Before he left for America, Swami Vivekananda had a conversation with Raja Ajit Singh of Khetri in Rajasthan. The king asked him, “What is life?” Swamiji replied, “Life is the unfoldment and development of a being under circumstances tending to press it down.” This is a very profound definition of ‘life’ Swamiji has given us, like the key to unlock the mystery of the role of personality development in facing life. Everyone comes across many circumstances which tend to press down his or her growth, peace and happiness. ‘Life’ consists of health, family, business, relationships, education. In the process of encountering these, many succeed and others feel helpless. Life moves in pairs of opposites: ups and downs, good and evil, life and death, pleasure and pain, freedom and bondage, success and failure, strong and weak, intelligent and stupid, true and false, appearance and reality! A massive collection of opposites-- that is ‘Life’! And we all respond to these in our own ways. These ‘our own ways’ of responding to life demonstrate the type of personality we have.Tired by our own reactions and to overcome our maze of conflicts, we need to learn to deal with the polarities of life. This means seeking an inner solution to life’s challenges. We then begin to observe how people respond differently to the same event or person and we begin to suspect that there is something more than what we consider ‘natural’. Thus the process of personality development begins. Let us illustrate it with a short story:A group of former students, well established in their careers got together to meet their old university professor. Their conversations soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. The professor offered coffee to his guests and went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and variety of cups, like porcelain, plastic, glass and crystal. Some were plain-looking, some expensive and some exquisite. He told the guests to help themselves. After everyone had a cup of coffee in his hand, the professor said, “If you have noticed, all the expensive cups have been taken up leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. It is normal for you to want the best for yourselves and that is the source of your problems and stress. Be assured that the cup adds no quality to the coffee. What all of you really wanted was coffee and not the cup. But you consciously went for the best cups and then were eyeing each other’s cups to see who had the best one. Now consider this, Life is the coffee! Jobs, position, security and money in the society are the cups. They are just tools to hold LIFE. The type of cup we hold neither changes nor defines the quality of life we live. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee. Savour the coffee and not the cups! The happiest people do not have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything.”To live a purposeful life, one should learn to take the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual. And this is the very essence of human existence.
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