The talisman

As a writer of limited capacity I'm always scrambling for ideas. Considering that one is only as good as one's last post, the pressure to write something interesting every time is rather enormous, not that I've not been too successful in that endeavor either. While I grapple with my very first writer's block, I urge you reader to think over words by someone I admire immensely, a man they call Mahatma and father of the indian nation, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (not Ben Kingsley but the real deal).

In one of his last notes before his death he wrote "I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man [woman] whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him [her]. Will he [she] gain anything by it? Will it restore him [her] to a control over his [her] own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to swaraj [freedom] for the hungry and spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away."

How many times do we take decisions based on how they impact others? If I could take atleast one decision in my life based on his words I would be a contended man.