Confidence is one of the greatest virtues which have been attributed to man by God with affectionate blessings. It is his confidence which gives him an idea during his moments of hopelessness and guides him when difficulties pave his way.

 

Natural beauty is one of the most important gifts, like beauty, strength, youth, presented by God to him. Fear. awe, terror, trouble, pain, distress, uneasiness, danger etc. make him disappointed, while natural beauty makes him calm and quiet. This is not a hidden fact. The need is to know it, recognize it, and to use it properly.

 

Confidence is a ground where the foundation stone of happy life is laid to build a house. The life without confidence is without pleasure. Confidence and pleasure are synonymous. There can be no work, talk. behaviour, transaction, without confidence.

 

Sufferings frequent the life. They must be faced. The view-point of escapism signifies our cowardice:

 

‘No doubt the feet had to undergo immense sufferings. but the feet have, any way, adopted the track at least. With the burning fire on hands I was expecting someone to let me know the nature of burning fire. 50 Or else:

 

When the human beings start living for themselves then everything oweing to them is displayed for sale. When the habit of taking risk disappears then each race dies, 60

 

‘Love, immense love, why !

 

let the memory be faded.

 

Let her pleasing remembrance not come,

 

envelope the dam of affections with the love-letter.

 

throw it in the flowing river, let it be flown.

 

 How inspiring is this song! Its lines will always be infusing a new hope:

 

‘Let us have inner courage, let us conquer our mind.

 

let us conquer ourselves before conquering others.

 

let us have inner courage.

 

let us be able to fade out the trends of discrimination.

 

let us be able to forgive the friends who may be mistaken,

 

let us remain free from untruth and depend upon truth,

 

let us conquer ourselves before conquering others,

 

let us have inner courage. +62

 

How well Pant, has defined the way to control the mind: ‘Awake, O mind, be above.

 

Not only of yourself, but also of the mankind.

 

welfare will it be possible for you to do.

 

To enjoy the sensual pleasures

 

also constant restraint is needed 63

 

The above poems also recognize the inner confidence as a base, as the essence of life. We also change ourselves any time, anywhere, any moment. Progress may be made all the time. Any vice may be deleted any time. A fearful may turn a fearless, a coward a courageous, a sensualist a restraint, an angry a peaceful, a mean a saint, a greedy a donor, a cruel a kind, a fool a learned. The only thing needed is the recognition of the inner confidence. It is written:

 

‘An ant, though just crawling, covers hundreds of miles: while none but an eagle, if not active, would not move even a single step.

 

Doing efforts is the nature of man. He attempts and attempts. That is why he is successful. Change also is attached alongwith effort. The change varies according to thoughts, situations, emotions, actions, or so. Its proper use is needed.

 

There was a Kshatriya Youth, called Kula-putra. Someone had killed his elder brother and escaped. Kula-putra’s mother told him. ‘Your elder brother has been killed and you are sitting idle. Is the revenge not your duty? You are a Kshatriya, after all.’

 

Mother’s words threw his mind into agitation. He proceeded on the search of his brother’s killer. He kept the search on for days, weeks, months and years and after all he was successful. After twelve years he found the man who had killed his brother. He dragged him to his mother. ‘O my mother, I will punish him. I will cut his head apart with my sword.

 

The killer felt the death nearing him. There was no escape for him. He put a straw into his mouth and told. ‘O mother, I am like your cow?’ (The Kshatriyes never kill a cow as well as the persons who seek shelter.)

 

Kula-putra was just prepared with his sword when his mother told. ‘O my son, you forgive this man, now.’ The son got angry, “You had told me to take revenge. And now you are saying to forgive him. The mother pacified him. O my son. you are right, But forgiving him will be a greater duty now. He is of course a criminal, but he is alsoarefugee. AKshatriya never kills the one who comes to refuge.

 

Mother’s words showed an immediate effect. The son’s heart changed. The anger and revenge changed into mercy. In this context one more story is worth mentioning. It is about the great king Parikshit..

 

The great king Parikshit, while on hunting, got lost in the jungle. All of a sudden a dark-complexioned man. with a club in his hand, came to his sight. He was driving a cow and a lame bullock.

 

The great king asked who they were and the answer came. I am the Kall-yuga. This cow is the earth and this bullock the religion. Both are running away for fear of the Kali-yuga.’

 

The king took out his sword to protect the religion. The Kali-yuga was defeated in the battle. He asked for refuge which was granted by the king.

 

The Kali-yuga is permitted to reside in fourteen things. including gold. The crown on the king’s head was made of gold. The Kall-yuga looked at it and got into it. Hence the king also was obsessed by the Kali-yuga.

 

Moving onwards in the jungle he found a cottage. Hungry and thirsty he gave a call to the sage, but did not get any response. Obsessed by the Kali-yuga he lifted the dead body of a snake and put it around the neck of the sage who was meditating.

 

Looking at this the son of the sage cursed the king Parikshit that he would be bitten to death by the Takshaka snake within seven days. At this the king repented his misdeed, but what more could he do? He listened to the recitation of the Srimad-bhagavata for seven days. On the seventh day the Takshaka snake bit him: he, however, took the rebirth in heaven because of the merit earned for his devotion to God.

 

The life may any time be purified by pious thinking. An incident will sufficiently exemplify that change.

 

A padre of church in England was quite confident about the power of faith. He used to experiment this for reforming the notorious thiefs, robbers, the dishonest, the cruel, the unjust and the torturers.

 

One night a notorious theif, who had run away from a local jail, knocked at his door. The padre received him with all what could be provided at that time of night. He offered his own bedding in his bedroom, and himself lay on the ground. In the morning the thief was not there. The padre’s two silver lamp-stands were also found missing. In a short while a few jawans of the city police came there with the thief in their grip. They also knew that the silver lamp-stands belonged to that padre, hence they had come directly there. Looking at them the padre said. ‘O, he is a friend of mine. He was my guest last night. I had presented the lamp-stands to him?”

 

The words of the padre influenced the heart of the thief so deeply that he, then and there, with all his apology. resolved never to turn back to the cursed career in his life.

 

Such is the power of confidence; it makes possible what may seem to be impossible. The confidence, therefore, should always he saved. It is certainly the foundation stone of a happy life.