Table Of ContentPERSONALITY
DEVELOPMENT
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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.
