The long-term good of building a good character.

5 min read


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Given a choice, which of the two would you like to be associated with: a person with a good character, or a person with a bad character?

In general, all of us want to be associated with those who have good character. Irrespective of who we are, we will never like to be associated with any bad person because we don’t want to fall prey to the bad person’s badness. However, we come across and associate with both good and bad people in our life, depending on our destiny and the choices we make.

Unfortunately, the millennium that we are living in is a very complex one. There is practically no sure-shot, straight-forward way to differentiate the bad ones from the good ones. Every person has his story and no one can know it completely. With time, those we had perceived as bad may turn out to be the good ones, and vice versa. Of course, we do have a set of checklists to know how good or how bad a person is but still that doesn’t give a complete picture of a person’s character.

Grand Master Choa Kok Sui said, “A good person is not completely good, nor a bad person is completely bad”.

Some of the fundamental truths of our existence explain that we all have both higher and lower tendencies within us, but in different proportions. We as a soul are on a multi-life journey of spiritual evolution from time immemorial and the personality that we have in this life is a culmination of various factors that are not only related to this life but also to many of our past lives.

Some people come into this world with more good qualities than bad, and vice-versa. No matter in what proportion is of our good and bad qualities today, we all are supposed to raise our standards so as to increase our good qualities and minimize or eliminate our bad qualities.

This is not something very new to us. We are often told by our elders that we should have a good character. But when we see the world around us, we sometimes feel like “it may be good to have a good character but good character won’t solve my problems. So, let me first focus on somehow solving my problems, and then I will think about being good, etc.

Most of us are living in a cut-throat competitive world in which talking about things such as good character building may appear like an undervalued concept. Although many organizations talk about honesty, loyalty, and integrity, etc., at a macro-level, at a micro-level, however, we see there’s a big gap between what is being said and what is being followed. The talks of profit and growth, often dilute the vision to make people rich in values.

However, no organization can bring change in a person unless he/she wishes to change. Anything external may create an impetus for change, but change is more about the internal decision than an external stimulus.

There can be many reasons for people for their lack of willingness to focus on building a good character or living a virtuous life. We can categorize them into two broad reasons – “Fear of short-term losses,” and “Forgetting long-term profits.”

  1. Fear of short-term losses: Being honest in everything we do, truthful in everything we say, kind in words, and compassionate in our deeds are things that may seem impractical in the current scenario. Many may feel that “being virtuous may force us to compromise on our aspirations, goals, and dreams, and may render us highly vulnerable to circumstances”.
  1. Forgetting long-term profits: Somehow, our materialistic world-view makes us look only for things we are likely to gain or lose in our life. Most of us get on with it by managing things thinking there is only one life we have. We forget that every one of our actions will have some reactions; every seed that we sow will fructify in due course of time – these are aspects that not only impact our current life but our next life too. Some may say, “Oh… who cares about the next life, let me handle this life that I already have.” Probably, that’s what we had said in our previous life too, and are suffering now for that indifference.

The path of building a good character is not an easy one. We may have to go through constant agitation in our minds due to both the good and bad responses of people around us. But we should not forget that what we are building is much beyond those people’s responses. If we lack the inspiration to continue on a virtuous path then we should remember the following poem, “Do it anyway”. Mother Teresa displayed this poem on a wall in her children’s home in Calcutta. This is also known as the ‘Mother Teresa Prayer.’

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; 
forgive them anyway.

 If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; 
be kind anyway.

 If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; 
succeed anyway.

 If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; 
Be honest and frank anyway

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; 
build anyway.

 If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; 
Be happy anyway

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; 
do good anyway

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; 
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God; 
it was never between you and them anyway.

It is easy to be in ignorance and drive our life with a one-life (short-term) perspective, but it takes an intelligent effort to prepare ourselves to live a life by having a multi-life (long-term) perspective. A virtuous life may seem like a slow, struggling, and non-lucrative one initially but eventually, that will lay down a path to gain a long-term good which can enable us to live an eternally blissful life.

Thank you.

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Author

Sriharsh Vaidya

(Pranic Psychotherapist and Licensed Practitioner of NLP)


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2 Comments

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  1. Woww. 👏👏👏 When am reading it , I feel that cutting my soul and heart , checking what is there inside . Short term and long term both I have seen , but I realised that practicing good things even though it is difficult , I will get fruitful life in next life anyway. My way of expression may not reach u all but the reading of article essence wil reach u all hearts . Thank u so much Prabhuji such a wonderful and clearcut article . Miru articles Oka arudaina mokka laantivi, avi Mahaa Veukshalu ayina roju andaru swedateerutharu ani na gatti nammakam Prabhuji 🙏🙏🙏

  2. Article inculcates being good is just not something but beyond. Circumstances with which Society n people are preferring being good in a least. But being good will automatically make us pure in all aspects of life and hope that will give a better next-life.

    Hence, being good has more opportunities in this life n benefits in next-life.😇