There is nothing greater than self-respect. Nothing. To be where there is no respect is to waste time, to insult life. To be with someone who does not value people, who does not give them the importance or respect they deserve, is to make yourself a commodity. You do not have to crowd around the wrong people and the wrong time. You do not have to return to the past that has wounded your mind. To be with someone who belittles you, does not support you in danger or gives up on you in difficult times – means to accept mental anguish knowingly. There is no shortage of space in the world. You have to stay where there is appreciation or there is no appreciation, but there is no insult.
You do not have to be stuck in the circle of the wrong people or the wrong time. You can make a mistake once knowingly, but if a mistake is repeated, it is a crime. Repeating a mistake means committing injustice on yourself. It is not right to go to someone who disrespects you or does not give you the respect you deserve. Accepting death is more honorable than disrespect. One who publicly humiliates, shames in front of people – no matter how learned, no matter how big a planet he is – should not be around him. Be it poor or destitute – everyone has self-respect. Those who cannot give due respect to others are still far from the landmark in the race to become a human being. The greatest feather of a worthy person is not to disrespect even the unworthy.
Whoever disrespects himself, no matter how high, how rich or how powerful he is – come back, leave the neighborhood. They will give you nothing but pain and suffering in life. They will use you as long as you need them, but when you need them, you will not find them. They will not even look back at you at your wrong time. No one has the right to disrespect someone, even if they are small. If someone makes a mistake, punishing them, imposing a fine for it is fair justice. Forgiveness is an even greater act. But abusing parents, mocking them in front of everyone, or behaving in a defamatory manner is against the nature of a good person. If the abuser imagined himself as the victim before abusing or insulting someone, there would not be so many sad stories in the world.
To live well, to place yourself somewhere, know your position there in advance. Boycott taking such opportunities that will benefit you in money and wealth but will destroy your self-respect. The education, initiation, wealth and respect of a person can be understood from his self-respect. If even a poor person or a poor person has self-respect, he is better than a rich person without self-respect. It is much better to be empty with dignity than to be disrespected by someone. Someone who does not understand you, who does not respect you – he is abandoned from the beginning. More people live in the hope that someone will feed someone twice a day, give them ten or twenty rupees, than in the hope that they will get respect from others.
It is more important to live with self-respect than to live without eating or not eating. If someone disrespects someone, takes away someone’s dignity or listens to unreasonable talk – if you do not have the will to protest against them, you should be exempt from life. Living by eating bones thrown by someone like a dog is not called life. Someone will ignore you, frown at you – it is important to stay far away from them. If you have to avoid even 10 million people out of the country’s 180 million people, keep them away, talk to them or part ways, then you cannot be stingy in making that sacrifice to protect your self-respect. Ten right people are enough to live well. Just one right person is enough to live more peacefully. Therefore, wasting important time in your life with countless wrong people will only increase your excuses. There is no more important work than loving yourself. There is no greater purpose than keeping yourself good. Whether there is anything else in life or not – respect must be maintained and maintained.
