Character - stays forever

When analyzing human life, one of the important questions that arise is “What does one leave behind when one leaves body?” They say that it is the character that one leaves behind when one leaves body.

That is why they say that the education that does not end in good character is not an education at all. The main purpose of education is building character.

Kirti does not mean fame. It means character. It means good name. All the actions have to be aligned to build character. Damages to physique, wealth can recover over the time, but damage to character is irrecoverable. It stays forever. Don’t we say – first impression is the last impression?

Like for building professional profile one must go through good professional education under good teachers. In the same way for building character one has to go through good education under good Guru.

The scriptures are the best sources to self-educate about building character. They contain important upadeshas that when followed one is assured of building a good character.

Scriptures such as Ramayana and Mahabharata contain characters that indicate dos and donts. Ravana from Ramayana epic is a classic example of donts. Ravana, they say, was very well educated in all vedas and shastras. He was a great devotee of Lord Shiva. But in spite of having all this knowledge he failed to leave a good name. He lost respect even in his own family. Vibhishana, Ravana’s real brother and an ardent devotee of Rama, tried his best to amend Ravana's ways and direct him back to the path of righteous conduct.  But Alas!, Ravana did not pay heed to any of those good advises and he lost everything he earned. He left bad example and so nobody dares to name their child as Ravana.

Whereas Rama, Laxmana, Hanuman left good name. People take pride in naming their children as Rama or Laxmana or Hanuman.

To achieve a good character one should pursue a goal of earning respect among Saints and Satpurushas. Saints are the living Gods on earth. It is not easy to earn respect among Saints. Saints are all knowing people. They know ins and outs of a person who approaches them and so cleverness which helps to achieve respect in society does not work when achieving respect among saints. What is needed is a pure heart. To achieve pure heart the only way is the devotion and dedication. When one develops liking for chanting the name of God, all other likings slowly diminish. In fact, diminishing of all other likes while developing a liking for chanting the name god is an important indication that one is on the right path of building a character.

The goal is to have the name of god in the mind at the last moment on earth. That is the success criteria of the human birth. The slow repetition of name of God in the mind while performing all other mundane activities helps to achieve this goal.