Chapter 31: Do we have Courage?

 

  
Winners are always associated with audacity. The audacity to try, the audacity to win, the audacity to overcome. Just next to this audacity, there is a very thin line called Courage. This is my personal perspective. Every human has courage in him. At times, its not invoked in the right circumstances or is he given the opportunity to showcase that he fails to discover it all his life.

This society names such a loss as a failure obviously. It also inaugurates the person by labeling him a coward. The waging tongues of our society, needless to say. The jeer by the peers lowers his self confidence.

Lets ponder on this subject. Are people who fail to invoke/discover their courageous quality are really failures? Are they really cowards? I thought so initially. But then during my late twenties, i only discovered otherwise.

The first mistake that we do is to take silence for weakness. We have to stop doing this immediately. The second mistake that we do is to use our strongest reasons that's against the other party as the key to pin-point their mistakes, weakness. We have to stop doing this as well. The third mistake that we do is not listening to them with our heart.

Silence. It can be considered as a  golden form of high human intellect. Whenever I go to certain functions, I always take the trouble to observe people. I simply wash my eyes with the colors, noise and scenes. While I see happily- chatting people and havoc creators at one end, curiosity gets close to some unique people. 

I call them unique because, this particular group of people, do not interact at a busy level as the others. They are a stand-alone batch, who only talk when it is necessary. They do not participate in glamour, neither do they miss out their corner. They do what is right and avoid all unnecessary worry, talk and action. If you take time to study their profiles, these people are usually either professionals or avid spirituality followers. We think by talking socially, laughing out and creating havoc, we are courageous. Yes, we are in a way.  Courageous, to talk in-front of people only. But these unique people are a step higher than us. They are courageous to be in their own way of life, not letting their individuality to be shattered by a general group. I take this to be true courage.

The second mistake. I love to do this to all my friends. I am very guilty. I use one reason as the only reason and I do not see all the other things done by my friends in a course of dis-agreement. I use this one reason to pin-point, to hurt them and in the end, I lose them. By personal experience, not every human is able to absorb hurt. If a person stays with you after this stage, then you should never lose this person. It is pure concern and love. On the other of the mirror, it is true courage. A fine display of courage that the person has. He stays on, not leaving you.

This last mistake, has some involvement with the second. However, it may not be true in all cases. Courage, is not about not listening to people. It is actually a fear. The fear in our deep minds that silently informs that the other party might have a valid point to win you down. Listening to someone takes a lot of courage. Managing the predicament of two minds takes even more courage.

Now let's think again. Silence. Reasons. Listening. 

Who is courageous? Who is the winner?