PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT ie V4 toy? Swami Vivekananda ‘Y ¥ i . a PR fi t be } Mhlalesh fol 1 Hach Let Personaliti ” DEVELOPMENT Swami Vivekananda q I Pijlshed on the oecasion of 150% Finda Auuivenscy of Sours! Voelinenda ‘Tre Goren Susitey aude Mh nl Ress Miia ela ac, Hara Da ies Beg 17209 nd, Deesrter 2011, soot "is bck bsg posh th nant antaene ne the Mi a (Case, Govern Lal, Privat ant Di fut Ase $5 Dei Ent Road olen 70904 TSN er Sessa Prine Tait Sapa Prting Ys Poa al adler FBO CONTENTS What Is Personality? Tels Fersonality That Matters Laws of Personality Development Difforent Layers of Personality Man Is Divine Pleasure Is Not the Goal How to Change Our Character? Influence of Thought Control Your Negative Emotions Change Yourself First Take the Whole Responsibility on Yourself How to Work? Work Like a Master Doing Good to This World Unselfishness Will Bring Suc IU Is Love That Pays Weakness Is Death Be Brave Heroism Faith in Oncselt Imitation Is Bad 33 What Is Ethics? Hold On to the Ideal ‘The Power of Concentration Develop the Sense of Equality Be Liree March On! References PUBLISHER'S NOTE The Indian youths are now at the crossrowds. On ‘one side they see the pompans shinw of wealth, luxury ‘enjuyments, and on the other side they see nuillions Of people without envugh food or clothing, straggling, te survive in muiserable conditions, India's priceless spint- tual heritage is now facing the challenge of materialistic values, Tin this dire situation the life and teachings of Swami Vivekananda can be of immense benefit and help to all people. They contain the distilled essence of India’s spiritual treasures explained in the sinplest language in. the light of modern rational thought and science. They are universal in (heir scope and are meant for afl people belonging inall strata of society all religions and all races. ‘The present book is curpiled from the 9-volume ‘Complete Werks of Ssanti Vivekpupsta. Asa partof the cole- bration of Swarniji's 150th Birth Anniversary 2013-2014), this book is being made available ata subsidized price. Belur Math Publisher May 2011 INTRODUCTION What Is Personality? Aiicornine re nin Cambridge inter. ational Dictionary of English, ‘your personality is te type of person you are, which ie shown by the may you behave, feel and think, Pevsomality,acconding #0 the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, is the whole nature or character ofa person How a person behaves, feels and thinks, how he conducishitoelfina given set dtcurmstancesis irgely determined by the slate of his mind, Mere extern} ape [pearance or a person's speech or mannerisms are only fringes of one’s personality, They do nol reflec the real personality. Personality development in the real sense relees to deeper lvelnofs person, Soa study of our pre sanolity should stac rama clear grap ofthe wali of our mind, and how i functions Ne sily fo know over mind We intend to do many things _ make resolutions to cultivate good habils, lo kick certain bad habits, lu study with concentration, to do something with acon- centiated mind. Very atten our mind rebels, forcing us to beats reircal from ourofforts at implementing our resn- lutions. A bonkis open before us, and our eyesate open. Bul the mind has started wandering, thinking about some past events or some future plans. The same thing 6 What 5 Personality? 7 Iappens when wr sit for a few minutes tying fo pray rthink of adiviye namior fm, Says Swan Vivek” tranda: Free! We who cannot fora moment govern OO Dyin tlds, nay, cannot Hold our mints on x sujet, focusitona point to the exclusion of everything vie fo a anoment Yel we call ourselvan free, Think of “According to the Bingiond Gita, the undiscipinee mind ects a8 ove eneany, whereas a trained rand acts as out Iriend So we need to have a clear ie of the mechanism of our mind. Can we train i€ to abey US, teconperaie with us? How can it enntribute to the de velopment of our personally? "Te fnurfotd fumetions af the md: ‘The human mind has four basic funclions. This con be illustrated by an example: suppose I meet a person whom Ehad inet somewhore, say, aboutten years before, I ry to recollect when and where ¥ met him and wiho is, he: From the inncr recesses of my mind there begins & process of scanning, as i were, to check if there are any events stored here comiecied with the person. Suddenly Tam able to recognize the person asso and so and finally say he ig fhe same person Tmet in such and such a place,” tte, Inow havea firm knowledge abou! the person. “Analysing the above example, we are able to discern four functions of the mind: ‘Memury: The storchouse of memory andl impres- sions of our past experiences presents various possibil- ities before the mind, This storehouse is called chitta. is in this storehouse that the impressions of our thoughts and actians—good and bad—are stored, The sum tolat ‘ofthese inipressions determine our charactet: This cite, 8 Personality Development again, is what is known as our subconscious mind. Deliberation and Coneeptualization: Not yet sure, the mind examines the many options presented befare it. Iedeliberates om several things. This faculty of the mind Is alled umes. Imagination and formation of concepts are also functions of the mans, Detennination and Decision-making: Buddhi isthe faculty reaponsible for decision-making. It has the cap- acity to judge the pros and cos of things and find what is moce desirable. Itis also the discriminative faculty in a petson, which cnables him to discriminate between tha real and the unreal, betwoen whatis ta be done and, whatis tobe avoided, sshatis morally right and whats, verong. Its also the seat of will-power so essential for ppersonafity development and hence this aspect of the mind concerns us the mast °Y' Consciousness: Appropriating to oneself all physical and mental activities eg, Toot, ‘Lsee’, ‘I talk’, "1 hear’, Ithink’, Tam confused’, etc, is called akarkara or ‘T consciousness. As long ay the T identifies itself with the undisciplined body-mind complex, human life is dictated by events and circumstances of the world; we become happy with pleasurable events, and miserable with adverse circumstances, Mare the mind gets refined and disciplined, more docs onc get to know the real sovice of T consciousness. Correspondingly, a person becomes more balanced and cquipoised in his daly life. Such a person is no longer swayed by any cvenl or cir. comstances of life, ‘These faur aspects of the mind, viz. manus, udahi, chitta and ahaekora, ate not watertight compartmen|s.