Leave your footprints...

Although millions, nay billions of people have inhabited the world from its beginning,only a handful of them have left their footprints on the sands of time.

These exceptional people also ate, drank and lived like others but they were able to leave a lasting legacy. It looks as if the majority of men and women had been walking on the sand leaving only temporary footprints.

It would be a fascinating study to find how these exceptional people managed to leave something worthwhile for posterity. One outstanding quality appears to be their commitment to help humanity to achieve a high degree of happiness in this life itself. Some of them, of course, showed us the way to eliminate suffering and achieve everlasting bliss of Nibbana or Salvation.

During the first visit to the island, the Buddha left his footprints in the island by banishing fear and ignorance of the local inhabitants - the Yakkhas - by using His superior wisdom and truth.

The tear-shaped island appeared to the Buddha as a place where His doctrine would flourish. He literally left His footprint on Samanala Kanda or Adam's Peak venerated by Buddhists from many parts of the world. It is also the impression made upon the island by India's greatest religious leader.

Apart from religious leaders whose selfless services to humanity are well known, there are many scientists, inventors, philosophers, historians and painters who have left their footprints in a rapidly changing world.

Archimedes of Syracuse was one of them. He was a Greek mathematician who lived in Sicily in the third century BC. His work in geometry, hydrostatics and mechanics was of a pioneer nature. The principles he laid down have been of paramount and lasting importance.

On a hot Mediterranean day when Sicily's streets were crowded with soldiers, workers and ordinary men and women, a stark-naked man started running across the town as if he had gone crazy.

The onlookers had no difficulty in identifying the naked runner. He was none other than Archimedes. In addition to running naked in a crowded street, he was shouting just one word: "Eureka! Eureka!" meaning " I have found it!"

What Archimedes found at that time was amazing. He found that a body plunged in a fluid lost an amount of its weight which was equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by it. This was the starting point of many subsequent discoveries.

This column would not have appeared in print if not for the pioneering efforts of William Caxton (c.1422 - 1491) who has been dubbed the "First English Printer". Today we remember Caxton not only for his invention but also for his indomitable spirit.

To Caxton the process of printing was something secondary. His primary aim was to perpetuate books of high moral values. So many other inventors have improved the printing process with the sole idea of disseminating knowledge.

True, printing of books and newspapers has become a lucrative business. But Caxton has left his footprints in human history and no English scholar will forget his invaluable contribution to civilisation.

Our knowledge of the Law of Gravity is something taken for granted.

However, when Sir Isaac Newton (1642 - 1727) discovered it for the first time, people were taken by surprise. They did not know that the sun, moon and earth were in constant motion.

According to Voltaire's Letters sur les Anglais, it was while walking in the garden of Woolsthorpe that the fall of an apple suggested to him the greatest and the most famous of all his later discoveries - the Law of Universal Gravitation.

Although many great people have praised Newton for his achievements, the best tribute to him was paid by Alexander Pope. The following lines penned by Pope have been inscribed on a tablet in the room where Newton was born: "Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night; God said, 'Let Newton be' and all was light"

Although history was a much maligned subject in Sri Lanka a few decades ago, those who know the value of the subject pay homage to Herodotus (c.484-408 BC), the Father of History.

According to Lemipriere, "Herodotus is among the historians what Homer is among poets, and Demosthenes among the orators of ancient times." His work set a standard and gave inspiration to the ages that have followed.

Herodotus travelled far south up the Nile into upper Egypt and through Asia beyond Babylon to Susa and Ecbatana, which is now the modern site of Hamadan in Iran. He travelled extensively to other countries as well. What is remarkable is that Herodotus was the first historian who went in search of history!

All these people and numerous others have left their footprints for us to emulate them. They were true sons of the soil. We too have the potential to reach those dizzy heights.