Talk:What shapes our Personality: Personal Effort

By Vishal Agarwal

The third factor that shapes our personality is our effort to acquire specific abilities or skills, character traits, and knowledge, and in making conscious choices among various options. Even Hindu sacred texts that give great importance to one’s genetic inheritance as a factor in determining personality nevertheless state that we can make conscious choices and gradually alter our personality-

Amid the confusion of classes, those castes, whether concealed or revealed, that have been determined by their respective fathers and mothers, may be recognized by their particular occupations. Manusmriti 10.40 But in age after age in this world, according to the strength of their austerities and their seed, they are pulled up or dragged down in birth among humans. Manusmriti 10.42 By failing to perform the prescribed ceremonies and to obtain guidance from the Brāhmaṇas, the following Kshatriya castes have gradually sunk to the condition of Shudras among men...Manusmriti 10.43'

In the Bhagavad Gita, no one is our greater enemy or well-wisher than ourselves-

Krishna said- One should uplift the ātmā by the ātmā, and one should not degrade the ātmā. Indeed, the ātmā alone is the friend of the ātmā, and the ātmā alone is the enemy of the ātmā. Gita 6.5 For him who has conquered his ātmā by his ātmā, the ātmā is a friend. But for him who has not conquered his ātmā, the ātmā remains hostile, like an enemy. Gita 6.6

One must be extremely disciplined, persevering, and knowledgeable in the proper means of self-improvement, Krishna said- Mighty Armed, without doubt, the mind is difficult to control and is restless. But, Son of Kunti, it can be controlled by constant effort (abhyāsa) and indifference towards worldly objects (vairāgya). Gita 6.35 Yoga is hard to attain by one who is not self-disciplined in my opinion. But for a self-disciplined one, it is attainable by striving with proper means. Gita 6.36

Yogabhāṣhya 1.12 explains that the restless mind is like a river that never ceases to flow if it is not restrained. This mind river either flows towards good, or it flows towards evil. If the mind-river flows towards good, it results in spiritual upliftment. But if it flows, due to attraction for worldly objects, towards evil, it results in getting trapped in the cycle of birth and death. One must block the current of the river flowing towards evil by ‘vairāgya’ or dispassion towards worldly objects and attractions towards them. One must open the flow of the mind-river towards good through ‘abhyāsa’ or constant effort and discrimination between what is noble and what is not.

In the present life, we have no control over the body that we are born with. Often, the environment that we are placed in is also largely non-changeable. But personal effort is that factor that we can influence considerably by making the right choices, effort, and learning as much as we can. Repeated effort in a specific direction leads to habit formation. A collection of habits constitutes our character. Therefore it is essential to watch our actions so that we develop a Dharmic personality. The Upanishads and other texts teach-

Indeed, one becomes good by good karma, and bad by bad karma. Brihadāraṇyaka Upanishad 3.2.13 According as one acts, according as one behaves, so does he become. The doer of good becomes good, and the doer of evil becomes evil. One becomes virtuous by virtuous action, and bad by bad action. Brihadāraṇyaka Upanishad 4.4.5 Bad Karmas are the cause of bondage. When the effects of these bad Karmas are experienced and are exhausted as a result, and thereafter when the mind and body are purified with good Karmas, then that person becomes inclined towards practicing austerities and Yoga. Mahābhārata 3.209.39 Acts of Yajnas, Austerity, and Charity must not be forsaken and they must be performed. Yajnas, Austerit,y and Charity are indeed the purifiers of the wise. Gita 18.5

A modern Hindu teacher also explains,

“Every person, through each thought, word, and deed, is constantly changing and altering the shape of his or her psychophysical system, which the Bhagavad Gita refers to as svabhāva, or inner disposition…Our actions leave behind results that alter our inner disposition – for better or worse.”