The most delicate and dangerous part of space journeys is the point at which the spacecraft returns to the earth’s atmosphere. For instance, take the case of the Apollo-8 spacecraft. Before the capsule touched down on December 27, 1968, it had to negotiate a precipitous turn to the earth’s atmosphere. Because of the earth’s gravity–seven times that of outer space–the speed of the spacecraft soared, reaching an astronomical 39,000 kilometres per hour. Because of its extraordinary speed, the heat of the spacecraft rose to terrifying proportions, for air friction had started heating up the space vessel as soon as it entered the earth’s atmosphere. Soon it became literally red hot, reaching a temperature of 3,300 degrees celsius.
No living creature can survive at such a temperature. How was it, then, that the three American astronauts aboard the craft were able to remain unaffected by the blazing inferno that had built up around them and return safely to earth? The reason that they were able to do so was that the spacecraft in which they were travelling had been so constructed that its interior would not be affected by the severity of external conditions. In spite of the incredible heat outside, the temperature inside the craft was just 21 degrees celsius. Imagine 3,300 degrees on the outside and 21 degrees on the inside.
This event from the realm of space travel has an important lesson to teach us in our lives on earth. Time and time again we run into highly charged situations in life: it seems impossible to go on. There is only one way to survive under such conditions, and that is by not letting ourselves be inwardly affected by our outward situation; by suppressing our emotions and keeping our feelings under control. Only then will we be able to maintain our composure. We will not be able to survive crises in life if we let our inward condition become as highly charged as our outward situation. If we remain inwardly calm and composed, at all times, we will be able to survive the heat of any external circumstances and will safely reach our destination. If there is hate and anger directed against us, we must not let such feelings get under our skin; instead we should try to feel forgiveness in our heart of hearts. Even if the whole world wishes us evil, we should still have only good feelings for others. There is no other way of succeeding in life. If we adopt the same feelings as prevail in our outside environment, the challenges of life are sure to be more than we can bear.
