Mata Amritanandamayi (Amma) is one of the most respected humanitarians and spiritual leaders of this time. Her tireless efforts to create World Peace and Harmony have created one of the largest charitable organizations of India, the Mata Amritanandamayi Math (MAM, NGO with consultative status to the UN).

If you are able to sustain patience and enthusiasm throughout your lives, everything will come to you - because patience and enthusiasm are the cause of success in life.

You can see enthusiasm in some people’s lives, but there won’t be any patience. Some others will have patience, but no enthusiasm. Among the young, ninety percent are enthusiastic. But we don’t see much patience in them. They are hasty and do things on the spur of the moment. Due to the lack of patience, often they are not able to achieve their goals. But the elder children, those who are sixty or seventy, have enough patience. They have acquired patience, discrimination and intelligence from their life-experience. But they don’t have enthusiasm. If you ask them the reason, they will say, “The body has lost it’s strength, we can’t go forward as we wish.”

But a small child has both enthusiasm and patience. The child tries to stand up, falls down, tries again. It does not give up the effort, even if it’s body is injured in the process. The child is finally able to stand up as a result of continuous effort without losing patience and enthusiasm. It knows that its mother is there to protect it, to wipe away the blood and put medicine to the wound if needed. The baby has the optimism that it will succeed because she is nearby to help in its efforts. Patience, enthusiasm and optimism - these three should be the mantras in our lives. In every field, we see those who have faith succeeding and those who lack faith losing strength.

A footwear company sent two men to a distant village to sell its products. After reaching there, one of them sent back the following message within a few days: “The people here are all aborigines. they don’t know anything about footwear. It s impossible to sell anything here, so I’m coming back right away.” But the other man’s message to the company was this: “The people here are aborigines. They don’t know anything about footwear. they walk and sleep in the dirt. If we give them the right knowledge, there is the possibility to sell a lot of sandals to them. So send a load of sandals right away!” And he who had this optimistic faith did succeed, indeed.

If we develop the faith that God is always with us to aid us in every crisis, we will get the energy and enthusiasm to transcend any obstacle in life. And the optimism that we will succeed will not leave us.

Rama and Krishna, Christ and Mohammad, all met with a lot of obstacles. But they did not falter. They did not look back at all. They just went forward. As a result, success was always with them. They live on, even today. When Amma says this, you may think, “But weren’t they all divine incarnations? They can do that. How can ordinary people like us be like them?” But children, none of you is an ordinary person. You are the owners of extraordinary powers. There is infinite strength in us. But it is sleeping now. We just have to awaken it. Victory is certain then.