Abdul Kalam – A Philosopher Scientist
Be modest and you will be able to attain every kind of high
success in life.
Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, former President of India, died on July 27, 2015 at the age of 83. Throughout his life he had been a man of integrity. Two words are crucial to understand his personality—intellectually, he was scientific in temper and morally, a very humble person.
He was born into a South Indian family which could initially not even afford to pay his school fees. But he worked very hard and continued with his education, and consequently went on to become one of the highly respected aerospace scientists in the country.
Dr. Abdul Kalam was not one of those about whom it is said that ‘he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth’, yet he was born with a great ‘incentive spoon’ which was responsible for his tremendous success. His ‘spoon’ helped him, and he rose to the highest office of the president of India. The life of Dr. Abdul Kalam has a very significant lesson, that is, people’s categorization into haves and have-nots is unrealistic. The real categorization is that people are either actual haves or potential haves. Those who today apparently belong to the category of have-nots can convert their potential into actuality, and thus enter the category of haves.
Dr. Kalam once said, “If a country is to be corruption free and become a nation of beautiful minds, I strongly feel there are three key societal members who can make a difference. They are the father, the mother and the teacher.” This statement is a very correct analysis of the issue of nation building, because a person develops his personality in his formative period, during which he is under the supervision of his parents and teachers. If these three members of society resolve to make the child a right person, then within one generation the whole situation of India will undergo a drastic change.
Regarding the youth, Dr. Kalam said: “My message, especially to young people is to have courage to think differently, courage to invent, to travel the unexplored path, courage to discover the impossible and to conquer the problems and succeed. These are great qualities that they must work towards.” If we express these qualities in one word, it can be said that young people should make ‘excellence’ their goal, they should not accept anything less than striving for the excellent. In doing so, not only will they reach great heights of success, but will also be able to reform the society along constructive lines.
It is said that even amidst his tight schedule, Dr. Kalam found time to put pen to paper, almost every day. This is a very creative habit because if a person restricts himself only to routine office work, he will slowly experience intellectual stagnation. However, if along with work he takes out time for reading and writing, the process of his intellectual development will go on unhindered.
On one occasion, Dr. Kalam made the following point: “India has a message for the world that religion could be transformed into a mighty spiritual force.” This is without doubt a realistic statement, because India has traditionally been a country of high spiritual values. If India develops in spirituality, it will certainly become a lighthouse of spirituality for the world.
When Dr. Kalam was president, a reporter began to interview him by referring to him as ‘Your Excellency’. The interviewer says that Dr. Kalam cut him short, “Call me Kalam,” he said. This is the key to Dr. Kalam’s personality—he was modest to the core. The message he has left behind for others is: Be modest and you will be able to attain every kind of high success in life.
