Depiction of Humility.
Ravi Speaks:
ARTICLE UPDATED ON 05.09.2022
Humility as I could understand
Repeatedly we come across many such personalities-where either we get hooked up to them because of their wonderful works done or because of their image amongst the masses. Obviously, when I talk about the personalities-those can either be politicians or celebrities mainly because my focus has been predominantly on these two segments: mainly politics and filmdom. Yes, I read, off & on, the novels, but I can form the opinion of the mindset of the writer and maybe his ability as an impactful writer in bringing about some change in the society but since I may not know all his personality traits-hence, I would not be putting him in the bracket of evaluating his personality highlights. It is only during our day-to-day interactions and other activities of communication that we get to grow enriched with certain celebrity figures more pronouncing that we could easily make out whether he is a simple person with a high level of humility or a powerful one trying to influence his attributes on others.
Let me first discuss this precious word ‘Humility’ at length. Normally, we use empathy, humility, and thoughtfulness as the foundational building blocks of healthy team dynamics. Likewise, these powerful three words are the basic foundation for any strong society to rise also, since they are the essential bricks for that society to get formed. For a society or even on the wider scale masses-we have seen certain impactful personalities coming and because of their great ideas and humility in their behavior, they have been able to change the mindset of the masses. For we the Indians, the best example would surely be Mahatma Gandhi.
Humility is not sheepishness or shyness associated:
If someone says like- “The old man stood, with eyes downcast and hands clasped before him, a picture of humility”. The meaning of humility might be understood, even so, it gives the reflection of slavery or lowliness or sheepishness or even shyness in a single statement. Humility is the quality of being humble, down to earth. When you are humble, you don’t speak what you want to because you are modest and want to show respect to others. Whereas shyness is to keep quiet because you are afraid to speak up. Humility is the ability to bow down.
Both humble and humility refer to having a low or modest estimate of one’s importance. This is the opposite of arrogance and pride. Thus, humility always refers to a quality, whereas humility refers to the thing or person who is being modest.
Humility is not Inferiority Complex or even pride:
Humility is the state or condition of being humble. It’s like having a modest opinion of yourself and your importance. Being humble is not believing you are inferior to others. The popular understanding of an inferiority complex is a person who believes he/she is inferior to other people.
Pride refers to having an excessively high opinion of oneself, whereas humility refers to having a modest opinion of oneself. This is the main difference between pride and humility. Humility is a strength, whereas pride is a weakness.
Humility will help you as you strive to be obedient, to work hard, and serve selflessly. Therefore, to be humble and obey God is our choice and no one can. The opposite of humility is pride, which is condemned in the scriptures.
Being docile is yielding to control or supervision, direction, or management while humble is near the ground; not high or lofty; not pretentious or magnificent; pretending; unassuming; as a humble cottage or humble can be hornless.
You think that I have gone slightly philosophical in understanding the meaning of this very vital word? I have a definite purpose to emphasize more on this word. I want that each one reader understands the depth of the word humility and exercise it in his daily routine. This exercise can be done by one and all, incorporating the usage of this in everyone’s daily routine interactions with the people. You will find after some time the natural reflection of humility pouring out from those personalities also who were lagging in it. Those who already had humility as their trait must have realized that they could exercise humility with a positive response coming to their way-getting the confirmation of something affirmative happening within ourselves. After all, we need to bring in humility in our daily routine, then only we can be a purposeful society thinking for the upliftment of our Human race. It is not the work left for only our some leaders and the celebrities. Let a few be arising out of us the normal people and help to ease out the enormous work of change to be brought about by those few leaders only.
Let me talk broader about some personalities who have at least put an impact on me.
The first name which comes to my mind from the recent times-is, of course, that of Ex-President of USA-Barrack-Obama. When he came -he was from a black background and his rearing too was at a lower-class family. I still remember when I heard him for the first time as the President of America-I was deeply touched by the infectious and adrenaline-driven stance he had in his speech. I could understand that the people of America had chosen the right man who would do wonders in the times to come. Later on, also he did wonderful work and the word Racism-which is a big threat to the peace of America-had almost died down. He has such great power and yet talked with such humility. There aren’t many people in politics who are as charismatic as President Obama, and then, when we look beyond politics, he poses stiff competition for most on the charisma front. He has a unique ability to connect earthly, daily activities to aspirational dreams for a greater future, and has told countless stories to help us emotionally connect with others who are separated from us by distance and time. It’s fair to say his abilities are rare.”
The second name immediately after Obama comes that of Dr. Manmohan Singh. I know some of my friends may not agree with me for this meek-looking person with a very low voice coming out. In a general sense, meekness refers to the quality of being quiet, gentle, righteous, and obedient. Humility refers to the quality of being humble. He may look meek, but in an actual sense, he is all humility. Congress president Sonia Gandhi called Manmohan Singh the ‘epitome of humility, as the former prime minister was conferred with the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, disarmament, and development for 2017. “Dr. Manmohan Singh’s demeanor is such that it appears he was born wise. In his decade-long Prime Ministerial tenure, India recorded its highest economic growth rate ever. He became PM when the country was on edge and within months, his policies had a profound calming effect”.
Here is yet again a person who rose to the top from a very humble beginning. He too had seen all the tough terrains in his career. But the beauty which I could see in him was the development of all the traits of a great leader over some time. He had two to three times the narrow accidents and that way a very close shave with death. He could come out very strong with willpower that still keeps him very active at 78 years. Amitabh Bachchan became a legend because of his humility and kind gesture. Being an actor, it becomes too difficult to maintain humbleness and treat people with so much love and dignity. He has achieved a success that others can only think about and he has truly managed his stardom so well.
Likewise, there may be many more, and especially when you visualize as per your analysis-your heroes may be different but the inference one should take out from all this analysis is–“How much We have been able to imbibe in us first and subsequently in our people of the close-knit society in which we dwell. Today, my purpose of this small analytical discussion on humility would be fruitful if each one reader seriously picks up the inferences from here and tries at his small level to imbibe the same amongst his fellow men-especially the emerging youth.
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