Friday, December 7, 2012

About pride, vanity and courage.

I've been giving this a lot of thought over quite some time now.

Be proud of everything that you do. Do only that which makes you proud. If something that you are doing is not making you proud of yourself, then quit doing it. Stop right then. And do not do it again. 

When a student passes his exams with flying colors, his parents will be proud of him. But they won't be proud over the whole year of effort that he put in. They will be proud over his achievement - that of scoring well. Had the student failed, his parents would not have been proud of him. Instead they would have hung their head in shame in society and would have reprimanded him for failing.

You, and only you, will ever be proud of what you have done. Others will always only be proud of what you have achieved.

But be also careful, that your pride does not become your vanity. Your pride is your own. You will always be proud of yourself. You will always want yourself to be proud. But the moment you want, or will, others to be proud of yourself, you will be vain. And vanity is a vice.

Pride is mistaken to be a vice. It is vanity that makes a man suffer. Vanity goes before a fall. Vanity stops you from growing. Vanity should die in you, to let Heaven live in you. Vanity keeps you away from Godliness. Not pride. But vanity.

And above all, to be proud, you must be courageous. Pride is what wants you to keep your head held high. Courage will help you do it.

- Vinaykrishnan.

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