Money, Position & Happiness – What We Don’t Know About! (Part-IV)

Part IV of VII Parts

(This is a 7 blog series covering the titled topic. The breaking in small parts are intended to keep the article from being too long or dry. If you like it please continue to read all the blogs of the series before you conclude anything. Thanks and happy reading.)

Regard is for position, achievement and power while respect is for the ‘person’. We have seen many persons who have enjoyed immense power and prestige while in some high profile job, suddenly getting depressed after retirement when there is no one around to show the regard he has been getting all the decades. This sudden vacuum becomes too much for some to accept and they get into a full blown depression.

When we try to understand the difference between Regard and Respect, a nice example would bring it out:

When Mahatma Gandhi was in South Africa, he once boarded a cab. Incidentally he had to share a ride with a white person. The White person was too arrogant and on racial grounds would not let Gandhiji to travel with him and asked him to alight the cab immediately. Gandhiji politely declined to do so. The White man started abusing and using force but Gandhiji did not relent and held on to his position. Furious at this behaviour of Gandhiji, the White Man started beating, pushing and punching him. Gandhiji held on to his position steadfast and did not budge. But more importantly, he was not resisting the White Man’s beatings either. This was surprising to the White Man, yet he continued. In absence of any resistance, Gandhiji bore the direct impact of the assaults and his face started bleeding. Despite all this he held on to his position and did not utter any word of disrespect to the White Man neither he resisted his physical onslaughts. After sometime, a realization dawned in the White Man. He suddenly understood that the person he was dealing with was no ordinary person. He was very strong so that he would not relent to his forces but he was even more stronger in the sense that he did not in any way disrespect the White Man. In absence of any disrespect to the wrongdoer, the door for reforms remained open and it is this which worked in this case. Upon dawn of this realization, the White Man understood the superiority and strength of this person and bowed down to Gandhiji and said he realized his mistake. He saluted and thanked him for his resoluteness on one hand and on upholding human values on the other. The White Man was reformed and had a lasting respect for Gandhiji for his whole life. Such reformation was unthinkable had Gandhiji used violence to resist the White Man. In such a scenario the battle would have been won by the stronger side but ill-feeling would have lingered in the hearts of both sides and would have made both of them more edgy and prone to react to the next situation, whenever it presented itself.

Getting back to the two words now, the White Man was looking for Regard for which he was ready to unleash his most innate of desires and animal instinct. But what happened in the end was that he ended up Respecting the other person.

(Please go over to Part-V of this series.)