Page 183 - https://ia800806.us.archive.org/12/items/mwk-eng-book/Leading-a-Spiritual-Life.pdf

Leading A Spiritual Life

one, devoted to impossible ideals. My activities continue
from force of habit, and in the company of others, I
forget the despair which underlies my daily pursuits
and pleasure. But when I am alone and idle, I cannot
conceal from myself that my life has no purpose, and
that I know of no new purpose to which to devote my
remaining years.”
Bertrand Russell started his life as a star personality.
But when he died at the age of 97, his was a case of
frustration. What was the reason behind this tragedy?
An analysis of the above statement gives us the answer.
One of Russell’s cherished goals was the establishment
of a ‘single supreme world government’ able to enforce
peace. According to him, the only thing that would
redeem mankind was co-operation, which could be
achieved only through a world government. Russell
devoted his life to the achievement of this goal. However,
he failed utterly.

Failure in life is not final defeat. Failure means that
a man has failed in achieving the first choice, but he
still has the second choice. Bertrand Russell failed
to discover the second choice. This was Russell’s real
failure.
It is said that Russell was a voracious reader. However,
according to his own confession, his study was done out
of habit. Habit is a recurrent, unconscious pattern of
behaviour that is acquired through frequent repetition.
This was Russell’s weakness. He studied a lot, but
he did so as a habit rather than by way of conscious
planning. If you do something as a matter of conscious
planning, it will make your mind creative. But, if you do

182