Ike, as he was affectionately called, could have been re-elected several times, if the constitutional prohibition had not been there. Fearing that Roosevelt would be President for life, it was the Republicans that enacted a ruling that no President could hold office for more than two terms. One rising to world eminence will have multiple gifts as aspects of his personality. I wish to deal with one aspect of it where he reached the spirit of things. 

Genius is greatness of the Mind that knows all that is relevant to his subject, not by plodding search or research, but by virtue of his being a genius. A genius is born, not made. In the occult worlds, there is a place where the memory of the earth is stored. He who can go there will have access to it. Inside us, there are zones where Sachchidananda is known as trikaladrshti. and prior to that another zone where all the knowledge one needs is stored. One who can go beyond the waking mind - Jagratha - can have its benefit.

President Dr. Abdul Kalam has suggested that instead of waiting for a Hardy to discover an Indian genius, we should set about seriously searching for one. It is a laudable suggestion from an eminent personality. It is not a question of creating a genius but of searching for one who may be lost in the oblivion of obscurity. 

These ideas possess human minds as if they are Gospel. It is much more so in India. In one of Hardy's novels, a drunken man auctions his wife who is purchased by a sailor. She lives for 15  years with the sailor in Canada. One day, a friend explains to the woman that her marriage has no sanction of the Church and therefore it is a sin. The outraged wife returns to England in search of her old husband. Hell is a real threat to pious people.

Employment, especially in Government, is a great psychological cushion of security in the society. Minor and major frictions may develop inside the department but rarely do they lead to drastic actions such as suspension or dismissal. Whether it is just or otherwise, woe unto the man who is such a victim. Once that happens, the ordeals, ostracisms, hardships, indignities, privations and their impact on their personalities can be appreciated by those who have undergone them or witnessed them in close quarters.

A forward thinking man was advocating that men and women should be free to decide their actions uninhibited by social moorings or moral compunction. This annoyed all his friends married and unmarried. He got married, and wisdom dawned on him. He confessed to his friends, "I am ashamed of having thought of free action by men and women before my marriage. It looks barbaric now that I am married." He was sincere in his convictions before and now. But it was the sincerity of vital feeling, not rational thinking.

Great men exude energy that charges others. One can aspire to be great and it is welcome. Many ordinary souls accomplish far above their levels. Each has fashioned a method for himself. Here I consider one of them.  There is a European belief that any aspiration comes to fulfillment in one year if one is able to formulate it in his mind on seeing a meteor falling. I often refer to that.

Compelled by self-imposed ideals, a young man denied himself the avenue of higher education as he could not bring himself to spend on his own education funds earmarked for the weddings of sisters. Having spent his early twenties in pursuit of political ideals and devotion to family, he joined the teachers' training course at the age of 29. By that time, he was no mere student, but a family man of full responsibilities. Those responsibilities constantly took him away from the classes with the result he had no requisite attendance in all three terms.

When corrupted, the best does not become imperfect or half corrupted but the very opposite. When values like honesty, chastity, etc. are not perfect, they are not honoured at all. Idealism partly qualifies for this high standard but not always.

This is an old formula. The latter part --  'NOT my will' -- is more important than the former part. If one starts repeating it non-stop, the first thing he will discover is in a matter of minutes he will stop it. It will stop by itself. He will forget it. He will forget that he undertook such an exercise and it was forgotten. It means he is unrelated to this formula or God. Such a person lives physically or vitally. Maybe he lives mentally. God is not part of his scheme of things.