•Tuesday, August 29, 2006
We need to develop personality based on character and not on achievements in life, since this is what is remembered by the world through eternity.There are four dimensions of the human personality i.e. Physical, Mental, Intellectual, and Spiritual. A harmonious growth of all these aspects constitutes the real personality. One must strive for sound health, strong mind, pure intellect, and spiritual growth simultaneously.
Now let's talk about Physical Dimension. Most of our miseries are caused by our physical weaknesses. Good health is the source of happiness and success in life. A healthy person always keeps his mind cool in all circumstances. He performs his duties efficiently, enthusiastically and cheerfully. Habits too play a vital role in developing physical dimension. So, nutritious food, regular exercise, cultivating good habits, and self-control help us to improve our health, which forms a part of personality development.
In Mental Dimension, the mind is superior to the body. Negative and evil thoughts make the mind weak. Violence, crime, killing, committing suicide are the outcome of weak minds. Such a mind acts upon us like an enemy. Sri Krishna says 'One should save oneself by oneself; one should not lower oneself. For oneself is verily one's own friend; oneself is verily one's own enemy'. The strong and disciplined mind acts like a friend, but the weak, uncontrolled, and frustrated mind acts like a enemy and leads to destruction. Here are a few observations about the strong and weak minds.
STRONG MIND
1. A strong mind always remains calm even in adversities.
2. It never succumbs to temptations, and develops tremendous courage to say 'No' to immoral thoughts and actions.
3. It always remains free from prejudice, suspicion, and jealousy.
4. Clarity of thinking makes it possible to take right decisions and comes to right judgements.
5. Such a mind will never indulge in wrong actions, prompted by evil emotions, such as desire, anger, greed, fear, hatred, etc., but will be always guided by serious, deep and right thinking.
6. Positive thinking, concentration, fearlessness, adventurous nature, and self-confidence are the vital qualities of a strong mind.
WEAK MIND
1. A weak mind gets irritated and loses temper over trifling matters and reacts violently.
2. Such a mind can easily succumb to temptations, like bribery, stealing, etc.
3. Due to confusion, suspicion, and prejudice, it fails to take the right decision and make impartial judgements.
4. Such a mind always compromises with and surrenders to evil forces.
5. It cannot face challenges in life, and tries to escape from them by adopting easy and cheap methods.
6. Such a mind always takes recourse to weeping and grumbling.
7. Such a mind never appreciates good qualities in others.
8. Restlessness, fear, tension, laziness, frustration, superstition, and negative thinking are the main characteristics of a weak mind.
Swami Vivekananda says 'Whateve you think, that you will be; if you think yourselves strong, strong you will be. If you think yourselves weak, weak you will be.'
Now coming to Intellectual Dimension, intellectual strength is superior to physical, and mental strength. We need to bring it out through deep thinking which is possible through the power of concentration. For this will power is required and at the same time you will need to discriminate between right and wrong.
And Spiritual Dimension is superior to all other aspects of personality. Lord Krishna says 'Knowledge remains covered by ignorance. The moment we remove this screen of ignorance, the knowledge of the Atman will shine forth, and then will manifest all the great virtues in our personality.' Ignorance is nothing but the impurity in mind. The person with the pure mind alone can realize this divine. And, therefore, one shoud never deviate from the path of righteousness. There are six enemies i.e. lust, anger, greed, delusion, pride, and jealousy. The moment we drive them away from the mind, the Divine will reflect in that pure mirror of our mind. These impurities can be removed through the path of devotion, discrimination, selfless action, meditation.
We all need to struggle for perfection in all these aspects which will ultimately lead us to the development of the real personality. And all this is almost related to personality development.
My favourite quotes of Swami Vivekananda's :
* 'Strength is life, weakness is death. Strength is felicity, life eternal, immortal; weakness is constant strain and misery.'
# 'Neither money pays, nor name, nor fame, nor learning; it is CHARACTER that can cleave through adamantine walls of difficulties.'
* 'If you really want to judge the character of a man, look not at his great performances. Every fool may become a hero at one time or another. Watch a man do his most common actions; those are indeed the things which will tell you the real character of a great man.'
# 'We are to take care of ourselves - that much we can do - and give up attending to others for a time. Let us perfect the means; the end will take care of itself. For the world can be good and pure, only if our lives are good and pure. It is an effect, and we are the means. Therefore, let us purify ourselves. Let us make ourselves perfect.'
* 'The remedies for weakness is not brooding over weakness, but thinking of strength. Teach men of the strength that is already within them.'
As I am going through all these, I strongly feel there is lot to learn in this world to build our own CHARACTER. And, we are not complete.
Now let's talk about Physical Dimension. Most of our miseries are caused by our physical weaknesses. Good health is the source of happiness and success in life. A healthy person always keeps his mind cool in all circumstances. He performs his duties efficiently, enthusiastically and cheerfully. Habits too play a vital role in developing physical dimension. So, nutritious food, regular exercise, cultivating good habits, and self-control help us to improve our health, which forms a part of personality development.
In Mental Dimension, the mind is superior to the body. Negative and evil thoughts make the mind weak. Violence, crime, killing, committing suicide are the outcome of weak minds. Such a mind acts upon us like an enemy. Sri Krishna says 'One should save oneself by oneself; one should not lower oneself. For oneself is verily one's own friend; oneself is verily one's own enemy'. The strong and disciplined mind acts like a friend, but the weak, uncontrolled, and frustrated mind acts like a enemy and leads to destruction. Here are a few observations about the strong and weak minds.
STRONG MIND
1. A strong mind always remains calm even in adversities.
2. It never succumbs to temptations, and develops tremendous courage to say 'No' to immoral thoughts and actions.
3. It always remains free from prejudice, suspicion, and jealousy.
4. Clarity of thinking makes it possible to take right decisions and comes to right judgements.
5. Such a mind will never indulge in wrong actions, prompted by evil emotions, such as desire, anger, greed, fear, hatred, etc., but will be always guided by serious, deep and right thinking.
6. Positive thinking, concentration, fearlessness, adventurous nature, and self-confidence are the vital qualities of a strong mind.
WEAK MIND
1. A weak mind gets irritated and loses temper over trifling matters and reacts violently.
2. Such a mind can easily succumb to temptations, like bribery, stealing, etc.
3. Due to confusion, suspicion, and prejudice, it fails to take the right decision and make impartial judgements.
4. Such a mind always compromises with and surrenders to evil forces.
5. It cannot face challenges in life, and tries to escape from them by adopting easy and cheap methods.
6. Such a mind always takes recourse to weeping and grumbling.
7. Such a mind never appreciates good qualities in others.
8. Restlessness, fear, tension, laziness, frustration, superstition, and negative thinking are the main characteristics of a weak mind.
Swami Vivekananda says 'Whateve you think, that you will be; if you think yourselves strong, strong you will be. If you think yourselves weak, weak you will be.'
Now coming to Intellectual Dimension, intellectual strength is superior to physical, and mental strength. We need to bring it out through deep thinking which is possible through the power of concentration. For this will power is required and at the same time you will need to discriminate between right and wrong.
And Spiritual Dimension is superior to all other aspects of personality. Lord Krishna says 'Knowledge remains covered by ignorance. The moment we remove this screen of ignorance, the knowledge of the Atman will shine forth, and then will manifest all the great virtues in our personality.' Ignorance is nothing but the impurity in mind. The person with the pure mind alone can realize this divine. And, therefore, one shoud never deviate from the path of righteousness. There are six enemies i.e. lust, anger, greed, delusion, pride, and jealousy. The moment we drive them away from the mind, the Divine will reflect in that pure mirror of our mind. These impurities can be removed through the path of devotion, discrimination, selfless action, meditation.
We all need to struggle for perfection in all these aspects which will ultimately lead us to the development of the real personality. And all this is almost related to personality development.
My favourite quotes of Swami Vivekananda's :
* 'Strength is life, weakness is death. Strength is felicity, life eternal, immortal; weakness is constant strain and misery.'
# 'Neither money pays, nor name, nor fame, nor learning; it is CHARACTER that can cleave through adamantine walls of difficulties.'
* 'If you really want to judge the character of a man, look not at his great performances. Every fool may become a hero at one time or another. Watch a man do his most common actions; those are indeed the things which will tell you the real character of a great man.'
# 'We are to take care of ourselves - that much we can do - and give up attending to others for a time. Let us perfect the means; the end will take care of itself. For the world can be good and pure, only if our lives are good and pure. It is an effect, and we are the means. Therefore, let us purify ourselves. Let us make ourselves perfect.'
* 'The remedies for weakness is not brooding over weakness, but thinking of strength. Teach men of the strength that is already within them.'
As I am going through all these, I strongly feel there is lot to learn in this world to build our own CHARACTER. And, we are not complete.


9 comments:
Right caps, neither are we complete nor are we perfect, life should be a continuous journey towards that ever eluding perfection.. Ooooooowwoww!! you are beginning to sound like a spiritual guru.. poor Hem!!.. kidding...
You still have one book left, finish it off and impart the knowledge guruji... :-)).
Don't call me like that. I am just like you, but little curious regarding this stuff. Now, let me impart todays's spiritual quote from the book u gave. It says 'It is our choice of good or evil that determines our character, not our opinion about good or evil'. So, you can just guess what am I ;). ABout Hem, nothing to worry. Will be under proper care in every way.
"'If you really want to judge the character of a man, look not at his great performances. Every fool may become a hero at one time or another. Watch a man do his most common actions; those are indeed the things which will tell you the real character of a great man.'"
That is so true. What matters is how a person is in general, towards others in every day life. I also heare another quote, I don't know who said that. "Character is what you do when nobody is watching you"
"Character is what you do when nobody is watching you". If taken in a positive way, it's fine. I too have got no idea who said this.
Wow.. very nice post.. There is lot to learn from it & try to make changes.
According to your post, hubby has strong personality & I fall in weak.. I don't appreciate him & temptation for food is rulling my life. Its time to change now.. Thanks for sharing such nice thoughts.
your friend:-)
mommyof2: The same here also..... writing these to help myself too...By the way, your name or nick name friend?
"What you believe, you become" Buddha...I've always carry that thought with me...some great stuff here and so true...thank you
The Three Attitudes:
Great Faith,
Great Courage
and Great Questioning.
kuan gung : thanks...n what u said is right.....