Faster, Higher, Stronger- London Olympics 2012

Citius, Altius, Fortius! The Latin words which is the perennial motto for Olympics means Faster, Higher Stronger. As the London Olympics kick off today with the grand opening ceremony and continue till 12th August, 2012, the motto are symbolic in reminding us of what life is all about!

"Great dreamers' dreams are never fulfilled, they are always transcended." This quote of Alfred Lord Whitehead, says it all. If you carefully analyse the motto, you will find that the words are comparative adjectives. It makes us think why not just adjectives or for that matter, why not the superlatives- fastest, highest and strongest? Life is all about growing continuously. It is about inching further from the place where you were yesterday. It can be compared to the river water that is continuously making its way and progressing to reach the vast stream of ocean. 

It cannot be fastest, highest, and strongest. If we had the record set for all times in events like the the 100 meters dash or for the high-jump and nobody had been able to break it, the games would have better discontinued. Every athlete and sportsperson competes dreaming to better the set world record. Last time Michael Phelps bettered the record of seven golds won by Mark Spitz in swimming events. He went to to win 8 gold medals for his country. This year you can expect some other swimmer better that! Once life is standstill it is no better than cold death! It has to go on. 

The lesson from the motto as we enjoy the games at London this year is this, first, if you have not done satisfactorily yesterday, you can better it today, so forget the past. Second, you can never reach a place where you say, 'this is it, I am now the best and there lies nothing to better'. Remember if you reach the pinnacle of the mountain, the next moment you have to retrace you steps downwards back. 

So friends, don't wallow in you laurels or failures of yesterday and keep on inching forward. Keep on reaching faster, higher, and stronger! That's what Olympics is all about and that's what life is all about too!

Joy be all yours.

Sohan. 

The Lost Keys!

A man was frantically searching for his lost keys on a road. Other passerby offered to help him. Both of them kept on looking for the keys for quite a long time but to no avail. At last, the passerby asked him, “Where exactly did you lose your keys?” “I lost them in my house actually”, replied the man to the surprise of the passerby. “But as there is good amount of street light here, I am searching for them here!

Well we all know this humorous story. But if we go behind the story, we will be able to know that it carries grains of truth that describes our lives. We usually look for happiness, success, God outside. We feel the key to success, happiness and knowing God is out there! We are lured by the attractions of the world, rituals, culture, gadgets, heroes and spiritual leaders. But the truth is that we need to look deeper in ourselves. Happiness, success and God is within us. We are made in the image of God. When we look closer, we will find that we have all the potential in ourselves despite the conditions without for being happier, enlightened and successful! So have you found the lost keys, yet?