Essay on “The Power of Ambition” Complete Essay for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

The Power of Ambition

The power of ambition in so great in man that it nearly shapes the life of an individual completely. In the absence of ambition man would be reduced to merely a thoughtless creature without anything worthwhile to think or do. It was only the ambition which drew people mad to do something extra-ordinary like going up on the moon or the world’s highest peak, making an invention or a discovery worth such a name which made them immortal,  waging such a war against oppression that it remained nowhere, creating havoc by activities unknown to mankind, etc.

     This history of mankind is full of records of battles and wars by kings and emperors to satisfy their ever increasing ambitions. They spread reigns to terror and havoc against humanity for hundreds of years staining their conscience. It has all been a story of tyranny and torture on the one hand and sorrow and suffering on the other.

     The story of human woe, suffering and unrest has begun, as the Bible tells us, when the ambition of Lucifer created a rift among the angels. The rebel angels led by Lucifer created a rift among the angels. The rebel angels led by Lucifer hurled defiance at Jehovah who hurled them headlong into the bottomless pit of hell. It is only the power of ambition to make men liars and cheats, who hide the truth in their hearts, and like jugglers, show another thing in their faces to cut all friendships and amenities to suit their interest, and put on a good face where here is no corresponding goodwill. Satan was the first that practiced under a saintly show and motive force was his ambition.

It was merely the ambition for absolute power, in The Mahabharata War, of Duryodhana, which disturbed the peace of this vast subcontinent and even some neighboring countries. From his early childhood he had dreamt of kingship and with this ambition view he practices very type of deceide ad cruelty on the Panamas, the lawful heirs to the throne. He tried to burn them alive and when they escaped, brought them into a gambling bout in which he cheated them of all their possessions by loaded dice, and thus compelled them to retire into forest. Such has been the impact of this war that the entire country was left weak and emancipated for centuries. Even after 5000 years, India has not been able to regain that vigor and virility which it possessed then when the young men of this land went to different shores as Ambassadors of India culture.

    The ambition of Alexander induced him to begin his campaigns from Macedonia and carry fire and sword into different lands Troy, Persia and India. H.G. Wells vividly described the frenzied action of Alexander after he had conquered Persepolis, the capital of Persian encore. He ordered every horse and mule in Persia to be shorn and pulled down the battlements of the neighboring cities. He caused all the adults to be massacred as to a sacrifice. His behavior in India was no better, though the valor of Porus saved this country from devastation.

  When Alexander died, the whole empire, he had snatched and held, fell apart and shattered to pieces. The subsequent story, after his death, is also one of barbaric autocracy and confusion. Chaos pervaded everywhere. All the provincial rulers set up the kingdoms of their own. Crime, treachery prevailed everywhere which made these provinces virtual hells. All this was the result of the ambition of a single man.

   The story of Julius Caesar is no different. His ambition was the systematic conquest of the whole of Europe. He began by defeating Pompey, his rival, and became the master of entire Roman world. He was then elected the Dictator for life. It is said that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. “I came, I saw, I conquered,” he said after he conquered Britain. He was equally possessed by this demon of ambition when he continued his further campaigns of conquest, leaving a long trail of death, bloodshed and destruction. There was no sign of peace during all his reign and he was, at last killed at the hands of his own friends. The famous play of Shakespeare. Julius Caesar depicts the true ambitions character of the king and his associates. Shakespeare puts these words in the mouth of Brutes, a dear friend of Caesar: “As Caesar loved me, I weep for him as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it as he was valiant, I honor him but as he was ambitions, I slew him. There are tears of his love, joy for his fortune, honor for his valor and death for his ambition.”

     There is no end to this story of the ambitions of man. Napoleon of France had an ambition to become the real emperor with a crown upon his head and all his fellow at his feet. He came riding on the crest of French Revolution but ultimately made a figure in history of one of the most incredible self conceited person who tried aping of Alexander and Caesar and failed miserably. This crazy headed man with his megalomania set the whole of Europe ablaze. Europe became a big battlefield and peace had no place there except some obscure lonely island of the Pacific.

    It was a bit of taste about the ambitions rulers who were guided only by their ambitions of securing more and more kingdoms in their lives. The twentieth century saw Hitler in Germany who entertained an ambition of showing to the world the superiority of the German or the Nordic race which, he believed, was to rule the whole of Europe. He began by turning out jews from Germany and declared upon Europe that war was coming. He ultimately started his expeditions in 1933 with the conquest of Rhineland, Saar and Czechoslovakia. Then came the full war. For ten years, the whole of Europe was in tension.

      All big and small discoveries are a result of the curiosity of man and the ambition to do something for the humanity. This has also been  a great motivating force for the world’s great brains to make the man comfortable. There have been people who spent almost interest of the humanity or their ambitions of either serving some interest of the humanity or their individual self. There is one who wants to become rich and own all the material wealth to show himself off among others. There is the other who wants to do something exclusive to make his name and become immortal.

    History is full of some crazy headed leaders who have shed lot of innocent blood by exploiting religious faiths to serve some of their personal ambitions. Their ambition of making larger numbers of people submit to their wishes through all foul and fair means has created lot of havoc throughout the world. they razed to the ground lots of ancient places of worship and forced many to accept their faith and killed all those who resisted to their wish. Mohammad Gaznavi of Persia had an ambition to make the masses of India fourteen times and every time created death and devastation and tool away lot of wealth, gold and silver by looting ancient temples of India.

    The Britishers fulfilled their ambition by bringing Indian subcontinent under their yoke by using methods which succeeded ultimately. They started by getting a small village as a tribute from an Indian ruler in the name of a commercial institution, East India Company and by many overt and covert ways secured possession of the whole India. They were also driven out of this country by the ambitions leaders of this land by their continued dedicated efforts for a long time.

     Recently some ambitious students in Afghanistan succeeded in taking the control of their country. They called themselves the Taliban and exploited the tenets of their Islamic faith to subvert their nation to their extreme religious views. The people especially the women suffered most under their rule. Afghanistan became a centre of training Muslim youth from different countries to make them furious fighters fully trained in the terrorist fighting tactics. The ambition of Taliban was to make the whole of Muslim faith. In a fit of mad adventure they ordered destruction of old monuments which existed there in museums and other places, which didn’t correspond to their faith, including the world famous 4000 year’s old status of Buddha. Their ambitions met a sad end in the consequence of a joint action by the British US armed forces and they forced to surrender, though their leaders escaped mysteriously.

    The power of ambition does not work only in the people of exclusive nature who make a name for their activities in their lives. Even the ordinary citizens, a student, a farmer, teacher or a factory worker has his ambitions which shape his life. A student works hard in his students to achieve exclusive academic standards to fulfill his ambition of becoming a doctor, an engineer, a professor or a top executive in a reputed company. The modern day politicians are the most ambitious people of the day. They want to ride on the seats of power anyhow, not by the virtues of their capacities of leading people in a democratic set-up. They are usually those who are not able to do well in their academics and are not able to build the strength of a strong individual character and as such they nourish an ambition to win election to an Assembly or Parliamentary seat by joining a political party or by becoming a shadowy figure of a so-called successful politician. Many of them by the jerk of a good luck reach a position and then using all the means overt and covert, money and muscle achieve their ambition of entering Assembly of Parliament. There, the ambitions of these people start growing with every change of events and they never look backwards and make fresher plans day in and day out, to reach some position of authority. This is the story of present day successful politicians and the leaders of this country. The reason for this situation is that the Constitute does not prescribe any minimum capacity or qualification for an individual to enter politics. Every professional, teacher, doctor, engineer and the like needs a professional training to enter a profession and on the contrary, a political leader who has to lead the destiny of this country by making laws and taking policy decisions for the security and advancement of this country, doesn’t need any academic or professional training.

     The power of ambition is a force in every individual which he or she can use to make himself a worthwhile person, a successful person not only in the matter of making money or achieving a position for himself only  but doing something for the benefit of others or achieve something for which he is not capable. So the first and foremost criteria for ambitious people should be to make themselves capable of what they want to achieve ant hen secure ways and means to reach their goal. The false ambitions do not lead us anywhere and one should aspire for those strides only which are within one’s reach, otherwise people who like to run a race beyond one’s capacity fall headlong in the midway finding no way of return.