Moral Attitude to Work
By Karmayogi
The ordinary man is often an
adored member of the society. He is hailed as a model man. Such a man will
follow all the social rules, and never transgress the social boundaries. He
will conform to the norms of the society, honour his own conscience and be held
up as a perfect gentleman. Such men during their school days win all the GOOD
BOY prizes. This is all right; but this is not all. Some children are gifted,
while others are unruly. The precocious children will always be found NOT to
fit into the society at one point or the other. Should one be born a prodigy,
the rule is his life will be miserable. The genius has always suffered at the
hands of the family, society, government, etc.
The rule of the moral man is, 'He who is not a friend is an enemy'.
This is not true. Society consists of both friends and enemies but also a great
mass of people outside that. To consider one who is not a friend as an enemy is
a dangerous attitude. I am not concerned about the rare individual who is born
a genius. Now that India is
free and education more widespread, more and more children are born with a WILL
of their own, and are less eager to conform. They suffer at the hands of
parents who have a well-defined MORAL attitude. ‘‘My child does not
obey. He is a bad boy.'' A parent must have a sense of whether the
child is evil or good. Out of ten rough children, only ONE will be bad. Even
there it is the violence of the ununderstanding parent that makes him bad. There
are occasions where the parent needs to congratulate himself as his child is
out of the ordinary, if not outstanding.
Reading about the lives of many achievers who are not geniuses, one sees how
much the child suffered because of lack of understanding in the parent. Churchill
was at the 30th rank in a class of 30 not because he was dull — he was a
genius – but because his mother cruelly neglected him, thinking his poor
performance in the school revealed he was dull. Churchill was considered a
bully at school. Is it a sin for the child to be born with a broader mind than
his parents? Now-a-days, that is more the rule than the exception. A very rigid
MORAL attitude to work is likely to inflict an undue punishment on the child. Personally
I am a sad witness of many such children whose suffering is avoidable.