When The Road Beckons

by Ravi Manoram

“Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.”

The biggest battle that you can ever fight is the battle with your inner demons. No politics helps, no advice helps, no friends or family helps. It’s you and you alone who must face your inner demons.

The outside world only feeds on your fear and when a man is without fear he remains no ordinary man;

But if I were to die today or tomorrow, the only regret I would have is the regret of not doing the things I really wanted to do.

We either live in the future planning or in the past regretting. This present was my moment and I was going to have every bit of it. I had decided to focus all my emotions and thoughts on the present. After all our actions in the present shape our past that is yet to come and give us hopes for the future of tomorrow. Before we plan for the future, we must make the present right. You might not agree, but life is the sum total of the present moments put together.

Neither poverty nor wealth can make a skillful sailor but the storms that he faces at the sea.

“Not all those who wander are lost.”

“Many people suffer from the fear of finding oneself alone, and so they don't find themselves at all.”

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” ― Nelson Mandela

“Freedom (n.): To ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing.” ― Ayn Rand

“You wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down.” ― Toni Morrison

“Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation. Be notorious.” ― Rumi

“Sometimes it takes a good fall to really know where you stand” ― Hayley Williams

“Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives - choice, not chance, determines your destiny.” ― Aristotle

“You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.” ― Dr. Seuss

“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.” ― Gautama Buddha

‘When I was clever I tried to change the world, now when I am wise I try to change myself.’

Knowledge is a liberator. It helps you conquer your fear. Knowledge through experience is true wisdom. And this experience comes through your deeds, not in the years one has lived. That’s why there is a saying: it’s not the years you lived, but it’s the life in those years that count.

We then devote ourselves to the struggle to maintain our persona of nothingness till we die one day, and even in that woeful death, we are worried about whether people turn up at our funeral as we always dutifully did when others died.

"The trouble is, you think you have time."

-Life's Journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out and bleeding while shouting. Holy Shit!! What a Ride!!"

“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.” ― John Lennon

“Everything tells me that I am about to make a wrong decision, but making mistakes is just part of life. What does the world want of me? Does it want me to take no risks, to go back to where I came from because I didn't have the courage to say "yes" to life?” ― Paulo Coelho,