The Power of Weakness

Going through life witnessing, experiencing and being amazed by the drama that unfolds, I realised that no matter what our many strengths, just one weakness can prove more powerful than all of them!

Recently, I noted a hindi film dialogue, “Insaan ki ek dukhti rag uski har taakat se badi hoti hai” (A person’s single weakness is bigger than all his strengths!) A powerful dialogue and so true! Just as a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, our strength is defined by our vulnerabilities, not our strong points. Not all the preparation in the world or intelligence helps you with any exam if you have an indecipherable handwriting that the examiner cannot figure out! Here the weakness (handwriting) rather than the strength (intelligence and hard work) decides the outcome.

Similarly, no matter how hard and good you work on a project, but if you miss the deadline, it is the delay that become the decisive factor of the failed project! On a similar note, you may be a great worker and a superb professional, but if you loose your temper at an inappropriate moment, your boss will cquickly forget your capabilities! There will always be plenty of people around you not just willing, but eager to exploit your negative potential as displayed through oone weak link, one vulnerability!

There are people who wheedle info after putting you at ease and assuring you that they are your friends. There are pseudo sympathiser who always emerges soon as they smell your moment of insecurity or misery with oodles of sympathy and a smile, pumping you subtly for information. In a moment of weakness, if you spill it all out, they run back and uses the information to their own advantage before you realise! It is only later you realise they got you to bare all but never ever shared any of their own troubles! Your one weak moment could have done you a lifetime of harm!

Even the power of a relationship, it is rightly said, lies with the one who cares less…never with the one who cares more and so has more at stake! So the weaker your love, the more powerful you are to mould or manoeuvre the relationship as and how you wish to! And yet, what a miserable power when the partner’s weakest link, his/her strong love for you, would be the biggest weapon you would use against them!

Examples are abound too. The great Achilles was only as strong as his weak heel! Had that not been known, who could have killed him? Had it not been known that Bhishma would lay down his weapons if faced by a woman and Shikandi not been used for the purpose, who could have defeated him? Had it not been known that Abhimanyu could pierce the chakravyuha but not find his way back, how could the innocent son of Arjuna been killed by the Kaurvas?

Pondering on the power of weakness is scary ... but wise :)