You are the maker of your own destiny

|| योग: कर्मसु कौशलम् ||

Having told about the necessity of regaining what was lost, Mananeeya Ekanthji says : We can mould our future.

Swamiji had said : You are the maker of your own destiny.

It all means, everything is in your hand. If you think positively, you will become positive, you will contribute positively. Hence, to make or mar is in your hand. Now that we have this national work in our hand, we need to take the things positively and work. Mananeeya Eknathji further says :  The ancient seers developed the theory of 'reap as you sow' and therefore, the future of every individual, was not the idiosyncrasy and the fanciful will of any superior master or overlord, but it was in his hands. But we have lost that. If anybody, by this efforts and firm will achieve greatness, we immediately attribute the same to his being a superhuman being, because we have lost all self-confidence in ourselves and we want to conceal the inferiority complex and the diffidence. The great man is immediately turned into an avatara and we try to escape the responsibility of emulating the outstanding and ideal qualities of the person.

In this regard, we have the incident in the life of Eknathji itself. It goes....The nation was full of grief over the demise of Lokamanya Tilak, the moving spirit behind the freedom movement. His work for the freedom and regeneration of India was immense. The awakening he brought to the people of India and his voluminous work, the Gitarahasya, were unparalleled.

The appreciation, admiration and the devotion of the people of India for his work were reflected in the huge cutout at the exhibition held during the Congress Conference at Nagpur in 1920. He was shown with four hands carrying Shankh, Chakra, Gada and Padma. Many visited the exhibition. A young six-year-old boy amongst them alone was puzzled by the huge cutout.
"Who is he?" he asked his mother.
"Lokamanya Tilak", she said.
"Why does he have four hands?" asked the boy.
"He did a lot of work for our country".
"But is he a God?"
"He worked like a God for our country".
"But is he an incarnation of Vishnu?" the boy persisted referring
to Shankh, Chakra, Gada and Padma in the four hands of
Lokamanya Tilak.
"God's power is there in all of us".
"That is true, but is he a God or man?"
"Of course, he was a man like us, but he worked a lot for our
Motherland…"
"But then why should he be shown with four hands?"
"As I said earlier, because he has done a lot of work."
"But did he actually have four hands?"
"Nath, I have already told you that he was a man like us. He did
a lot for our country and so the people have depicted him as
God", said the exasperated mother.
"But when he was a man, why four hands are…?"
"Nath, how many times should I repeat the same thing? If a
man works very hard he can work like God."

Though Nath kept quiet, he never forgot the incident. Though it intrigued him, he learnt two lessons from it. If an ordinary person works for the country very hard, then he could work like a God. By calling such a person a God or an incarnation of God, people shirk the responsibility of raising themselves to that level. The incident became a landmark in the life of young Nath. His life is a journey from the ordinary to the extraordinary, seeking inspiration from great persons instead of considering them as incarnations. It was at this young and impressionable age that he came in contact with the fiery patriotic personality, Dr. Hedgewar.