still untouched—still full of potential.

If someone, after facing hardship or disaster, can say, “I have lost the past, but I haven’t lost the future,” then they have already gained something far greater than what they lost.

Because this realisation is the beginning of a new life. And in this world, a true beginning is another name for success.

Robert Collier once said, “A man’s best friends are his ten fingers.”

By this, he meant that our two hands are so valuable that even all the gold in the world cannot match them. Even if someone loses all their possessions, they still have their two hands—the very hands with which they built everything in the first place.

And with these same hands, they can rebuild again.

Mr. J. C. Malik, a military pilot, once shared his experiences in an article published in the Hindustan Times (5 May 1982). He wrote that when a pilot flies a fighter jet, he flies faster than sound, at such heights where nothing is visible except emptiness. It’s as if he’s on a journey toward death.

In such moments, there is only the machine—and the man.

Either he returns after completing the mission, or he gets shot down.

Mr. Malik wrote a powerful line: “The man in him knows fear. But the professional pilot in him has taught and trained himself to master it.”

What he wrote about a pilot is equally true about life. Life is a battlefield. Everyone must face it.

People’s weaknesses scare them, and difficult circumstances make them lose courage.

But to win in life, one must remain strong—and instead of fearing difficulties, try to overcome them.

“Memory looks backwards and courage looks forward.” This quote by Ram Chandra Tandon conveys the same idea.

Hopelessness is often rooted in memory.

We remember past failures—our own or someone else’s—and begin to believe they’ll repeat.

But if we stop looking back and start looking forward, we’ll often find that what we saw as danger was actually a hidden opportunity.

As someone rightly said, “Every ending is the beginning of a new opportunity.”

But very few people understand this secret.

There is an Arabic proverb: ‘Winds often blow in the opposite direction from where the ships want to go.”

This is how life works. Rarely do external circumstances fully align with our plans. Most of the time, we must make our way against the wind.

Life is like a cogwheel: One cog is of man, and the other is of nature.

Until the wheel of nature turns, the wheel of man cannot move.

What we want in life is not achieved through personal effort alone. Along with hard work, we need favourable external conditions.

And while a person has control over himself, he has no control over the world around him.

So, the only way to succeed is this: While planning your life, always factor in the conditions of the world around you. If you are strong enough to walk on land, don’t jump into the ocean.

True success lies not in fighting against circumstances—but in finding harmony with them. Although many believe that fighting against the odds is the path to greatness, wisdom lies in adapting and moving forward with insight.

The Importance of Perseverance

A big businessman once said, “Changing your business again and again is like setting fire to your own business with your own hands.”

When a person keeps switching from one business to another, they cut themselves off from their own history. And when someone disconnects from their own history, what will remain as their real asset?

Business is not like a job where you work for a month and receive your salary at the beginning of the next. Business is like a tree—it gives fruit only after years of care and growth.

Now, imagine someone plants a tree, and after a year, cuts it down to plant another. Then does the same again the next year, and continues like this for twenty-five years. Even after all that time, he won’t have a single fruit-bearing tree. Such a person can never have a lush green garden in this world.

There’s only one way to have a fruitful tree: Plant one, and keep nurturing it. Give your full attention to that one tree—and in time, it will surely grow and bear fruit.

In the same way, in business (and in life), a person should think wisely, choose one path, and commit to it completely. He should not abandon or switch his goal under any condition. If he does this, he will definitely succeed—sooner or later.

Goethe rightly said: “A person who has a firm and strong intention can shape the world according to his will.”

Look around—many people work hard, but very few succeed. Most often, the reason is the lack of perseverance.

Those who stay consistent succeed. Those who don’t, fail. Lack of perseverance pulls a person down. Perseverance takes a person to the heights of life.

A thinker once said: “People don’t lack strength—they lack consistent willpower.”

Most people have the ability. Most people use it, too. But only a few achieve big success.

Why? Because big success requires consistent willpower and effort. And that’s where most people fall short.

Anyone can start something. But very few can keep going. That is why most people fail.

Progress is another name for constant movement. Life is a race in which even stopping is equal to falling behind. And once you fall behind, you’ll have to work much harder to catch up.

Moving forward is like walking. Not moving forward is like sitting down tired.

The Rig Veda says: “Only the one who does not step back can achieve prosperity.”

In this world, success comes to those who keep working, without obsessing over results.

Those who always focus on results get disappointed easily. They lose motivation and give up. But the one who finds joy in the work itself, who stays honest and consistent—that person stays steadfast. And only such a person is truly successful.

This is the same lesson a character in the Mahabharata gave: “Do your work without desiring the result.”

Be Patient

Schiller once said: “The madness of desires lasts for a short while, but its regret lasts for a long time.”

This is a profound truth. Most big mistakes in life happen under the influence of temporary emotions.

When that moment passes, a person spends the rest of their life in regret, wondering why they acted that way.

In a calm state, a person himself admits: “What I did in anger was wrong.”

I once met a lawyer who worked on criminal cases. He told me that throughout his career, every murderer he came across later felt ashamed of what he had done.

He said murder is almost always the result of a passing emotion. In a moment of rage, one person kills another. But once that moment ends, lifelong regret begins.

Their conscience whispers, “I wish I hadn’t done that.”

The rest of their life becomes a form of punishment—not given by the court, but by their own soul.

So, whenever strong emotions rise, don’t act immediately. Just stop yourself—that is the first step toward improvement.

If you’re overwhelmed in the evening and somehow manage to sleep without reacting, by the next morning, that emotion will have cooled down. You’ll look back and wonder how you were ever in that state.

There’s an English saying: “Revenge is a dish best served cold.”

If someone places hot food in front of you and you eat it right away, you’ll burn your mouth. That’s why wise people let it cool before eating.

The same approach should be applied in life. If you’re angry, let it cool. Only then decide how to respond.

In a negative state, no one can think clearly. In anger, a person can’t make the right decision.

Shakespeare expressed this beautifully: “Do not heat your furnace so hot for your enemy that it burns you instead.”

Indeed—hatred burns first inside you. The effect on others comes later. But you suffer first and most.

So why do something that might hurt others, but will surely hurt you?

If you truly love yourself, that is enough; all you need to do is stop hating others.

In this world, the secret to loving yourself is also to love others. A person filled with hatred spreads thorns all around him—and makes life difficult for himself as well as others.

A life built on hatred shows that a person is not balanced inside.

Byron rightly said: “Hatred is madness of the heart.”

Just as mental madness is a loss of sense, madness of the heart is the loss of balance and seriousness.

No one respects mental madness—and in the same way, we should avoid madness of the heart too.

All India Radio, New Delhi,
on 13-14 December 1984.