HE LEADS WITH LIGHT, O HE LEADS WITH LOVE

What is it that makes a person inspirational? He has a vision and he has a mission. And his mission is to fulfil his vision. He cuts across barriers to relate to the whole of humanity; for him there no man-made boundaries that separate humanity into segments segregated, no ideological antipathies that isolate him from the rest of humanity, and, above all, no malicious agenda lies with him to achieve ends that are vicious. He dreams big for he is a visionary, he acts big for his spirit cannot be contained within small limits and his sympathies are large, nay, universal in scope for he has embraced the whole of humanity within his heart. Such a one carries an electric ideal within his bosom and it is this ideal that keeps him on, going ever forward towards the achievement of his goal, the fulfilment of his mission.

His ideas are so well-spelt out, his ideals so lofty, his activation of his programmes so energetic and his faith in his own self so infectious that he spontaneously draws people towards him and his cause, and thus his movement begins. But first, a great preparation is necessary for all this, the foundation of character and personality must be built and courage of conviction which will carry the mission forward. This is austerity, spiritual or secular matters not, for all effort directed towards a higher cause, be it spiritual self-realisation or secular self-building, essentially gravitates to the formation of an integrated personality which will be the springboard for effective thought and action in one's bid for achievement of one's goals.

The one who will inspire must have a personal magnetism, an electric aura about him that will carry the day. He must be a born leader and not a leader manufactured out of mundane matter on whom directorship is thrust. Leadership must come natural to him even as ideas fermenting foremost in his brain must set the agenda for his programmes. Moreover, he must be above all pettiness and must ever remain detached form his followers even as he is thick and thin with them in the execution of his programmes. He must be one with them and he must be separate from them, such should be his extraordinary powers of attachment and detachment at will. Intellectually, he must be convinced that the contentious issues of the day need resolution and he will have to play a pivotal role in solving many a knotty problem, such should be his sense of responsibility towards the world.

The very word 'world' brings to sharp focus the required commitment of our inspirational figure for the whole of humanity as such and not merely for any particular country or community, race or religion, gender or group. The good of man in totality must be his concern and not any specialised segment of humankind. His universal ideas coupled with his broad sympathies will win him the loyalty of millions even as his radical ideas and programmes will enrage others committed to cultural conservatism and archaic absolutism. Undaunted though he will move on following his grand idea of the transformation of the human condition, drawing his flock towards him by his force of personality and strength of character. Then a movement builds up and the idea spreads like wild fire catching others in its ambit, consuming mass ignorance in its conflagration and purifying human society with a new wave of enlightenment suited to the times, yet rooted in eternity. Such a world-leader appears from time to time whenever virtue subsides and vice reigns, says the Geeta, and he resets the fine balance of life by adjusting its forces, giving humankind an altered vision of its career and destiny through the prism of higher understanding and illumination. He raises, ennobles and deifies life even as he opens up the floodgates of freedom and immortality for man to enter into the 'kingdom of heaven'. He lends the movement the tinge of his own personality but what he gives utterance to is the pristine philosophy of the spirit of man in his onward journey towards truth and enlightenment. The heaven that he preaches is no material place but a realm of pure idea, a freedom zone entirely separate from all material contamination, an ethereal level of detachment from all that is sense-bound and mundane, a transcendental plane beyond the pale of the senses.

Such then is our inspirational leader, a continent, cultured and cultivated personality with a sweep of vision and precision of insight that can see through to the heart of things, the myriad maladies that afflict human society and can remedy the evils with the force of his personality and the strength of his character. He is a seer who has plumbed the depths of truth right to its very roots and has constructed a bridge of ideas that can carry man from his earthly nightmare to his delight at dawn. Enlightened he stands as a beacon in this ocean of ignorance to guide fallen and faltering man through the tempestuous tides to the tranquil shore of peace and light. He is born with a mission, lives for the mission and upon fulfilment of his mission, leaves this terrestrial turbulence for his higher habitat, transforming modes and mores, methods and means, hopes and aspirations here on earth, lending all his unblemished selfless love, giving life a sublime, divine direction. There is a periodicity in his advent but unfailingly he comes to save civilisation from impending disaster whenever the inertia of the ages threatens humanity with calamitous consequences. He brings forth a flood of spiritual energy which revitalises society and lends it added life. Thus the saga goes on unending in the undulating cycle of human evolution.