Your Best Friend.

Doubtlessly one of the most neglected friends you have is you yourself. And yet every man, before he can be a true friend to the world, must first become a friend to himself. In this society where abbreviation flourishes in the crowded cities and marts of businesses, few are the men who have not been subjected, on every hand, to a campaign to convince them that they are much less than they think they are.

You would have easily fought with anyone who said anything about your friends what is implied about you as well. But now the time has come when you need to fight to fight for the best friend you will ever have - yourself.

The first move in striking up this friendship is to make an acquaintance with what you are and what you can become. 'Know Thyself!' said the ancient Greek. Until recently, it was not possible to make a very wide acquaintance. Little was known about human psychology and the behavioral pattern as a science. But with development in atomic physics some conclusions can be drawn about the apparent goals of life in general and your own goals in particular. We use the knowledge in knowing ourselves and to predict the actions of other men.

Laws of Survival and Abundance

The dynamic principle of existence is Survival.
When one thinks of survival one is apt to make the error of thinking in terms of 'barest necessity.' But that is not survival. For it has no margin for loss.

For example, say an engineer is constructing a bridge. At the time of its construction he uses something which we call the 'factor of safety'. If the bridge is to hold ten tons, hen he builds it to hold fifty tons. Thus he makes the bridge five times as strong. Then he has a margin for deterioration of materials, overloading and sudden unforeseen stress of elements and any accident which may occur.

In life, the only guarantee of survival is abundance. Suppose, a farmer who calculates twelve bushels of grain for his food for a year and plants those twelve bushels only has cut back his chances of survival very marginally. An individual survives or succumbs in ratio to his ability to acquire and hold the wherewithal of survival. The security of a good job, for instance, means some guarantee of survival - other threats to existence not becoming too overpowering.

Survival is not possible or cannot be found where there are no ideals, honesty, love, passion, closeness and emotions for the near and dear ones. A man who is known to be honest is awarded a good survival - good friends and good jobs; while the man who has his ideals survives for so long he remains true to his ideals.

In short, the most esoteric concepts fall within this understanding of survival. Survival is possible as long as you remain faithful to yourself, your friends and family, your relatives and also towards the laws of the universe in general. When he fails in any respect, his survival is cut down. The end of survival, however, is no sharp thing. Alive in this moment and dead in the very next moment is not what we call Survival. It is actually living up to the best.