composition on "Excellence is a journey "
Answers
In our life, we try to achieve name, fame and success by our actions. If convergence of thought, word and action takes place at the right moment, the joy of success touches our feet. We feel completeness in the achievement and we feel that we have excelled. But is it correct to say that I had excelled three years back or I had achieved excellence last year in my duty? To my mind, ‘excellence’ is a continuous process in the journey of life. What is life? ‘Life is the sum total length of the point of breathing-in and breathing-out’. In other words, when you come to the earth, the first thing that the earth gives you is breathing and when you leave this earth you have to leave air/oxygen, that is the last breathing out. In this measurable length of life, the various actions take place at various moments and failure as well as success is manifested. Many say failure is the pillar of success. In fact, there is nothing called failure. Rather it is a continuous process to achieve the success. In fact, it should be our endeavour to perceive that the excellence resides in our thought, word and action at every moment of time. Robert Frost’s beautiful couplet reminds us that "The Woods are lovely, dark and deep –but I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep".
Sometimes we say that we are extraordinarily excellent. It is not we but it is our alter ego, which speaks it out. Excellence has to be a continuous endeavor in the performance of our life. How many of us have ever thought as to what is performance of our life. How many of us have ever asked ourselves or done introspection regarding the objective of our life. Satisfaction of limited achievement blocks the doors of excellence. The achievement in the corridor of success is nothing but a milestone in a long timeless journey.Many Avatars have come and taken their birth in order to finish their unfinished work in previous birth. Therefore, it is essential that they come and take Avatar and attempt the incomplete works and try to finish them. . According to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, since ages man has been striving to reduce the gap between himself and God. There are only two ways to do it. One is to elevate human kind towards divinity, which is called ‘Siddhi’ and the other is to bring God to human level in Avatar form. Here divinity manifests itself for the sake of human kind.
There are various ways through which one can achieve excellence during his lifetime. The first step to progress towards excellence is to give hundred percent to the action that is to be performed. Second, one has to live in the present and neither in the glory of past nor the dreams of the future. Neither of them should influence his action Third, resistance brings blockade. Flow with the fountain of time, resistance will disappear. Fourth, there is nothing called trying to do it. Either you do it or you do not do it. Therefore, just do it. Last but not the least, according Gita, do not keep expectations from your actions; just do your ‘karma’. ‘Karmanyevadhikaraste mafaleshu kadachana’. The result will be decided by God. Therefore, full devotion to ‘karma’ with simultaneous detachment from result of ‘karma’ brings union between perfection and excellence of human being. Thus, the term ‘excellence’ is not a time bound programme and there is nothing called ‘destination to excellence’. One has to continue to strive towards perfection and achieve excellence in the journey of life. Excellence is a journey and not a destination.