Gone are the
days, when people who lived on this earth, were “Value Personified”. When we
think of TRUTH, the name that comes to our mind is Harichandra, when we think
of NON VIOLENCE, the name is Gandhiji, When we think of SERVICE, the name is
Mother Teresa. There are many such real life examples, who have lived their
life, for the value they cherished close to their heart. For them, their value,
was more important than their life. If it was a choice between their life and their
value, they would decide to give up their life and not their value.
Are such
personalities relevant today? Is there still a scope for absolute values?
In the modern
world, most of us agree, it is OK to go against those time bound values in
order to reap some gain. We have different terms by which we call this;
Survival technique, Adaptability, Being Smart, so on and so forth. It is ultimately our intelligence, that has got better off our emotional
convictions. Even if somebody pinpoints to us, that what we are doing is wrong,
we shoot back with the words, “Hey, You….. which century do you belong to, come
on, get practical”
Honesty today
means different things to different people. There seems to be different levels of honesty.
Level 1: I will be 100% honest and transparent. I will
never say a lie.
Level 2 : I will never say a lie, but I will hide the truth, if there is a need.
Level 3 : If telling a lie, can save me, my family or my
friend from a dangerous situation, I will.
Level 4 : I will tell petty lies, to get petty things
done. It is not my intention to cheat anyone, but telling such small lies,
makes my life a lot easier.
Level 5: I know what is important to me and I don’t
want to loose out on opportunities, in the name of being clean and honest. At
the end of the day it is only me, who has to fend myself.
There could be
many such levels, that seems appropriate to different people. So, you cannot just
label somebody as dishonest. All you can do is, assess for yourself the level
of honesty, of the person and deal with him accordingly. Nobody likes to be
condemned as being dishonest. They have their own justifiable reasons. It is just a matter of how much you are
agreeable with that particular person. Your level of agreeability, will depend
upon which level of honesty, you belong to.
Talking about
honesty, I would like to share a incident that touched my heart, way back in
1992, when I was studying in London.
During the weekends, I used to attend a class on philosophy. There used to be a
refreshment break. The way people bought and paid for the refreshments was
really interesting. Just like a buffet, a table is placed with different bowls,
some having cakes, some having cookies, and few other bowls with other snacks.
Below every bowl the price of the product is written, such as £0.25, £0.50 etc.
Plates are kept in one corner. The person picks up the plate and moves along
the line. He picks up whatever snack he wants and just calculates in his mind
the price of the item. At the end of these food bowls, there is a glass bowl
with some loose change in it. It is
something like an “open cash box”. The person puts the exact amount in the bowl
or puts the currency note and picks up the balance change from the bowl. The
beauty is that there is no one to monitor, what is dropped in and what is taken
out. A classic example of honesty and integrity, that I have seen in real life.
I was awestruck
by such a wonderful practice. I imagined, what would be the result if something
like this was practiced in our country and I could not hope for a positive
answer, that day. 16 years, has now passed since then, and I am still waiting for
a positive answer.
Happy Reading,
D. Senthil
Kannan
Article dated Dec'08
