Did you know that Shri Ram had an astounding skill to make the most tastiest lemonade from the sourest of lemons? Let me explain that; Even though entire Ramayana is full of great lessons for life, I admire Shri Ram’s Vanvas incidents the most. Shri Ram was sent to Vanvas twice, first with Rishi Vishvamitra to protect the Rishis doing ‘Yagna’ (research work); and second time for a 14 yrs exile to fulfill a promise his fathers made to Mata Kaikayi.  What intrigued me the most is that instead of getting upset, like most of us do, Shri Ram saw both Vanvas as an opportunity to acquire knowledge, enhance his abilities and turned the most negative and nerve-wrecking situations into triumph!

Hence the fact; that we may not have any control over our life events or circumstances, but we do have full control over our actions; i.e. the outcome depends on the way we handle any event/situation. In my opinion, there is one person who has demonstrated this ability: PM Shri Narendra Modi. I remember, when Gujarat BJP was going through infighting and leadership crisis. RSS stepped in and instructed a Pracharak, Narendra Modi to fix the infighting and provide leadership to Gujarat BJP.  Narendra Modi ji was a full time volunteer RSS Pracharak who never wanted to enter politics.  But once received his marching orders from RSS leadership; he took the responsibility to fix and lead Gujarat BJP to the upcoming election of 2002.  Modi ji led state of Gujarat for the next 20 yrs with most debilitating political ups and downs, and made it the most developed and prosperous state of Bharat.  Despite the relentless attacks by the opposition parties, terrorists and foreign governments, Bharat is reaching new heights in all fields like defense, space, farming, financial reforms, industrialization, infrastructure, export, research, medical, ease of doing business, and numerous others. PM Modi has emerged as the most loving, caring, and honest leader of Bharat, and the most sought out political leader in the world to resolve international conflicts.  Thus, we can say, if you give Modi ji a lemon, he will not only make lemonade out of it but also make money by selling it back to you – the one who gave him the lemon in the first place!

Considering the COVID pandemic situation, majority of the people felt scared and confused. They confined themselves within the boundary of their home or work place and got bored, depressed and became obese. On the other hand, some people took this as an opportunity to excel themselves by making good of the pandemic situation. They utilized this free time to finish up the pending projects, spend time with family, learn new skills etc.

We as a family also utilized this free time to enhance our skills and finish up the pending home projects; such as cleaning, painting, fixing things, learning Sanskrit, kids even learnt to cook! We also worked on enhancing our physical and spiritual well-being by doing regular exercise, yoga, pranayama, and Dhyana.

Therefore, just like Shri Ram, we all face challenging situations that we have no control over, but what we make out of it is utterly up to us. The comeback is 100% in our hands. As the saying goes: Winners find opportunities in a problem and losers find problems in an opportunity!

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