A Nation’s Progress
How does so miraculous a thing as a tree come into being? It is by a tiny seed giving itself up to the task, sacrificing itself so that a lush, verdant tree can grow out of the ground. And how is a house built? Ask the bricks from which it is built, and they will tell you that it is through some of them having buried themselves. That is how a structure comes to stand erect.
And that is the way that man should construct his own life as well—through sacrifice. It is only if some of the individuals making up a society are ready to sacrifice their own futures that the future of humanity will take a constructive turn. And no community will prosper if a certain number of its members are not willing to accept adversity—even ruin—as their lot in life. Construction stands upon the bedrock of sacrifice. That is one of the immutable laws of nature. It applies in every walk of life—in the human world, just as in nature.
Every construction has a top, which we can all see. But we sometimes forget about the base, for it lies buried, deep in the ground. Yet, it is upon this invisible base that the whole building rests. There has to be this foundation and, in order to lay it, there have to be individuals who are prepared, figuratively speaking, to bury themselves in the ground. That is what is meant by sacrifice.
An individual might, in a fit of emotion, give his very life for some cause, but that is not what sacrifice is all about. Real sacrifice means taking a part so small and so inconspicuous in constructive work that it is almost invisible, and this, no matter how prolonged the period or how far off ultimate success appears to be. It entails a struggle which offers neither fame nor wealth; it is to ‘bury’ oneself in order to build, to forge a future by giving up the present.
The progress of the entire nation is dependent upon there being some elements of society who are ready to make such sacrifices. They are the seeds which, buried in the ground, give life to humanity; they are bricks on whose foundation mankind builds anew.
