Struggle is an Essential Ingredient for Progress

Struggle is a part of every individual's life. One cannot attain happiness in life without some kind of struggle because it plays an important role in refining personality. Nature ensures that struggle presents itself in varied degrees in the life of a person. Those who run away from it remain undeveloped and incomplete and those who take it in their stride go a long way in enhancing their personality.

The process of struggle hides within itself the happiness of life. One cannot enjoy the bliss without that. Just like ore of gold when put in fire gets refined and turns into pure gold, similarly man attains his true form after being subjected to struggle. It unravels the latent characteristics in man that make him useful to his own family, society and to the entire nation. Such a person is fearless, unambiguous and thoughtful and can easily face difficult and challenging circumstances.

There is a story that is apt in this context. Once a small boy was watching a chick coming out of the egg and it was undergoing immense struggle. The boy felt that if he helped a bit, then it would become easy for the chick to come out. So he broke the egg and got it out. But he saw that this chicken was not like the others. It was neither able to stand or flap its wings like others. What the boy did not know was that it was the process of struggle that helps a chicken attain strength in its limbs and ability to spread its wings. All of us do this mistake in life. We all try to run away from struggle or we seek help from others in an effort to make our difficult-looking struggles become easy. As a result we end up not being self-reliant.

Life struggles cast two different kinds of influence on us — positive and negative. If a struggle makes us more generous, modest and industrious, then they can be called as positive effects of struggle. While others which break us down internally and we end up being angry and weak are negative effects of struggle. According to psychologists, trying to transform an unfavorable situation into a favorable one is called struggle. But it is imperative to have faith and tolerance. Faith does not let the fatigue of struggle overwhelm us, while tolerance keeps us steady and focused during tough struggles.

The process of struggle keeps teaching something or the other, but we have to ensure that we are struggling in the right direction in order to have some meaningful results. Struggle is like sādhanā. Once a Guru gave 40-feet land to his disciple and asked him to dig a well. The disciple dug the entire 40 feet but did not find any water. He had dug on the surface rather than deep. But as soon as the Guru gave the much needed direction, the disciple followed it and a pond was built there. When our struggle also is without direction, we do not get the desired result; but be assured that no struggle goes in vain. It teaches us something or the other.

As long as we are alive, struggle is our constant companion. We have to struggle to realize our desired objectives and derive happiness and bliss. We can understand the value of effort only after having undergone the struggle. Hence we should understand that struggle is the true source of happiness and be ever ready to take on new challenges.