Self-awareness is Self-evaluation
Wise men of the world have known that
stupidity views itself as exceptionally wise. WISDOM is known as Self-awareness.
What helps one arrive at self-evaluation is the desire for self-awareness.
There is not one exclusive method to arrive at that desirable goal.
Accomplishment, intelligence, manners, character, values, social status, others'
opinions, professional ability, resourcefulness, etc. are the means resorted to
to evaluate oneself. How often one has had to revise his opinion in the past
reveals the quality of his judgement. One acid test of personality is to
disbelieve a rumour.
Rumour spreads by word of mouth and each mouth
expands it exponentially. In an institution whose sixty years budget total was
Rs 50 crores, highly educated professors were outraged that Rs 500 crores had
been swindled.
The number of rumours is legion. One can say ‘I am an
innocent good person. Several people speak several wild stories. What am I to
believe? It is not my fault that I believed the false news' and he may be able
to justify or self-justify his belief. The Spiritual truth here is ‘you are what
you believe'. If there is truth inside the outer falsehood, it will jar and no
belief will take shape inside. At least he will suspend his judgement. He who
readily becomes a victim to a malicious rumour is an unformed personality. He
may be good; but life cannot reward him for his goodness if he is vulnerable to
the charm of falsehood.
The great majority of the ‘informed public' are
anxious to readily accept a rumour because it gives a certain relish to their
psychological existence. Therefore, one way of our knowing our own worth is to
observe how often we have believed rumours and how readily they were acceptable
to us. In one who lives by the Spirit or in the habit of invoking the Spirit,
something in him readily rejects the onrush of rumour. Its very atmosphere is
unsavoury to him. One can evaluate one's self worth by this
yardstick.