Stupid me!!! (well not me really)!!!

I’ve seen a lot of people who have a habit of cursing others. At every possible opportunity they start cursing others, speaking bad words at the speed of 40 words per minute. One must be very careful when around such people.

But, there is another class of people who are even more dangerous than the ones mentioned above.

Recently, in a class, I was clarifying some doubts. One of the students came to me and asked a doubt. I said that it was a very simple one and went ahead to clarify it for him. 2 minutes later he came back with another question and said – “Gulshan, its probably stupid of me to be asking this but……..” I answered the question and made sure he understood.

Next day, he came back again “Gulshan, I’m definitely being dumb to ask this kind of a question, but how does this work……”

I noticed everytime he had a question, he would degrade himself and then ask. I told him “I will answer the question, but you need to stop calling yourself by wrong names”

And the reply he gave was even more amazing… “No, actually, I’m only saying it on the outside.” I didn’t see a point in continuing the discussion further so I answered his question and moved on.

Not tell me this – If a person keeps on degrading himself, what good will he do to himself or to people around him? How will such a person ever rise up and shine?

Its even worse when one degrades himself by comparing himself to people around him. Why should you, and how can you ever compare yourself with others? Yes, others have some strengths which you don’t but then you have some which nobody has. So where is the question of comparison?

Further, even more dangerous is a person who is capable of speaking one thing and thinking another. Who degrades himself to show off to the world, but at the same time, mentally keeps telling himself he’s better. How can I ever trust a person like that? How can I believe what he says?

Its no point trying to guess who the student in the above example is. I’m actually talking about you only.

Lets do ourselves a favour by keeping a safe distance from such people. And do ourselves an even bigger favour by not doing it on ourselves.

Infact, as I’m writing, I realize that even I have done this at rare occasions when I crack a joke on myself. I think I’ll stop doing that as it makes no sense to put myself down even in a joke.

I guess the biggest blessing is to be aware of oneself and be able to correct oneself before its too late…