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The Basic Malady
Thus, crisis of character is a very serious affair. We have to grapple with it, not merely by words or by criticising others but by going to its very roots. Mere criticism will take us nowhere. If we call X, Y, or Z names, how it is going to correct our behaviour? On the contrary, it will give us an additional bad quality of calling others names. How then can we eradicate this demon of immorality from ourselves ?
It is well known that a person becomes immoral and corrupt to the extent his selfishness gets the upper in his life. The greater the selfishness, the more a person is prone to take recourse to unseemly methods for fulfilling his self-interest. It a man is unselfish, he will never go in for evil and his character will never suffer. He will be an honest man.
Today selfishness has grown. Every man wants something more than what he gets. He does not care whether the way in which he gets it is good or bad. Often it is bad, and therefore there is crisis of character. So we have to control the selfishness of man. This is an extremely difficult job. Constituted as we are, some little selfishness is bound to be there. We are not all sadhus. We have not given up our families, wearing only a koupinam. It is not possible for us. So far as the whole society is concerned, that will not also be conducive to welfare of the society. A little selfishness will remain, to maintain our body and our family and to give them a minimum of happiness compatible with modern times. Let us not, therefore, think ill of any person who desires to lead an ordinarily comfortable life. But then that is the limit. If a person goes beyond that and indulges in selfishness to the detriment of the interests of the people as a whole, then certainly it is reprehensible.
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