Experience shows that man is like an innocent flower bud in his childhood. However, as he reaches the age of maturity, he develops various perversions in his personality—for example, stubbornness, egoism, defiance, etc. To develop an actual personality, man needs to cleanse himself of such perversions. Personality development is done in two ways. A man should have either preserved his nature in which he was born, or the only other method is to remove the artificial layers that cover his personality until his true nature emerges in all its purity. It is in likeness to the way cattle chew the cud.
Generally, people do not carry out this cleansing process. They pay the price in the form of carrying a negative personality hidden behind a civilised appearance. The negative personality is evil. Any man or woman who wants to save himself or herself from such a dreadful fate must adopt the above-mentioned corrective process in their daily life. Besides this, there is no other solution to this problem.
This process of personality development along positive lines is not restricted to life in this world. It continues into the next, and this personality development on positive lines will enable us to find an entry into God’s eternal Paradise.
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If from a vessel containing water a single drop is found to be brackish, it means that all of the liquid is undrinkable. We need sample only of one drop to know with certainty what the rest will be like. Much the same is true of the human personality. It is like an over brimming vessel which keeps on shedding drops for other people to savour, to find sweet or brackish as the case may be. Small instances of an individual's behaviour and quite short interludes in his company are generally sufficient to tell us what his overall personality is like. A thoughtless remark, an unfair manoeuvre, a failure to give much-needed sympathy or support, a devious transaction-all these are the plain indicators, like those brackish drops of water from the larger vessel, which indicate the lack of integrity or callousness of the person you are dealing with.
The human personality has the same homogeneity as water. A single human weakness cannot therefore be considered in isolation, as if it were an exception. It has to be looked upon as being representative of the entire personality. If an individual proves unreliable in one matter, he is likely to evince the same unreliability in other matters; if he is guilty of untrustworthiness on one occasion, the chances are that this trait will show up time and time again.
There is only one kind of person who is an exception to that rule, and that is the one who subjects his own behaviour to constant re-appraisal, who is continually scrutinizing himself for weaknesses and faults and who, once having found such faults, wastes no time in rooting them out.
A man who has made a mistake can completely erase the marks of what is an unfortunate experience for others by admitting his mistake and begging forgiveness. Some people are pricked by their consciences, but do nothing to assuage the ruffled feelings of others, thinking that to do so would be sheer weakness and would mean a loss of face. Such people can never have healthy social relationships and can never win the respect of their fellow men. They do not realize that a man displays his true mettle when he sees his own wrong actions for what they are, and humbly asks forgiveness.
It is only he who has learned the art of moral introspection who will, in the long run, prove himself a person of inviolable integrity.
The Speaking Tree | Sunday, August 15, 2010
Yes. Prayer means establishing contact with the higher reality and that higher reality is the source of all kinds of inspiration. It is also a source of great solace. So prayer, if it is genuine, will certainly help in developing focus and making you a better person.
