3500 stairs... and the Army Tank

A historical monument, the abode of the Lord of Love. And there I was with around 3500 fellow friends who came for the trip to accomplish the backbreaking feat of charging ahead for the 3500 stairs.

We all were advised to start early, as it would take time to accomplish the feat.. and there we were before the dawn ready to meet our Lord of Love. But it was shivering cold, it being the December winter, and different people had different opinions regarding our defense against this mighty enemy.

I chose to be well-equipped with armor to fight this deadly enemy of cold. A jacket with a woolen neckwear, I felt to be sufficient. Happy with my possessions of armor and reluctantly leaving the other available armors ( hand-gloves and socks were also alluring me to take them on), I went ahead to join the army of my 3500 friends.

1 step.. 2 step.. 50 steps.. 100 steps.. 500 steps.. 1000 steps..
And then the fight began. Believe me, this fight was different than I perceived before. Earlier the fight was with 'cold'. But now it was with extreme 'heat' being felt due to the arduous labor to climb up the stairs. And adding to it, the jacket and the neckwear were now appearing to me as if I had to carry the entire 'army tank' over my shoulders.

1500 steps..

I reflected, isn't it true with the many possessions we try to accumulate in our own lives. Initially, the possessions seem to be our necessity and the only way to survive in the war, but later the same possessions begin possessing us.. and then it appears as the 'army tank' over us.

We try to possess wealth, beauty, intellect, status.. the list goes on... and beyond that we try to possess people who may have those with them. But, unfortunately none of them quenches the thirst of the heart, because the basis itself was 'possession'. It was not the innate feelings of the soul which formed the basis.

Going further steps ahead in our journey for the 3500th stair, we went ahead. After a few steps the leader of our army came like a swift wind, and he went ahead like a charming breeze touching all my fellow friends to become zealous about their individual journey to meet our Lord of Love.

2000 steps..

Surcharged we went ahead...

2500 steps.. 3000 steps.. 3500 steps

And there I was, getting an opportunity to meet for a moment with the Lord of Love, who is there calling upon all of us to reciprocate with Him with our inner feelings from time immemorial.

The sun was already spreading its heat now, and in the light I felt that my 'army tank' over my shoulder has not been worth carrying those 3500 stairs!!

But, it took me the journey to get that feeling.

PS: 'The Lord of Love' is Lord Balaji, at the Tirupati Tirumala Hills.
The leader of our army is His Holiness Radhanath Swami.

Let's Define A Leader

Let's refer to the lexicon, and a leader is generally defined as "a person who rules or guides or inspires others".

A person who rules:
Or in other words one who exercises authority over his subjects. The moment the word 'authority' comes before us, we straightaway link it to our loss of freedom, an expression which marks our free thoughts. And that is what we have been finding in the environment around us, and many a times we might have had a negative experience of getting subject to someone's dominion. And thus, without doubt we have to reject anyone or anybody who obstructs our own genuine thought process.
A person who guides:
Guide will surely take us to the nostalgic feelings of various picnic excursions which we had taken in the past. Be it Goa, Shimla or Agra OR be it New York, Rome or London we find that without getting a guide it becomes difficult to explore the beauty of the horizons which the place has to offer. But believe me, this is also restricting our freedom to explore the places taking the help of our feet. So, why do we need a guide? After all time is a great teacher and our endeavor clubbed with it is surely going to give miraculous results.
A person who inspires:
Come on, guys! We very well know the old saying "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration". After all, I am not trying to negate the deriving of inspiration but what I mean is we need to be really open to taking inspiration from so many sources. That's what makes our ideologies, our beliefs, our character and after all we. So, that inspiration has the place as much as putting the icing on the cake, which looks good only if the cake is below.
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So, where is the problem in the thought process?
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There is. All the time we tried to look what we are subject to, that is "rules, guidance and inspiration". But we missed the very important part of the understanding :
"A person who...."
The first and foremost aspect of defining a leader is "a person". Until and unless we define the person whom we are talking about the various other aspects doesn't hold any meaning. And believe me, a change in the person can make a huge difference on what role we can accept in relation to the person. When the person who rules is Lord Ram then that place is lovingly called 'Ram-Rajya' wherein every citizen is loved by the king as His own child. When the person is Lord Krishna the 'guidance' takes the form of the eternal message of the song of God 'Bhagavad Gita'. And when person is the great bowman Arjuna the 'inspiration' takes the form of 'Bhakti-Yoga', the unalloyed devotion to the Lord even at the cost of severing one's own material affection for the spiritual upliftment.
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So, believe me dear ladies and gentlemen, we individually and very silently define the leader for own lives. But many a times, due to lack of transparent intelligence we miss choosing our true leader, our true hero!!