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We feel that the span of life is short. We make it still shorter by wasting time. The greatness of one’s life depends not on the years lived but the effect one leaves on the minds of one’s generation. The immortals live after their death through their work. So, it is not the years that count, it is what we do with them that matters. Doing good needs sacrifice. The immortals lived a full life and did not squander time. God compensates our mediocrity with more number of years – giving us more chance to serve mankind.
So, one has a choice; of simply Existing in this world or of Living, in the real sense of the word. But how do we do this?
So, if we plan to teach moral values to our children, we, in our life, need to become a role model. To influence and inspire people — setting an example is not only necessary but it is THE ONLY WAY!
In a recent book — Honest Truth about Dishonesty — by Dan Ariely, the author has explored revealing, unexpected and astonishing traits that run through modern humankind, to ask us questions: What makes us cheat? How and why do we rationalise deception of ourselves and other people, and make ourselves ‘wishfully blind’ to the blindingly obvious? How a whole company can turn a blind eye to evident misdemeanours within their ranks? Whether people are born dishonest? And whether we can really be successful by being totally, brutally honest?
Let us just see one example from his book. He gave tough questions to a bunch of seemingly highly respected people from different walks of life and after they completed the same, he asked them to destroy the answer sheet. He then asked them to state how many they had answered. They were not aware that hidden cameras were recording everything. It was found that almost all inflated the answer!
So the question is, how moral are we when nobody is looking! If not, then how do we expect honesty from others! He further shows that how many of these, when caught, tried to rationalise by saying — stealing a needle is not as same as stealing an elephant! Can anybody teach such persons? Or can they teach anything to anybody? Learning, like charity, has to begin from self. So as Gautama Buddha said — Ap divo bhava – everybody has to be his own candle. Be the change you want to see.
Further, to do something worthwhile in one’s life, one must know that it is easier to criticise but difficult to improve. There is this famous story of the painter who painted a superb painting and then placed it on the road with a request to the patrons to point out mistakes or suggestions for improvement, if any. Soon, he was flooded with hundreds of suggestions. He was quite perturbed and felt very inadequate. But his friend had an idea. On his prodding, he again painted a new painting and placed it there with a request to patrons to themselves correct/paint the mistakes if any. This time there were hardly any suggestions! Great men concentrate on the work on hand and not waste time criticising others.
We have to leave the chalta hai, hota hai attitude! In India, we celebrate mediocrity. People are happy and accept work half done. Sweepers not cleaning properly, driver not cleaning cars properly… while those who try to do jobs fully are ridiculed as fastidious and perfectionists! Should we accept this? It is because we accept this, which is why the country, our cities, villages or whole society is in bad shape. Let us resolve to be different. Once we take up any task, let us do it with our heart and soul! Let us become role models.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit” – said Aristotle
Essentially, it means, excellence in any field is not a onetime feat. It is a cumulative outcome of a series of acts performed by an individual over a period of time in pursuit of excellence. We cannot hope to be excellent in one field, say our workplace while we are sloppy in our personal life or the way we interact with people.
The trick to live then, is doing things with excellence, finding fulfilment in doing whatever we are working on and having extreme gratitude to the almighty for making our life meaningful and not shallow and mindless. I hope we all can live with this spirit and enrich our life!
