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Leading A Spiritual Life

it is this very situation that unfolds the entire human
potential.
Once I visited a zoo where I came upon a large deer
park, which had been designed to be as close to nature
as possible – an apparently ideal environment for wild
animals. But, as a zoo official explained, the absence of
predators had caused the deer to lose their fertility. It
seems that when the deer were in their natural habitat,
the jungle, they lived in constant danger from predators
such as wolves. But, here in the zoo enclosure, their lives
were devoid of such challenges and, as a result, their
reproductive systems suffered from the resulting mental
and physical inactivity. So, as the official explained, they
introduced a wolf into the enclosure from time to time,
so that the deer had to run helter-skelter from it to save
their lives. Once the deer felt threatened in this way and
became normally active, their fertility was revived and
they became capable of reproduction.

This is a law of nature, which holds not only for
animals, but also for man. All human beings are born
with great potential, but to unfold this potential they
need to face constant challenges. What philosophers
call the ‘problem of evil’ is nothing but the problem
of challenge. And, it is this that is responsible for
maintaining the creativity of human beings.
Life is full of challenges. Every disadvantage is a
challenge—poverty is a challenge, difficulty is a challenge,
an unpleasant situation is a challenge, even being born
with a disability is a challenge. All these challenges are
blessings in disguise. These challenges are the stepping
stones to progress.

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