Once it happened that a great Chinese emperor went to see a great Zen master. The Zen master was rolling on the floor and laughing, and his disciples were laughing too – he must have told a joke or something. The emperor was embarrassed. He could not believe his eyes because the behaviour was so unmannerly; he could not prevent himself from saying so.
He told the master, ’This is unmannerly! It is not expected of a master like you; some etiquette has to be there. You are rolling on the floor, laughing like a madman.’
The master looked at the emperor. He had a bow; in those old days they used to carry bows and arrows.
The master said, ’Tell me one thing: do you keep this bow always strained, stretched, tense, or do you allow it to relax too?’
The emperor said, ’If we keep it stretched continuously it will lose elasticity, it will not be of any use then. It has to be left relaxed so that whenever we need it, it has elasticity.’ And the master said,
’That’s what I’m doing.’
Prelims is approaching quickly. Days are slipping out of hand. It is very tempting to make a resolution of reading 14 to 15 hours per day. It is because we want to revise the subjects as much as possible, we want to give FLTs as many no.s as possible, we want to overcome the anxiety and fear of failure by overstretching ourselves. But that is not good. Only organic growth sustains in the long term. Your growth graph/chart should be linear. It is a marathon. You need to conserve your energy, you need to maintain your breath in sync, you need to maintain a smiling face while running. Else, your muscles may get cramps, you may run out of breath, you may burn out.
Hence, make a realistic plan. Strategically schedule the relaxing points. You should give regular breaks to let your mind and body to rejuvenate and recharge fully. The next 75 + odd days are very important. Tread them carefully. Stay relaxed yet focussed. Success will be yours.
