Outlines:
- Introduction
- Vale of greatness depends on our sense of proportion
- Advantages of having few ambitions
- Greatness is an illusion
It is a fact that “the great would not think themselves demigods if the little did not worship them.” Greatness is gained by comparison and when analyzed it comes to a greater range and extent than when looked at by itself. Greatness is a relative term. Very few are great because of originality. Distinction very often comes through contrast. A man of ordinary stature would be a distinguished figure in the land of pigmies. A man getting a salary of Rs. 15,000 a month would be considered a rich man among the labourers who live from hand to mouth. The simple-minded rustics would look upon a village schoolmaster who has only got through his B.A as a prodigy of learning.
So the value of greatness depends on our sense of proportion. Little men have a narrow outlook on life. Their ideas are derived from their immediate surroundings and they have not the power of visualization. They cannot look far ahead, nor have they the faculty of observing things in their right perspective. The result is that their judgment is incorrect and they are not able to discriminate between the great things and little things. Great things would fill their minds with superstitious awe, while the little things would loom large in their eyes. There are so many little men’s great men in this world who possess no inherent worth, but who pose themselves as great before the little men. The servant to a S.P (Police) is a great man in the eyes of the villagers. A. pocket gramophone or a travelling cinema would be a wonder of the world to them. This is all due to their narrow and distorted vision.
But this narrow outlook of little men has an advantage also. They have very few ambitions and those too are easily fulfilled. Their desires do not extend to unattainable or valuable things. They are satisfied with little things and lead a contented life. Moreover, the pleasure they desire from little things is greater than what the great men get from great things, because they can, never reach the goal of their ambitions. They aim at the moon and only hit at the mountain.
Generally, greatness is an illusion. The minute a great man is taken out of the atmosphere he is living in or the position he is occupying, he becomes shorn of his greatness. “When greatness descends from its lofty pedestal, it assumes human dimensions.”
