Inspiring People...

Trying to write an introductory passage for this post, I have failed thrice. So, without much ado, I will begin telling about the three people that this post is about:

Ø Abhimanyu: I think he finds a mention in a couple of my earlier posts too. A character in Mahabharata, one of the two epics of the Hindu religion, Abhimanyu was a young man of seventeen when he met his death in the battlefield. Going into the battle, he knew he would never return. The choice of going to battle was his. His father Arjun, one of the best warriors of the time, was the only one on their side that knew about a war move. The enemy, fully aware of the fact, lured Arjun away from the main battle field while they set up their army in a particular formation called Chakarvyuh and challenge them. Not being able to accept the challenge would mean a loss of face and during those times a loss of face was as good as losing the war.

Now it had so happened one day that Abhimanyu's mother couldn't sleep so Arjun tried to get her to sleep by telling her stories about the war. So the wife fell asleep while Arjun was in the middle of explaining to her how to penetrate the Chakarvyuh and how to get out of it. At this time, she was pregnant with Abhimanyu and thus he was able to hear about how to get into that particular formation, but he could never find out how to get out of it. Seventeen years later his uncles were in a position where they were on the verge of losing the war and needed his services. Though he knew fully well, and so did his uncles, that going to war meant certain death, he went in. He was fully protected by his uncles and other great warriors but one after another they were stopped by the enemy and Abhimanyu was the only one who could reach the core. Once inside he was not able to get out. The enemy was not able to defeat him until they attacked him together and killed the horse that drove his chariot, which was unfair, to subdue him but the warrior that he was, he continued to fight, even when he was left with no other weapon then the wheel of the chariot. The image of this young lad of 17, fighting the best warriors of his time, holding up a chariot wheel never fails to fill one with awe and inspiration.


Ø Mahatma Gandhi: Those who know me know that I am not a great fan of the man. Yet the thing about him that is inspirational is how an ordinary man with no perceptible gifts of nature was able to subdue an empire as mighty as the British which claimed that the sun never set for them.


Ø Swami Vivekananda: He was a philosopher, a thinker, a scientist, a religious preacher and a monk all rolled into one. He died at a relatively young age of 39 but left behind a legacy that will never be forgotten. It is hard to name any one thing about him that is inspirational-it’s his whole being and one has to experience it for himself or herself.. When he spoke at the Parliament of religions in Chicago in 1893, his first line itself caused a major stir and the line was: “Brothers and sister of America". Amazing in its simplicity. Such was the man.