Have A Vision

Proverbs 29:18

It’s a great joy and privilege to stand before you this afternoon/ morning in this manner. At the very out set let me express my gratitude and appreciation to the authorities/ teachers who separated times like this for interactions and reflections. I do seriously believe that such times of sharing will enable us to be serious about our academics and our world views.

Every human being upon the face of the earth wants to excel in their lives. Now we are students and we also want to excel in our studies and carrier. I don’t really think any one of us is here without this ambition. But the striking truth is this, that all those who want to excel or succeed in their lives cannot make it in the long run. Some fall half away and they become failures.

I remember an incident that happened in my school days. One of my teachers asked us about our ambitions. All of us said different answers. Many said, they wanted to be scientists, pilots, army and police officers. But now let me tell you a truth. Many of those who said, they wanted to be pilots and scientists are not pilots and scientists in their real lives. Rather they became “coolis” (porters) or porters, and daily laborers and so forth. But I also know few students who really became what they wanted to be. Now the question is this, what made the minority to succeed in their lives where as the majority of them failed utterly in their journey to wards the fulfillment of their ambition.

For me the difference lies in something called the dream. The word dream is a common word we use in our very lives regardless of race, culture and language. When I say dream I don’t mean the normal dreams we have in our sleep. Psychologists say even those dreams we have at the nights are the reflections of how we view or selves and our lives. And this morning I want to talk about the necessity of having a dream.

1. First of all dream is not merely a “wish”.

Dream is not a wish. But it is more than that. Dream can be said as a growing desire within our lives to reach a goal even in spite of the limitations and hindrances, and that goal is set by us. Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam the president of India talks a lot about having a dream. He says in his autobiography “wings of fire”, something like this. The factor that led me from a small village in Tamil Nadu to the highest positions in India was of course the dream. As I told you about you the class mates of mine, many did not succeed in fulfillment their ambitions because they did not have a dream; they rather had a mere wish. As the famous Chinese proverb says “great souls have wills; feeble souls have only wishes”

2. The second truth I want to state in this regard is this, dream make us better people and better citizens. if we don’t have a dream we become average. But those with dreams are always better and they hate to become average and mediocre. The world is full of average people. We have average students, average politicians and average professionals. They became average because they lack a thrust and desire to grow more and more. Now no one can simply grow more and more without having a dream. So when we don’t have a dream we become average and let me explain to you the danger of becoming average. It is like traveling in a train. Those people with dreams are those who are having a first class ticket. And average people can be those with second class or third class tickets. If you hold a first class ticket you can obviously travel in the first class compartment. And with that same ticket, if you wish, you can also travel in the second class and in the third class. Now think about somebody who is having a second class ticket. He or she can travel only in the second class and in the third calls. The conditions of the third class commuters are even pathetic. They cannot travel in the upper classes at all. It is same with our lives too. If we are genuinely first class there will not be any difficulty in dealing with the lower classes but if we are of the lower classes we cannot think about standing with the first class citizens of this world at all. There fore my friends let’s strive to be first class citizens.

3. the third thing I want to share about the dream is this, that the dream never compromises. If we have a dream we keep moving. We all know the nature f the ‘salmon’ fish. They keep moving in the midst of the unfavorable conditions. Look at the great leaders of our world. They became what they are today having fought against the oppositions and hurdles. The life is not always the bed of roses. Many a times when the oppositions and difficulty arise we tend to give up. But if we give up, it shows that we don’t have a dream. Remember the saying “quitters never win and the winners never quit”