“There will come a time in your life when, looking back on your journey, you will not see a succession of triumphs, but rather firm and rational decisions. You will understand that your perseverance was not impulsive or romantic, but deliberate and conscious. In circumstances where giving up seemed logical, you chose to continue. And in doing so, you affirmed your will as the guiding principle of your life.
It was not chance that sustained you, but your ability to persevere in what was right, even when the immediate situation seemed to deny it. In this, Thomas Aquinas’ statement is fulfilled:
“Virtus in arduis consistit” —“Virtue consists in difficult things”
(Summa Theologiae, II-II, q.123, a.2).
True moral greatness does not lie in visible success, but in perseverance in the face of difficulty, complexity, and hard work. The gratitude you will one day feel toward yourself will not be a passing emotion, but a clear awareness of having been true to the best of yourself. You did not give in to the easy relief of giving up; you did not compromise what was essential for momentary comfort; you did not shy away from demands when the task required strength. Every decision that honored your convictions will ultimately be the cause of what truly has value. That day will not be identified with external triumph, but with the realization of your own consistency. As the apostle Paul writes:
τὸν καλὸν ἀγῶνα ἠγώνισμαι, τὸν δρόμον τετέλεκα, τὴν πίστιν τετήρηκα”
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
(2 Timothy 4:7)
That is not called triumph or success.
It is called choosing the right thing when it was costly and complicated.
It is called persisting when the world offered easy ways out and immediate rewards.
It is called enduring the loneliness of duty, without compromising with comfort or self-pity.
It is called completing the journey without betraying yourself, without becoming someone who is outwardly admirable but inwardly defeated.
It is called having quietly maintained a loyalty that did not demand applause, only integrity.
And in the end, when there is nothing left to prove, and the world’s opinion no longer matters, it will be called by its name:
Having lived with dignity.
Prabhuji
