Scion of Ikshvaku (Ram Chandra, #1)

by Amish Tripathi

Dark clouds cannot hide the sun forever. One day, they will clear and true light will shine through.

Shukracharya himself say that if a tactic has led to failure, then persisting with it unquestioningly, in the wild hope of a different outcome, is nothing short of insanity?’

karma is giving you a negative signal repeatedly, then it is not testing you, it is trying to teach you. You

There is something positive hidden in every negative, and something negative hidden in every positive. Life is complicated, and a balanced person can see both sides.

She has that something, like the thread in a crystal-bead necklace. She holds it all together.

‘They say it takes immense pressure to create diamonds.’

told me the story of the butterfly emerging from the hard pupa. Its life begins as an “ugly” caterpillar. When the time is right, it forms a pupa and retreats behind its hard walls. Within its shell, it transforms into a butterfly, unseen, unheard. When ready, it uses its tiny, sharp claws at the base of its forewings to crack a small opening in the hard, protective outer shell. It squeezes through this tiny opening and struggles to make its way out. This is a difficult, painful and prolonged process. Misguided compassion may make us want to enlarge the hole in the pupa, imagining that it would ease the butterfly’s task. But that struggle is necessary; as the butterfly squeezes its body out of the tiny hole, it secretes fluids within its swollen body. This fluid goes to its wings, strengthening them; once they’ve emerged, as the fluid dries, the delicate creatures are able to take flight. Making the hole bigger to “help” the butterfly and ease its struggle will only debilitate it. Without the struggle, its wings would never gain strength. It would never fly.’