Strength of Character:

Strength of Character:
“neither money pays, nor name, nor fame, nor learning; it is CHARACTER that can cleave through adamantine walls of difficulties.”
-Swami Vivekananda


There is a popular saying, “If wealth is lost nothing is lost, if health is lost something is lost, but if character is lost everything is lost”. But today what we see in society is quite contrary. Money is playing a very dominant role in present society. People are prepared to do anything for money, they can go to any extent, they are least bothered about means. They are busy amassing wealth even at the cost of others. Their hearts are dead. They are living corpses. They have no compassion, love or sympathy for other human beings. Adulteration, cheating, bribery, theft, exploitation, scams, scandals, dowry harassment, robbery are rampant everywhere. Surprisingly, it is perpetuated by the so-called educated people. In the modern educational system, only the intellect is being developed but there is no scope for the development of heart. It is only making people more and more selfish and greedy. Swami Vivekananda observed this when he said, “Bring light to the ignorant, and more light to the educated, for the vanities of the education of our time are tremendous.”




In the midst of chaos and confusion, here and there we come across a few great characters who have left their marks through their wonderful contribution. Among such we have a most celebrated personality, Sir Mokshagundam Vishveswaraiah, a great engineer produced by India in the last century. He is bright example to youth. He lived for 102 years and was full of enthusiasm, zeal and energy, almost till the end of his life. His dedication, sincerity, hard work, skills, integration, honesty, spirit of service, patriotism, above all his undaunted courage and disciplined life made him a unique personality. He was awarded the highest civilian award, “Bharat Ratna”, for his great contributions to our motherland. His biographer writes, “He was an unblemished pure life. When on duty he would use government vehicle, otherwise his own car. He never used Govt. Paper and stationery for personal and non-official correspondence. When in doubt he examined the paper for govt. Embossed water mark. (at that time also govt employees had no work to do ).When he was asked about the eradication of poverty, he said, “poverty is not natural. It is unnatural. It is curable like any disease. Ignorance, dependence, inefficiency, laziness; want of the spirit of enterprise are the real causes of poverty.”

Gandhiji’s slogan was- “Industrialise and perish”, while Sir M. Vishveswaraiah’s slogan was-“Industrialise or perish”. Both were right: one was emphasising human values, the other material prosperity. Swami Vivekananda came to harmonise these two apparently contradictory views. He wanted India to be great in every field, but not at the cost of long-cherished values and culture. He was sure that unless we combine both there cannot be real progress. He said, “What we want are western science coupled with Vedanta, Brahmacharya as the guiding motto, and also sharaddha and faith in one’s own self”.

Unfortunately, after Independence we are mostly concentrating on only one aspect i.e. Western science the other is completely neglected. In the name of secularism, we have carefully avoided long-cherished values which our ancestors lived for and practised. Due to lack of character energy we have converted human beings into machines. Every year we are manufacturing thousands of Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers, Managers, Administrators but not real human beings. Human values such as love, compassion, peace, happiness, truthfulness, honesty, sincerity, contentment, non-violence, patriotism, fearlessness, confidence, courage, self-restraint are replaced by hatred, cruelty, deceit, greed, dishonesty, lust, anger, fear, cowardice, selfishness, violence, self-indulgence, etc. , which has created vacuum in the hearts of people.
So, what we need today is the development of character which can only be done with the help of self-realization...what I truly believe is that intellect is the most important quality of ones character...so to preserve the attained intellect we need to develop a strong character.
Have faith in yourself and develop a strong character believe me no obstacle can stop u from achieving ur goal.
Try it out