Principles

This post is kinda philosophical, so if you have the stomach for that kind of stuff read on, or else skip this one!

Principles:

A life without principles is one without any meaning. In the course of life, everyone is morally on the same grid until they reach adolescence. That's when things start changing. Time and circumstances force us at times to make tough decisions. We have examples set in front of us, things related to our past. Maybe something that happened to some relative, our parents or our friends. What did they do at that time? The time when some tough decision had to be made. By a tough decision I mean one, which decides what kind of a man you are! Whether you stick to your guns, or do you surrender to the enemy a.k.a. the system.

The unprincipled choice is the one that kills a part of your soul. One may feel that, ok... I had to do it this one time. I will never do it again. "It" could mean anything, betraying someone's trust, stepping over someone else to get up the ladder ot any such thing. You know you're wrong, but you try to convince yourself. You distort the facts to make it seem to yourself that what you did was the right thing. That is the process of killing your soul. When a man, who has sold himself to the devil gets success, for a while he thinks that he was right; to him it seems like the right path in life. He may scoff at the other fools who so unnecessarily suffer. His success then will always depend on cutting throats or stomping over people. Such people age very fast, because they know that what they did to someone, someone else can also do to them! Such people are always insecure in their heart of hearts. 

On the other hand, very few principled people make it really big. Those who do, reign supreme. But all of them have one thing in common. They are actually happy in life. And whenever the unprincipled men face the principled ones, the eye contact says it all. The former have eyes beset with fear and a realization that the latter has something money can never buy - the soul! 

I write this today, because firstly I've just seen Dead Poets Society again, it deals with exactly the same theme. Should one bow down to other people's wishes? People who themselves have lost their souls trying to conform with the system, or should one stand by his convictions? There is a price to be paid on both fronts, you have to choose what is more precious to you - your soul or temporary reprieve from struggle? 

Those who choose the latter, are surely successful if they are really good at the field they have chosen, but it can only get them that far. Eventually what will happen is summarized by these lines from the Coldplay song 'Lost' :

You might be a big fish in a little pond,

Doesn't mean that you've won,

Coz you know, there'll come a bigger one.

One thing i really do believe is that what one does in his 'good time' decides what will happen during his 'bad time'.Those who are determined to stick to principles and morals face an uphill task, but once their 'good time' arrives, it eclipses all that the throat cutters and back biters can ever do. It is something I have seen very closely. J R R Tolkein wrote the following lines to describe Aragorn, but it suits the post:

All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all who wander are lost.

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are never reached by frost.