Self reliance or self-help is a must to achieve success, happiness and progress. It is of no use to wait for others to help, assist and guide. The saying, “ God helps those who help themselves,” very beautifully and aptly underlines the truth. Only the weak and helpless call on gods for help instead of putting their own shoulders to the wheel. One must learn to trust one’s own hands, power and strength, instead of depending good luck and the grace of the gods. It is he himself who can make or mar his fortune. Lord Buddha taught man to be one’s lamp and light and not to depend on borrowed light.
A self reliant person depends on his own brain, power, capacity, resources and prudence. Therefore, he is master of his fate and fortune. He shapes his own course of events and is never a slave of circumstances. Equipoise, confidence, alertness perseverance and patience are his sure tools with which he carves out success and happiness. Such a person is firm, prompt in action, decisive, bold, self-possessed and ever ready to face any challenge anytime, while others are much handicapped and doubtful starters. They lack self-confidence, independence of judgement and action. Success is the sweetest when earned with one’s own sweat, labor, perseverance and resources. Fruits of success wouldn’t taste as sweet if achieved with the help of others. One can never run fast with crutches. Dependence on others is like working with crutches. The lesson of self-reliance is one that all young man and woman should learn and imbibe if they want to succeed in life. It never means that he or she should not take into consideration the advice and counsel of their friends, well-wishers and elders. Self-help also never means not learning from the experiences of others. It only means that one should not depend on those nor should they be ever expected.
It is with determination and self-reliance that all hurdles can be removed one by one. There is no substitute for hard work and toil. Therefore, never hesitate to soil your hands to shed your sweat and to depend on your strength.
Be your own guide, lamp, staff and help and never crave for favour if you desire to achieve a respectable measure of success. Heaven and hell, victory and defeat lie within you. You ,yourself are the maker and master of your destiny. Self-reliant people are always optimistic, cheerful, positive thinkers, decisive, free, independent, reliable, courageous and people of character and destiny. They are rich in expediency, quick action and steadfast in resolve. They never blame fate, circumstances or lack of opportunities and make their own tools and use them with all the skill, strength , precision and concentration at their command. Their work, creation, achievement and success all bear the stamp of their personality, character and authority. They are the real heroes and the chosen ones. They are original in ideas and imagining in shaping things and events.
All great and successful people have been self-reliant. They led their people and achieved what they had set their minds on. For example, take the case of countries depending on foreign aid. These countries are always slaves and in a debt-trap. They cannot take independent decisions and shape their foreign policies without taking into consideration the interests of their debtor-masters. They receive economic aid but there are always strings attached to it.
It is your own industry, wisdom and perseverance that can take you to the top. Many times, it has been found that help or over help actually spoiled he career of many a promising young man and woman.
Gandhiji has been a great and living example of self-reliance and self-help. He always depended on his own inner strength and character. It was because of his unmatched power of self-reliance that he could lead such a huge nation like India and defeat such a powerful adversary as the Britishers, and that too without any bloodshed, violence or armed struggle. The strength of his moral character, self-reliance and self-dependence has few parallels in human history.
Self-reliance brings out the best in men and women, while dependence on others weakens our will power, resolve, judgment and striking power. The odds and unfavourable circumstances work like a healthy challenge an inspiration to a self-reliant person. Sufferings refine our sensibilities, sweet are the uses of adversity and struggle and strife makes us strong and tolerant. Self-reliance and power to overcome odds are two aspects of the same coin. Unfavourable circumstances, odds and difficulties etc test our courage, strength, character and self-reliance. The path of self-reliance is strewn with thorns, stones and traps but at the end there are flowers of success, glory and prosperity and fame. Let us not lose heart when beset by difficulties or oppressed with failure for these things are designed to stimulate us to higher and purer effort and to teach us the great and glorious lesson of self-reliance. Undoubtedly, self-reliance is a pilgrims best staff , a workers best tool, and a soldiers best weapon. Therefore, be a self-helper.