Edison & the Motivating Factor

We live in a city called EDISON which is in New Jersey named after Thomas Alva Edison. We live close to the place where he lived and there is a memorial tower and also a small museum near that place. There is a small forest-hiking area near the place he lived, which has thick vegetation and has tall, magnificent trees...they have turned it into a hiking area for visitors...throughout his stay in New Jersey, he used to walk daily in these woods and make his inventions...there are small posts which give us information about what he used to do and what he was interested in doing. There is a small pond in the middle of the woods where he used to go fishing with his kids. He loved music and used to always sing with his children when he was not with Science. Music was his only solace apart from the knowledge seeking. Just by visiting that place once, we could understand the intensity of Edison's yearn for knowledge in its most purest sense. Being there, it seemed that he always felt secure in Nature's compassionate warmth and was open to its light. No wonder it led him to contribute so much to mankind. It also seemed like he derived his energy from the nature around to take mankind to a different level.

We four went hiking on the trail and felt the charged-up energy in that area in our system. It was so overwhelming to be in a place where the light bulb was invented...can you imagine that more than 100 years earlier, there was a human in that very place, who contributed so much to mankind and science...and his son also donated the place to the government, in a sense, to share the significance of the area with the people who visited. And to be in a place like that, was absolutely amazing - the tall green trees, the sky above, the pond and everything in that place allured us with the intense energy.

"Only because of Edison the people in villages got bulb but, for them science ended with the bulb". After nearly 110 years even today most of them are yet to get even that. There was a time when scientists did not run after money or popularity. It was pure intuition and passion for knowledge and quest that drove them to live life But this is hardly a case now. Everything now comes with a price. Money has become the most powerful motivator and not the quest for knowledge. And what does that leave us with? Insecurities, insecurities and nothing but insecurities - of all kinds. Some of the people who speak about truth are greatly discouraged. Some of the people who go after inventions do not get proper support. When everything is institutionalized in the present world, the only people who come from institutions are getting recognition. Individuals are ignored. Only because of this factor, individuals lose their hearts. But in the past, science had advanced in certain key areas only by individual efforts.

So, when motivation comes only from the quest for knowledge, it brings out the vast potentialities possessed by the human mind. No matter what the hurdle, we must bear in mind that when we give unconditionally to the Universe, we in turn, get what we need or even desire.