AUM SAINATH: "BURNING YOUR BOATS"

I could not have understood, let alone fathom, at only eight, what it might mean to speak as a writer speaks. My Father 'Jangu' was an incredible story-teller. My earliest memories of him are of soul-stirring sagas. I clasped with reverance what he said in my heart. Each had a colossal bearing on my imagination. The scenes rolled as a film before my mind's-eye.

Those stories fertilized my spirit, urging it through wonderment into never-before-witnessed avenues of thought.Through ones capascity of reverance, myriad such stories heighten ones perception in an unparalelled manner. The osmosis, the heightened force with which words can impact and influence a readers mind are altogether incalculable.

One sees life in a way, one could not otherwise have seen it. In some unexplainable way, to this moment, his seed in me arouses a need to expect the spectacular.The oft-spoken term, "burning all your boats" is inherently path-breaking, and a sure-fire way. There is a method to what at first appears as absolute madness. This "do-or-die" spirit-filled way speaks of "all" or nothing at all. All the way is the only way. Similar to what great mountaineers, often, do. Placing themselves in a precarious death-defying position from which there is no going back. Retreat is summarily cut-off. From this vantage watch-tower in spirit, "failure is never an option." Upward, forward, higher, onward the only choice. Yes, its a strategy that entails extreme peril.

Too many choice, options, dull, retard and oxidize ones forward-seeing, spirit. Dampening the in-born coil-spring of momentum. Making one lakadaisical. Once youclear any cob-webs of self-doubt, where there is no-way: You make a way. Your mental bridge-building capascity is what counts, most. So, you formulate and find your own trail-blazing path. One unique and your own.

If at the beginning the results are les-than-dazzling do not despair. In time like a sure-footed mountain goat, via your uncanny Senses beyond the Sixth you will derive deep-felt relish from surmounting, and transmuting near-terrifying problems to your supreme advantage. Scaling any high-perching problem crag from an all-new mental approach.Here, is an all-classic most compelling example to illustrate pointedly a formidable "hydrant of power" that you can tap-in to at will. Its secret in-flow pumping swift-flowing rivers of courage, fortitude and forebearance through your veins. As a steady copious readily available stream. Making you virtuall, invincible. You come into direct, personal, contact with your blessing-bringing powers.In this aroused state you can move a mountain-range, aside. On the astral-beam of inspired thought.Whenever you are faced with a cronic life-threatning problem of gatgantuan proportions; or when your back is pinned to the wall recall what i now relate to you.

The Romans were far out-numbered by the Saxons. On a craggy-lipped cliif of Dover during a fierce and hard-fought battle. Every known chance of survival for the Romans had long slipped away. The Romans took an all-important, life-altering step, that ultimately, turned the course of that epoch-making battle in their favor. The self-aware Roman General commanded the war-weary men to take all the supples ashore. And here was the key-insight he commanded them to follow with stoic diligence: "Burn, every boat." Right down to the last, three-masted galley. The brave men were tongue-tied and aghast. They followed unstintingly the command; setting the high-masted flottila fleet of boats into an un-stoppable inferno. Swords sheathed they charged the Saxons, as one mighty wave.

That dramatic and decisive action turned the day. There was no going back. Failure was never a comfortable option. They were compelled to win. Tyey were immortalized.Such high-spirited, split-second and spontaneously-inspired decisions, will turn the tide of effort in your favor. Decisions are empowering. Life-changing. We, only, regret what we "don't" do, revealed my Father. Indecision is weakening. Hanging between no-where. A dull grey zone that neither knows the jubilation of victory, nor, the whip-lash of an ignominous defeat. When you meet your dangers full-tilt, head-on. Catching your bull by the horns, at times, becomes mandatory.

Gazing past and through any problem. Looking it right in the eye, and exulting: "I'm invinvible. With such an energy flowing through your veins you attain devastating forces to work over-time, aiding you to excel in marvellous manner.This do-or-die mindframe orchestrates the spectacular. A supra-powerful, flame-throwing tongue does your interior furnace of will, throw. A sun-loving spirit such as this terrifyes the living daylights out of any problem. No set-back can withstand such a voltage. The easier way is a misnomer and waters-down your powers, hypnotizing you into mental inertia. Placing yourself into similar states of the unknown will encourage you to plumb more fully these magical half-hidden resources, and superb reserves in you.

This is the area from which your richest rewards will be forth-coming. When you walk up to any shadow, and with deep self-reliance cast a deeply-glowing cone of insight upon it, it melts, into nothingness.

Cyrus Jehangir Sataravalla