Proverb Expansion
IF CHARACTER IS LOST ALL IS LOST
There is an old saying ‘if wealth is lost nothing is lost, if health is lost something is lost. But if character is lost all is lost’. It is not a religious teaching. It is a universal maxim and stands true in all the countries all the ages.
Although we worship Laxmi, the goddess of wealth every year yet all know it is not a stable factor. Wealth is an objective factor once lost it can be earned again. The Pandavas lost their whole kingdom, but regained it. Ups and downs are a common feature in business and industry. If you lose money people may sympathize with you. They won’t hate you. So in a way nothing is lost.
So is true, to some extent, with health too. It is of course a subjective factor. An unhealthy person is a headache to his kins and to one’s ownself too. But health too can be revived. A man suffering from heart trouble, tuberculosis, even cancer can be cured. Almost all the diseases are curable. One can regain his health even in old age. If health is lost only something is lost.
But if character is once lost never come back. In India character generally signifies permissiveness sexual weakness. If one indulges in it out of the way he is nicknamed in different ways. Good people won’t give him company and would keep their sisters and children away from such a man. We can see the fate of a sexually weak person.
Sexual weakness alone does not signify a loss of character. Bribery, extraction of dowry, smuggling, telling lies, betraying the nation and the society, rape, expediency all show the loss of character. Honesty, truthfulness, faithfulness, devotion to the nation and the society, respect for the national traditions all form character of a man. If these are lost all is lost. The man won’t have any respect in the society. The scam tainted politicians and bureaucrats, the people involved in hawalas, fodder scam, Bofors and such other wretched things may save themselves from law but will go in history as the most wicked persons. Their fame and prestige would never come back. Some would pay for their misdeeds in their lives others in the life in the next incarnation.