“If you really want to judge the character of a man, look not at his great performances… Watch a man do his most common actions; those are indeed the things which will tell you the real character of a great man. Great occasions rouse even the lowest of human beings to some kind of greatness, but he alone is the really great man whose character is great always, the same wherever he be.”
— Swami Vivekananda
Is character defined by daily actions or individual acts of heroism and passion? Let’s ponder over Swami Vivekananda’s quote.
One day, a sage was bathing in a river. When he stepped onto the riverbank, he noticed a scorpion trapped between the rocks, struggling to free itself. The sage freed the scorpion by moving the rocks. As soon as it got free, the scorpion stung him and fled.
The other sages laughed and said it served him right for trying to save the scorpion. The sage replied, “I behaved as per my nature and the scorpion behaved as per its own.”
We assume a person’s character comes to the fore in adversity. But anyone can be a hero once in a while. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
What shows your character is how you behave in everyday situations. Do you remain quiet when someone utters hurtful words, or do you post a snide Instagram story as a response? Are you patient when your food gets delivered 15 minutes late or do you tag the app in a tweet rant? Do you help a stranger without expecting anything in return, or do you whisper “You are welcome” under your breath when they don’t thank you?
And if you do the former, do you put yourself on a pedestal (“I took the higher ground!”), or do you remain humble?
Your daily actions reveal your inner nature, your swabhāva. Aim to improve it by doing what’s right. Not for a reward, but because you can, even if it means that sometimes, a scorpion will sting you for setting it free.