Self help is the best help for nations

SELF HELP

STANDING AT THE FOOT, BOYS,

                              GAZING AT THE SKY

HOW CAN YOU GET UP, BOYS,

                              IF YOU NEVER TRY

 If we merely stand at the foot of a hill and keep looking up at the sky, it is impossible that we should be able to climb up to the top of it. We cannot climb a hill unless we try. Unless we try to help ourselves no one can help us. Even God will not help us, unless we first try to help ourselves. “Heaven helps those who help themselves,” says an old proverb.

Self-help does not, of course, mean that we should receive no help at all from anybody else. It means that we must try to do our job for ourselves. We should not say, “Whatever is in my Fate will happen”. That is a wrong attitude. If a man shuts himself in his own house and says that he should get his meals, he will certainly get nothing. God will not send down his meals through the roof. He will have to go out and exert himself. He will then get his food. Even animals cannot get food without hard work. Every bird and animal has to go in search of its food, work hard for it, searching, hunting for it, and then it is able to get its food. We cannot get anything we have no right to ask for anything, unless we work for it. That is self-help.

For a student Self-help is very important. He has to prepare for his examination, unless he has worked hard for it, he cannot hope to pass his examinations. He must, of course, get help from his teachers and sometimes he may get some help from his fellow students. However, his success at the examination will depend upon the amount of work he has done.

This is true not only of an individual but also a nation. No nation can progress as long as it keeps on depending upon others to help her. Of course, in the modern age, every country has to depend upon some other country for something or the other, but in the main, a country must try to be self-sufficient. Self-help is the best help for nations and for individuals both.