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Amongst the multitude of ordinary people, talented persons are as easily identifiable as flowers in foliage of leaves and thorns, or as moon amongst the stars. As such, no one is ever born talented. Nor is talent obtained as a gift or lucky coincidence. It is a resource acquired through one’s own endeavor. The seeds of talent are latent in everyone but one has to nurture, develop and refine it. In this process others may guide and support, but it is essentially a quality, a distinction, earned by one’s own hard endeavor.

Amongst the many types of resources acquired by man throughout the course of his life, talent is unique. Wealth keeps on changing hands. Beauty and youth are also transitory possessions. Only children and young ones appear beautiful. With advancing age, the face gets hardened or wrinkled, and softness of skin disappears. Even education does not remain a personal asset in totality. Only that part of learning is remembered which comes in regular use. Help from friends, associates, relatives and co-workers can also not be relied upon forever. It is not possible to maintain the same degree of intimacy with them for all times. Rights and authority are also not everlasting. With withdrawal of support they pass on to someone else. The capacity to work hard decreases with old age. Memory, sharpness, energy and dynamism too decline and make a fast exit. When it happens, man finds it difficult to plan and implement any productive scheme. Sooner or later, the danger signals of approaching death also begin to appear. There is a gradual depletion in the repository of life force which ultimately empties on death.

Human body is in a smooth state of development only during the period of smooth functioning of circulatory system till full maturity of body has been achieved. Whether one spends this prime time of youth in inaction, procrastination or in satisfying greed and mindless passions, is one’s own choice. At times people are even found exhibiting this energy in destructive activities driven by extreme arrogance, viciousness, or strayed ambitions. Such people foolishly fritter away their inherent power with which otherwise they can perform miracles. The prudent ones guard their inherent potentials zealously and make every possible effort to further refine and use them judiciously. They know that only these are their permanent assets which can help improve and uplift the course of their own as well as others’ life. They are aware that they will be carrying these powers with them even in their later cycles of life after death and use them for achieving successively better environment and higher states of consciousness.

Efforts made for improvement and constructive use of talents are commendable from all points of view; and like gold, can be cashed for success in any field of human activity. Superb progress of the materialistic world is there only because of the endeavors of talented people in different walks of life. In the field of spirituality this is the effort which develops and promotes greatness associated with benevolence.

There are some basic principles for refinement and augmentation of talent. All those aspiring for success in life are recommended to understand and follow these steps. The first step is “augmentation of capabilities” and a persistent endeavor for their scrupulous use with ever-readiness and unperturbed dedication. Every moment of life should be regarded as precious and a planned evaluation of time should be made for its systematic use for thoughtful, productive objectives. In fact, such an alert, and farsighted state of mind is what corresponds to “awakened state of mind”. Generally people waste their life in dullness and lethargy and pass it like a pain or burden to be endured. They feel contented barely with the arrangement of some means of living. There are hardly any motivations in them conducive to action for making the future brighter. The zealous aspirants of talent bring themselves out of this quagmire, meticulously nurture their emerging capabilities, protect, and use them like a precious property. They make use of their potentials and qualities wisely for best possible outcomes. This is how the Kalpavriksha (a wish-fulfilling mythological tree) of their life grows and blossoms.

The second step is to cultivate self-confidence, and develop a magnetic and authentic personality. This is a characteristic attribute of those whose talent has achieved worthy recognition. It requires adoption of life style of an awakened, responsible and gentlemanly individual. Cleanliness of body and mind, and clarity, precision and modesty of speech are also integral part of civilized behavior. For this, it is also necessary to express humility and respect for others. Grooming of personality is possible only for those who are constantly inspired by seeing virtues in others and also make efforts to identify their own shortcomings with a determination of self- reformation. People of lowly bent of mind are always found bragging about their own achievements and finding faults with others. In this way they stagnate and gradually deplete the efficiency of their intellectual faculties and other potentials and lose credibility in society.

Truly talented persons radiate positivity in one form or the other. The ever present smile on their faces indicates their self-contentment. With this virtue, others too look forward to them for alleviating their misery. Seekers of progress are often eager to associate with them in any enterprise. People naturally tend to avoid those who have a habit of expressing dissatisfaction against someone, something or the other, or have a tendency to annoy by unpleasant interactions. Anyone aspiring to upgrade his qualities never commits this mistake and is quite watchful to discard, should such habits begin to influence his behavioral pattern.

The third step consists of orderliness in life. Even highly resourceful persons are found facing failure and are ridiculed because of their disorderliness. A talented person keeps on reviewing his plans and activities from time to time and unhesitatingly and readily adopts corrective measures. He is never bound by tendencies of conservatism or hard-line attitudes. Such persons are aware that for being progressive one has to change strategy according to circumstances and improve upon the existing methodology. This is how they help in developing a ever-progressive system. Only those persons are considered worthy of shouldering some big or additional responsibility who have the capacity to properly plan and organize their efforts, resources, thoughts, time, and surrounding environment for the assigned task along with management of their other commitments. Before formulating ambitious schemes, one should examine as to what extent he has succeeded in streamlining his own potentials, resources and activities using his own organizing skills.

The fourth — and the last step, is to take farsighted initiatives for developing ideal leadership attributes. These attributes of leadership are indicative of courage and self- confidence. Ordinarily people suffer from lack of confidence, hesitancy, timidity, indecision and cowardice. They do not come forward even to associate with righteous activities. Though convinced about the correctness of some issue and about its propriety, they generally do not find courage to join its supporters. They remain confined within the self-made situation, inexpediency of which they are well aware of. Amongst such a mass of people those are considered brilliant who maintain unflinching faith in truth and propriety and move ahead solitarily, irrespective of whether there is concurrence of views and assistance of others or not.

Having deliberated on the basic steps, we must also understand that mere deliberations on principles are not sufficient to acquire talents. These principles are to be imbibed deeply in thought, character and behavior. It is not possible to do so without actually putting the principles into practice. In order to obtain butter from milk, which is one of its ingredients, the latter is required to be subjected to boiling, churning and other processes. The same is true of manifestation of hidden talents. When a person develops mature and brilliant concepts they should be translated into constructive activities. Just as revolutions in a dynamo charge and reactivate a dying battery, coordination of thoughts and actions shape the character of a person. This is the basic process necessary for any commendable achievement. This is also the blank cheque which can be cashed instantly by anyone anywhere. No one is known to have inherited talents for performing big tasks. All of us have to acquire them with total dedication and personal endeavor.

Great talents are torch bearers. They move forward alone to prove their capability of charting new courses towards noble goals. With it they naturally receive acclamation all around. Others follow the path shown by these pioneers. Progressive societies/ organizations are always on the lookout for such individuals to shoulder major responsibilities. Having been tested for integrity and dependability such persons are persuaded to fulfill increasingly greater responsibilities which they willingly accept and efficiently discharge in all respects.

A railway engine moves alone towards the destination under its own power, and drags along with it a long chain of loaded wagons. We know that in a train, the engine gets more importance and is also considered as its most valuable part. The significance of an engine is because of the power inherent in its machinery which has the competence and organized system to pull the train. Talented persons possess this ‘leadership’ characteristic and capability. They never look askance but move forward single-mindedly; their magnetic personality and conduct naturally attract other deserving fellows and motivate them to join hands. This is the secret of their grand success.

Though there exist contrary examples as well, which show that the inherent resource of talent (in usual sense of the word) is also sometimes misused for improper objectives. As we can see today, wealth, strength, beauty, skilled expertise, creative arts and intellectual sharpness, etc are being (mis)used by many towards self-obsession, destructive planning, and immoral actions. Terrorists, unscrupulous persons, reckless individuals and undisciplined defiant people also are very sharp and skilled in succeeding in their misdeeds. Nevertheless, there is no doubt, that strayed or misguided talent neither results in steady progress in any field nor it leaves any commendable traditions for posterity. Such people invite wrath, enmity and antipathy from all quarters. In course of time they suffer ignominy and remorse, and are punished by not only the courts of justice, but also, and surely, by divine displeasure.

Persons having farsighted prudence make an endeavor to develop their positive attributes and establish their integrity and dependability in public eye because of their idealistic activities. Whosoever ever achieves higher levels of success along righteous path also attracts numerous followers. For this reason their refined talent has been regarded as a mahasiddhi (supernormal power). The devotees of this mahasiddhi zealously guard the integrity of their character, disregarding temptations of immediate gains, and even facing most adverse circumstances.

Call of the Present Times:

Whatever significant has been achieved in this world has been the result of efforts of the pioneers of the path of progress paved with farsighted dedication and hard endeavor. In this way they have been able to obtain multifaceted success in all walks of life and earned name and fame. These are the persons who maintain the ethical equilibrium of the society and reverse the trends of regression. Only such persons can bring revolutionary changes in prevailing trends of time and infuse the society/the nation with a new zeal.

Review of biographies of the trendsetters in the world in various periods of human-history who established a new order for humanity, would confirm that when the talent is deployed in the right direction, there is a revolutionary change not only in the personality of the person concerned but also in the entire environment around him. For example, the past few centuries in the history of India have witnessed the glorious feats of great patriots like Rana Pratap, Shivaji, Subhash Chandra Bose and Gandhiji who changed apparent impossibility into reality by righteous use of their talents to meet the call of time. Indeed, great personalities use their life as a laboratory where they conduct revolutionary experiments by prudent, focused and constructive use of their talents and achieve desired results. Their lives and deeds remain the perennial source of guiding lights for future generations.

Aspirants for following the path of great talents must note that there does not exist any institution to provide ready-means for cultivation or augmentation of talents in a person. One is required to seek appropriate opportunity and find or create suitable environment by one’s own personal endeavor to translate established principles (of talent- development) into actions. Suitable opportunities are, however, not available just anywhere. One may have to wait for them patiently and gain from experience slowly and steadily.

The present phase of human history has brought a unique opportunity for everyone who is looking for expanding and applying his talents in positive collective endeavors without much personal effort. Rarely do in the history of mankind such opportune moments occur and it is the rare fortunate ones who recognize and take advantage from them. Hanuman could identify one such moment and within a short period earned name and fame by performing herculean tasks such as crossing the sea, uprooting the mountains and destroying the enemy stronghold at Lanka. Had he not answered to the need of time, he would have continued to serve his master Sugreev as his companion (as an ordinary ape).

Today there is an urgent need to find energetic, zealous, talented persons who have the capacity to uproot the evil and disseminate the light of prudence and goodness at this juncture of change of an era, when the world is passing through its worst period full of adversities, threats, and challenges. Dedicated talents are called upon to save human dignity from total extinction. From only such individuals is expected a supra-dynamic role comparable to that of Bhagirath who had undertaken the arduous challenge of descent of holy Ganga for the welfare of mankind.

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