What is biography, is not a mere catalogue of dates and facts, but a lucid exposition of the philosophy of Life of a particular man. We come to know his aims and aspirations, his strength and weakness and the whole man stands revealed before you in these pages.Man is not satisfied with appeasing his physical hunger.
He yearns to satisfy the cravings of his soul. It is this desire to bring comfort to his soul, to be acquainted with greatness, that prompts men to read biography. Biographies are written not of any and every man, but of those only who have made Aezr mark in life. They enshrine in their pages the work, the struggle, itoc determination, the aims and aspirations of some heroic souls who have fought and won life’s battle. There is no safer and surer way to know great men than through their lives.
What Is Biography,We Read Biography For Inspiring Great Man’s Achievements:
Of course some say that personal contact with greatness is the best way of appreciating great men. The real worth of a man is revealed in the little things, .in deeds done behind the broad gaze of humanity, in little unremembered acts of kindness and love. These little things are often missed or ignored by a biography and hence the opportunity of knowing him closely is not found in his life.
There is much truth in this statement. But if there is an advantage of knowing him better from a close quarter, there is a danger too. We cannot have a sufficient perspective to know him critically; we are either attracted by the magnitude or repelled by his exterior. Some distance is necessary- for a true appreciation, and this condition is satisfied when-we approach great men through their biographies.
We Read Biography As Serving As A Guide To Life
We read biographies to satisfy the cravings of our soul, to encourage our innate yearning for greatness. But this benefit we can never get unless we read them in a proper way. Just as there is an art of writing biographies, so there is an art of reading biographies. The reader must bring with him a critical mind, which will enable him to dive into facts and gather the principles lying underneath. The events must reveal the man and the marshalling of dates must tell the evolution of his mind. Often facts charm us and we fail to see the forces which have brought these facts into existence. If we read in this way, we drive no lasting benefit from biographies.
Secondly, we must have a certain amount of creative imagination which alone can make a dead man a living force with the readers. We must treat him as a source of inspiration. It is only when biographies are read in this critical spirit and it is only when we bring to bear upon them our creative imagination that we can derive full benefit from them. Then only will they appear as fascinating as fiction, but endowed with a loftier aim and a higher sense of truth. Once we are made to feel these, we shall not spend the valuable time of our life by reading mere novels but shall utilise it better by studying the lives of great men.Then it will appear to us that truth is stranger than fiction and no study is more fruitful, more ennobling, than the-stories of the struggles of the heroic souls with the dangers and difficulties of life.
Biography Helps Us To Explore New ideas And Tells Exactly About What Is Biography
Then we shall understand that biographies help us in more than one way. They inspire us and stimulate our energy. Life in this world is a struggle and the higher the life, the greater is its keenness. We come to know in these pages the bitter struggles of great men, the grim determination with which they have faced the difficulties, the patience which they have struggled and the skill and wisdom with which they have ultimately triumphed. The very reading of these is exhilaration. As we go through these accounts, languor and apathy vanish, a new enthusiasm comes over us and a desire to fight well the battle of life comes back. Once more patience and fortitude return and we take up the challenge of life with a firm resolve to strive, to fight and not to yield.
What Is Biography: It tells Ground Reality Of Particular Events.
Biographies not only inspire us but also serve as a guide in life. We read there how those heroic men behaved in a certain situation, what they had done and what they had avoided and with what results, and all these enable us to frame and direct our own lives. But for these, human life on earth would have been in the nature of stand still without forward movement, without progress. Great men by their examples teach us to decide issues at critical moments and chalk our own life.
Another service which these lives render to us, is to hold ideals before us. With most men life is an aimless drift, without meaning without purpose. They eat, drink and enjoy and live an animal life. But not so arc the lives of those men who are enshrined in biographies. They all pitched their ideals high and pursued them with determined effort. In different ages, among different men ideals have different but not the amount of sincerity and earnestness of the followers. They showed the same zeal for the ideals. The study of biography not only teaches us the necessity of placing before us some kitaj boi -iso indicates the way to follow it.
Conclusion:
There are some of the benefits which we derive from the study cl biography. It is one of the most inspiring of studies and satisfies a vital need of mankind. To shake off our sluggishness, to inspire ourselves, to enable us to mould our life, to place before our life a great ideal, we must have the help of great men. But it is not always possible, nor safe to approach them directly. The best way is to appreciate them, to try to follow them, by reading their biographies. Hero worship is an abiding passion in man and so long as this passion will last, biographies will continue to attract us.
