________________
We all know the principle of the steam engine. As long as there is a high pressure of steam in the boiler, the engine will merrily pull along thousands of tons of load. But if there should be a leakage, if the steam should escape, if the pressure should fall, the engine, with its scores of wagons trailing behind, will crash to a standstill.
The mind of the tranquil man is like this steam. He will merrily chug through life, no matter how heavy the load, how dire the calamity, how bitter the envy or malice of others. His self-reliance has given him such inner strength that he never falls into the trough of despondency, never wallows in the carrion comfort of despair or self-pity.
Can history give us one example of a saint or a seer who had not been visited by calamities, who had not been the target of the envious and the malicious? It is precisely because they suffered that they became saints. It was suffering that brought enlightenment. With every additional ounce of fortitude that you gain, you are one step closer to being a saint or seer.
Many devotees and religious minded people would probably find an echo of their own feelings of injustice in the cry of the poet, Hopkins:
3
