STAYING COOL
The Road to Success
THE most delicate and treacherous part of space journeys is when the spacecraft returns to the earth’s atmosphere. Take the case of the Apollo-8 spacecraft, for instance. Before the capsule touched down on December 27, 1985, it had to negotiate a precipitous return 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. Air friction 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 animal can survive at such a temperature. How was it, then, that the three American astronauts abroad the craft were able to remain unaffected by the blazing inferno that had been built up around them? The reason they were able to return safely to earth was that the spacecraft in which they were traveling had been constructed in such a way that its interior would not be affected by the severity of conditions on the outside. In spite of the incredible heat on the outside, inside the craft the temperature was just 21 degrees Celsius. Imagine – 3,300 degrees on the outside; 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 again, we run into highly charged situations in life. Outwardly, it seems impossible to go on. There is only one way to survive under such conditions, and that is by not letting oneself be inwardly affected by one’s outward situation. In such moments, one ought to suppress one’s emotions and keep one’s feelings under control. Only then will one be able to maintain one’s inward cool. One will not be able to survive crises in life if one lets one’s inward condition become as highly charged as one’s outward situation. If, on the other hand, one remains inwardly calm and composed, one will be able to survive the heat of external circumstances, and safely reach one’s destination.
If there is hate and anger directed against one from the outside, one must not let such feelings get inside one. Instead, one should cultivate feelings of pardon and forgiveness in one’s heart. If the whole world wishes one evil, still one should only have good feelings for others. There is no other way of succeeding in life. If one adopts the same feelings as one’s outside environment, the challenges of life are sure to be more than one can bear.
MAULANA WAHIDUDDIN KHAN:
In developing our personality, the most important thing for us is to broaden our mind by awakening our consciousness. To awaken our consciousness, we require three things -study, observation and intellectual exchange with other people.
Books are the greatest source of knowledge we can study that we have, the world of nature is the greatest source of knowledge that we can observe, and in the matter of intellectual learning, it is essential for us to form the habit of learning from others, and continue in this learning process. A spouse is an immediate intellectual partner. From this point of view, marriage is a great opportunity for intellectual development, as both people can interact with each other and make intellectual progress together. Intellectual development is essential for everyone. Marriage offers just such an ideal opportunity for intellectual partnership.
