Would you rather be happy or right?

While at sail a Captain of a steamship hears a distress call. 

“Captain, Captain you must alter your course by 10 degrees, you are in danger of collision.” 

To which the Captain replies, “I am a mighty steamship sound and sturdy, I say to you, if my path in dangers you, you should alter your course, I will not.” 

The voice once again cries out, “Captain! Captain! You must take heed and change your course by twenty degrees; you are in danger of collision.” 

The captain replies, “I am at sail and will not change. I am a mighty and fierce steam ship.” 

The voice replies, “Yes you are a steamship, but I am a lighthouse.” 

We do not know what happened to the ship but what we can certainly make out from this is the EGO of the captain. The Ego which might’ve led to his fall. 

Now look at this famous story from Panchatantra 

A turtle who was very talkative once overheard the plan of two hunters who schemed to catch turtles the very next day. The turtle turned to two cranes for help to elude the conspiracy of the hunters. It weaved a plan where in the cranes were to hold a long stick at their ends between their beaks.

The turtle was to close its mouth tightly in the middle of the stick so that it would be carried away to a safe distance when the birds make their flight.

The cranes agreed to the idea and asked the turtle to hold the stick firmly. The cranes took off with their flight with the turtle dangling in the middle of the stick. When the birds were up high in the air with the turtle, people from below were awe struck about the strange sight. 

They exclaimed "What clever birds! A brilliant idea to carry a turtle!" The proud turtle who could not contain himself shouted out "The idea is mine!", only to tumble from above to land on the earth. 

It was the PRIDE of the turtle which caused its fall. 

Both stories talk about fall. But can you notice the subtle difference between the attitudes of the characters? 

In the case of the former it was arrogance which led to the fall. Whereas, the turtle was genuinely proud of his plan and he wanted the world to know about his achievements. But the basic and important difference here is the turtle was not arrogant. Ego is an obsession with just having to be right and is often rather selfish while pride is based on the facts of a person's achievements and feelings of these qualities and so is less selfish. In short Ego is “false-pride”. Being proud about some quality which does not exist. The captain of the ship acted on ego while the Turtle acted on pride. Ofcourse both had to become Humpty Dumpty to have had a great fall ultimately. 

Pride as such is a positive and healthy feeling if practiced in the right sense. One can be proud of his country, his nation, his parents, his off-springs, his family………… He becomes more confident in such cases. But when these feelings turn to the extreme to say that all the rest is nothing in front of these—the ego creeps in. This is the thin wall that separates both. The more one feeds the ego, the more it grows. Ego is very fragile and so gets hurt very fast but pride is more steadfast. 

But it is evident that both need an antidote and that antidote is humility. When the ego and pride are dropped and the outlook embraces humility, a new light is thrown on the perception. The Truth is revealed under new perspective. Humility paves the way to move forward with confidence and self respect. 

Life is telling us here to stop for a moment and look at it in a new perspective with humility, not to allow ego and pride to control us so that we become more successful in leading a peaceful and happy life. 

“The ego spends a lot of time practicing always being right. When someone says something that you'd normally disagree with just for the purpose of making them wrong, try saying "You're right about that." While the ego will loudly protest, this strategy can bring you peace and happiness. And would you rather be right or happy?” says Dr Wayne Dyer. 

Dr Wayne Dyer has posed a brain storming question. “Would you rather be happy or right?” ………

Let’s decide for ourselves.