MY AMBITION IN LIFE
The world is too much with us
Getting and spending we lay waste our powers.
When Wordsworth wrote these lines he was rather bored with the material ambitions of the people. Is material gaining the only aim of life? People run after money. They build palacious buildings and enjoy all the luxuries of the world. Aren’t they bored with it? Many a rich man in Europe and the USA has started asking ‘Is this the life for which we were born as man’? Young Ford wanted to turn a spiritualist. Many have become that I followers of Indian saints. Naturally I am not tempted to be either a millionaire or a political personality. I agree with Thomas Gray that
The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power and all that beauty, all that wealth ever gave. Awaits alike the inevitable hour: The paths of glory lead but to the grave
I have an ambition to serve the nation by serving the poor. To earn my livelihood I shall have to seek some job. I would like to be a lecturer so that I may always be in the touch of young men. I will organize these young men to help the poor. Poverty is so endemic in India that there is a vast field to work. One can find poor people everywhere.
My ultimate aim is to work among the vanavasis. For that I must have either some financial assistance or money of my own. By the time I reach that goal I would like to work among the poor in my own city. I have some friends among the so called backward classes. The backward classes are duped by the politicians as well as by the government. No efforts are made to remove their backwardness. They are humiliated by the people. They have a social stigma with them. None would like to mix among them.
I have an ambition to organize these people to work among themselves. I shall live with them for most of the time and create confidence among them that they can improve their lot themselves with three cells -one looking after education, the other for health and sanitation and the third to remove the social disparities. I shall try to expand these activities at district level and even more. Poverty is a curse while social disparity is a sin. My ambition is to remove these among as many people as an activist like me can.