SECRETS TO A SUCCESSFUL LIFE — Qualities Required

and avoid friction. Patience and avoidance of strife are the social duties of everyone without exception. It should never be forgotten that while patience makes it possible to continue with life’s journey, impatience will ultimately prevent you from reaching your chosen destination. Staying Calm The most delicate and dangerous part of space journeys is the point at which the spacecraft returns into the earth’s atmosphere. Take the case of the Apollo-8 spacecraft, for instance. Before the capsule touched down on December 27, 1968, it had to negotiate a precipitous return to the earth’s atmosphere. Because of the earth’s gravity — seven times that of outer space — the speed of the spacecraft soared, reaching an astronomical 39,000 kilometres per hour. Because of its extraordinary speed, the heat of the spacecraft rose to terrifying proportions. Air friction had started heating up the space vessel as soon as it entered the earth’s atmosphere. Soon, it became literally ‘red hot’, reaching a temperature of 3,300 degrees Celsius. No animal can survive at such a temperature. How was it, then, that the three American astronauts aboard the craft were able to remain unaffected by the blazing inferno that had built up around them and return safely to earth? The reason that they were able to do so was that the spacecraft in which they were travelling had been so constructed that its interior would not be affected by the severity of external conditions. In spite of the incredible heat on the outside, the temperature inside of the craft was just 21 degrees Celsius. Imagine! 3,300 degrees on the outside and 21 degrees inside! Patience and avoidance are not signs of cowardice or a defeatist mentality. They are simply realistic approaches. This event from the realm of space travel has an important lesson to teach us for our lives here on earth. Time and time again, we run into highly charged situations in life, when it seems impossible to go on. There is only one way to survive under such conditions. And that is, by not letting ourselves be inwardly affected by one’s outward situation; by suppressing our emotions and keeping our feelings under control. Only then will we be able to maintain our composure. We will not be able to survive crises in life if we let our inward condition become as highly charged as the outward situation that we are confronted with.