Sha Philosophy – Chapter15: HONOR
It is the nature of every human being to gain honor and be respectable in the society. There are different ways to gain honor. One may like to be honoured by subduing others with his might and pride. One may like to be honoured by means of accomplishment of mark of honor ( distinction ) in knowledge of all branches of education. One may be very eager to gain honor by means of amassing wealth. Some other person aspires to be honoured by means of good deeds like giving alms etc. However, the honor gained by means of several kinds of aspirations of worldly pleasures such as these, is transient. The person who wishes to gain honor by means of such aspirations becomes weak-minded and also dishonored by the society when his time turns bad .
Pride of Might :
When someone creates terror with his pride of muscle power, the victims of his wickedness give pseudo respect to him. When he becomes aged , lean and thin, he loses his might and as well as his pride. Then the persons, who were subdued by him and gave respect to him out of fear, will hate and dishonor him.
Mark of honor in education :
Someone may be honoured by scholars, as well as illiterates, due to his vanity of achievements, in various branches of education. He may be able to perform Ashtaavadhana or Sataavadhana . However , if he has the nature of disregarding other scholars and bad tongue, others certainly hate him. In addition to this , if he loses in contention with some other superior scholar in education, he will be dejected with disrespect and shame.
Desire for wealth :
The person, who aspires for wealth may earn whatever he wants and become rich and show his pride. It is natural for those , who want to earn money from him, to become his servants and show their obedience with respect and devotion towards him. By the course of time as a consequence of his bad actions ( such as vices ) the rich man may lose his wealth. Then the persons, who served and respected him for his wealth, will certainly disregard him with aversion by observing his wretched condition.
Aims and Charity :
Somebody may gain personal influence over other people by means of charitable deeds like giving alms etc , and then the society honors him. When he doesn’t have sufficient resources of wealth, which suits his level of honor, the same persons, as have respected him, will ditch him in that miserable condition . They may even divert their glances to avoid seeing him, or they may even take different roads to walk along. No one even likes to greet him in that wretched condition.
In this manner, man is subjected to honor and dishonour, and perishes because of the adversities of time.
The Honor :
The honourable man , who has even acquired distinction in education, wealth, fame and pride, whose words have no contradictions and command respect, should always scrutinize his own behaviour by keeping his respectable life in view to attain everlasting honor in this world during the entire period of his life.
. Such a man should make the great power known as humbleness ( modesty ) as foundation for his behaviour.
. He should always show , same kind of humble obedience to everybody starting from a small kid to an elderly person.
. He should have the ability to sustain this sort of unparalled modest behaviour throughout his life.
. When wicked and impatient people disregard, contradict or abuse him, he should be able to tolerate it with patience and keep up modest smile on his lips.
The man , who possesses the above mentioned characteristics, will never be dishonoured. Such a great man of virtues will be intimately honoured not only by entire mankind , but also by every creature !
This type of honor is permanent and known as everlasting honor. Even after the death of such an honourable man, his name and glory will become world famous. He will indeed be praised as “ Mruthyunjeeva “ who lives even after his death.
The man , who wishes to gain such great personality, should scrutinize every aspect of his behaviour ( even when he is in troubles ) and transform his way of life, will be revered by the entire world. He is indeed honourable. This is indeed the “honor”
Notes:
- Ashtaavadhana: It is an extraordinary talent of a scholar to attend to eight matters simultaneously.
Sataavadhana: It is an extraordinary talent of a scholar to attend to one hundred matters simultaneously.
