I came across a Bengali poem where the poet admired the sincerity of a person who was cleaning a staircase with devotion and care. The poet tells us that the person is highly educated and joined a charitable mission after quitting a highly remunerative job.
While I appreciate the poem, I wonder if the poet would also admire Chintu, our local sweeper, who cleans our staircase every month. It seems that Chintu is deep in meditation when he cleans the staircase with a broom and water.
But I am yet to hear any admiration for Chintu for his work. Many people generally appreciate a sincere person only if that person belongs to the higher rungs on the social ladder.
I remember an incident when I, along with others, was waiting outside the gate of a hospital for the visiting hours to start so that we could enter. A man tried to forcefully enter the gate before the start of the visiting hours.
When a security guard at the gate politely asked him to wait, the man haughtily said, "Do you know who I am? I am a doctor." The guard asked him if he was a doctor of that very hospital. The answer was - no. Again the guard asked the arrogant man if he had an appointment to meet a doctor of that hospital. The answer was again in the negative. The guard then told him to wait for the commencement of the visiting hours. That person became furious after being denied entry.
The guard deserved admiration for sincerely following the rules equally for all. What he got instead was nothing but the humiliation. It is highly unfortunate that many people cannot appreciate a sincere person without using a yardstick of class and caste.
Sincerity is the name of a bridge that can connect what we preach with what we do. It joins, so to speak, two opposite banks of a river - our ideals and our actions. Most of the time, we ourselves do not do what we generally expect from others. Sometimes, we even do exactly the opposite of what we say.
Thus, sincerity can rescue one from becoming such a miserable character that one fails to recognise as one's own identity. This dilemma can even make us suffer from dissociative identity disorder (DID) or multiple personality disorder.
So, we need to be sincere in our commitment to our family, occupation, society, country, and of course to the self. This is absolutely necessary to make ourselves as good as our word.
English preacher Charles Spurgeon had said, "Sincerity makes the very least person to be of more value than the most talented hypocrite." Indeed, we can become truthful and honest only by being sincere. It will do us a world of good for our mental health. It will rescue us from playing a mind-boggling game to rationalise our hypocrite behaviour.
Only a sincere parent or a teacher can set an example before her or his children or students. The Mother (spiritual collaborator of Sri Aurobindo) had said, "Example is the most powerful instructor. Never demand from a child an effort of discipline that you do not make yourself. Calm, equanimity, order, method, absence of useless words, ought to be constantly practiced by the teacher if he wants to instil them into his pupils."
In business too, it is sincerity and not advertisements that can truly enhance the goodwill, reputation, and brand value of a product in the long run.
A sincere person, irrespective of his class and caste, should get the admiration and dignity of her or his labour.