Soar Like an Eagle: A Call to India’s Rising Generation

To the Up-and-coming Youth of India,

तू शाहीं है परवाज़ है काम तेरा तेरे सामने आसमाँ और भी हैं/

(You are an eagle, flight is your vocation You have other skies stretching out before you)

Since the beginning of time, an eagle has been used as the symbol of power, royalty. victory, freedom, great courage, pride and longevity. The bird’s remarkable strength and strategic movements throughout its life have put the man in awe. In India, the eagle was a symbol of fire, wind and storms. In the golden age of Greece, it was the emblem of victory and supreme spiritual energy. In Assyrian myths, the eagle was a symbol of the God who carried souls to Hades. Eagle was also the sacred bird of Zeus, the ruler of all gods. In Romania, & was considered as a sign of victory. The bird’s exceptional attributes, its strict principles and high intellectual capabilities is what earns it the title “The king of birds”. When we talk about arts and literature, symbolism is widely used which enables the common man to understand the high-level literature. Dr. Mohammed Allama Iqbal, one of the most revolutionary writer, philosopher, scholar and politician whose poetry is considered among the greatest of the 20th century. He’s best known to have had introduced ideologies that has awakened the sleeping minds of the people in the society. If you study his work extensively, you will notice that he has quite often addressed the young generation and asked them to acquire the qualities and attributes of an eagle in them to attain the unlimited skies of success.

Following are the seven qualities of an eagle that must be acquired by the juvenile:

1. Aim high: Eagles can fly as high as 10000 to 20000 feet above the sea level, They can glide for a long time in the sky without resting. Dr. Iqbal asks the reader to aim for the best. Aim high and then give your best to achieve that. Don’t compromise on small achievements. Basically, Sky is the limit!

2. Choose your company wisely: Eagles flock together. You will never see an eagle hanging out with other bird. An Eagle does not surrender to the size or strength of its prey. Likewise, we must also choose our company wisely because it is one of the greatest influences on us, for life. They can either make us or break us. Hence, they say birds of a feather flock together.

3. Laser sharp focus on your goal: According to a report, with its acute vision, an Eagle can easily see small animals like rabbit from a distance of 3.2 kilometres. And once it has set its eyes on its prey, it flies great distances in order to catch its worthy fair. During this flight. all he can seo is its prey. No matter how many obstacles occur in the surrounding it does not stop before catching the prey. What do we learn? Once you have set your goal then focus only and only on it and work until you achieve it.

4. Eat what you have hunted: One of the most respectful personality traits of an Eagle is that it is a bird of prey that hunts for its food. Very contrary to the vulture (carrion eater), that eats the dead animals left by the eagles Lesson: Create your own opportunities. Be independent.

5. Rise above the storms: My favourite quality. When a storm occurs, all living creatures seek protection and hide in their homes. But Eagle being an enormous-intellectual creature instead of hiding from the storm; it flies above the sky avoiding the storm. Lesson: If you have a problem in your life, do not run away from it. Instead think like in Eagle. Overcome it.

6. Get out of your comfort zone: Generally, eagles roost and nest in high altitude like pine trees or on rocks and cliffs. When the eaglets get 12 weeks old, the Eagle parents start their training for flying. The mother eagle pushes them out of the nest and catches them when they are about to fall on the ground. And keeps repeating this process. Eventually the eaglets start flying. What do we learn? We won’t move forward in life unless we get out of our comfort zone.

7. Accept the change: The average lite of an Eagle is 70 years. But as soon as it reaches the age of 40 its organs like its beak and claws are no longer able to hunt like before. Here the eagle has two choices. Either to remain like that and eventually die or to go through an entire process and live for 30 years. In order to go through the process, the Eagle has to go to a secluded mountain and start banging its beak on a stone until it breaks. After the growth of a new beak, it starts snatching out its claws. After regrowing new claws, it starts plucking out its old feathers with its beak until it becomes bald and then he grows new feathers. This entire process takes 5 months to complete, after which the Eagle takes a rebirth flight to a different place and lives for 30 more years. What did we learn? We must accept change to survive. Instead we should embrace it and keep updating ourselves.

There is so much that we can learn and adapt from nature. And it amazes me how those apex predators, ranked at the top of the food chain in the avian world have so much to teach to the supposedly all-knowing human beings. These were some of the attributes that the youth must adapt in order to succeed. Need of the hour! As of India, nearly half the country’s population being below the age of 25, if the Indian youth inculcate these qualities in themselves, they can certainly do wonders to our country!

“तुंदी-ए-बाद-ए-मुखालिफ से न घबरा ऐ उक़ाब ये तो चलती है तुझे ऊँचा उड़ाने के लिए”

(Do not get frightened of these furious, violent winds, Oh Eagle! These blow only to make you fly higher.”)