Thursday, April 18, 2013

SELECTION OF STUDENTS

SELECTION OF STUDENTS

                       Socrates (469-399 BC) was a great philosopher and teacher of ancient Greece. Several young men approached him with the request that they may be accepted as the students of Socrates. The great teacher performed a simple test to select the suitable students. He asked the aspirants to look into a pond and report to him what each of them had seen in the pond. Most of them said that they had seen their own image in the still water. Socrates sent them away as unqualified to be his students. A few of them reported that they had seen fishes swimming around in the still water. Socrates gladly admitted them to his school. When asked about this test by his senior disciples, he said that those who saw their own image in the water were in love with their own ego and so were useless as students.
                       An egoist or egocentric person is preoccupied with and considers only his own interests, welfare, pleasure, advantage and advancement. He acts with only himself and his own interests in mind. He puts his own interests and needs first in every action without any concern for others. He is self-centred and selfish and thinks too much about oneself and too little about others. Egotists  are boastful and think and talk too often or too much about oneself. They have a very high sense of self-importance.
                      "The Lord hates everyone who is arrogant; He will never let them escape punishment" {Proverbs 16: 5}. "Pride leads to destruction, and arrogance to downfall" {Proverbs 16: 18}. "No one is respected  unless he is humble; arrogant people are on the way to ruin" {Proverbs 18: 12}.
                      "Happy are those who are humble; they will receive what God has promised" {Matthew 5: 5}. "For everyone who makes himself great will be humbled, and everyone who humbles himself will be made great" {Luke14: 11}.
                        St. Paul advised, "No one should be looking to his own interests, but to the interests of others" {1 Corinthians 10: 24}. He advised the Philippians, "Don't do anything from selfish ambition or from a cheap desire to boast, but be humble towards one another, always considering others better than yourselves. And look out for one another's interests, not just for your own" {Philippians 2: 3,4}.
                       In his farewell speech to the elders of Ephesus, St. Paul said, "I have shown you in all things that by working hard in this way, we must help the weak, remembering the words that the Lord Jesus himself said, 'There is more happiness in giving than in receiving" {Acts 20: 35}.


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© By: Prof. Dr. Babu Philip, Professor, Cochin University of Science & Technology, Fine Arts Avenue, Kochi-682016, Kerala, India, Prof. Mrs. Rajamma Babu, Former Professor, St. Dominic's College, Kanjirappally,  Leo. S. John, St. Antony's Public School, Anakkal, Kanjirappally and Neil John, Maniparambil, Ooriyakunnath, Kunnumbhagom, Kanjirappally, Kottayam-686507, Kerala, India.
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