In this section Sonam Wangchuk addresses Ladakhi youth to help them understand themselves and the world they live in.
BE A HERO NOT A BEGGAR BEFORE YOUR GOD!

Julay no nomo gun, this time I am sharing with you a speech I prepared for a school with poor children from disadvantage backgrounds in Pune.  Hope it will also help you see the bigger picture in life and be happy and positive all the time.

Dear children,

You don’t know how lucky you are!  You may not have rich parents… a big house, a famous school… but what you do have is way more valuable than any of these. So make the most of what you have and never whine about what you don’t.

Yes, some of you may complain that you don’t have rich parents like some other children do, but do you realize that there are thousands of kids who do not have parents at all and still they struggle and do wonderful things… You may complain that you don’t go to a big and famous school, but do you know that there are thousands who have not seen a school in their life and yet many of them become world leaders. You may even complain that you don’t have good shoes, but do you realize there are thousands of children who do not have feet, but that does not stop them from racing ahead in life. You may complain that you don’t have good looks or the right skin colour, but don’t you feel grateful that you are alive and in good health and therefore truly beautiful too? That you have two good eyes, two strong hands, two legs, a good brain and a throbbing heart?

What more could you ask from God? With these gifts, God has already given you the best he had and it is now for you to make the most of them. Go out and use these gifts for your own good and for the good of others, you will never have to beg anything from anyone.

But then there are always some losers with beggar mentality who can never be happy.  God gave them two bright eyes but they use them to shed tears before him, God gave them two hands but they use them to stretch and beg from him for more, God gave them a wonderful tongue but they use it to whine and complain…  a good brain (mind/heart)  but they use it to feel depressed, vengeful, jealous and so on. What a pity! So sad indeed!

So next time you visit a temple or a mosque visit God like a hero not like a beggar… visit only to thank him for all he has given you and to tell him how wonderfully you are using them and will continue to do so. Don’t visit him like a beggar always whining and crying for more and more.

There is no end to complaining. Even the richest who have all the things that you could ever ask for, beg for the 75th pair of shoes, mourn that they are not tall enough, fair enough, thin enough… sulk that their school is only the 2nd best in the city, whine that their parents are not on the very top of the rich list and so on… These are the real poor of the country. NOT YOU!

Life is not about what you have or not but about what you make of what you do have.