Face the Brute

I remember my father telling me this story of Swami Vivekananda. It seems that while he was walking around in the city of Banaras, a bunch of monkeys started getting close to him and seeing this he started running. They chased him and he ran until gasping for breath, Swamiji slowed down only to try again to run. Right then an old ascetic sitting nearby told him ''STOP!! DON'T RUN!! FACE THE BRUTE!!'' Swamiji did exactly that; turned around and looked at them...THEY FLED!!! He later spoke to people about this experience and told people that the monkeys in the story are not different from the problems we face in life. One needs to take the problem head on and it just vanishes.

I remember my Math professor used to say the same; he used to say ''never get scared of a Math problem or a Geometry rider....look at it hard, think deep and you will see that the problem is then suddenly scared of you''.

At work recently there was one small pending issue which I was lil lazy and apprehensive to take on, kinda letting linger in the background. One morning I was like WHAT THE HELL...let me find out what it is all about....I did exactly that and believe me, the issue was resolved in minutes and there I was leaving it bother me for days together. Simply because I didn't make the effort to take it head on and solve it.

It is about FACING THE BRUTE of any size or intensity. The effort is what is required. Well the results could vary and need not be always in one's favour. But yes, at least we would have the satisfaction of having been responsible and brave to face the issue.