Want some respect?

Is it good to be a respected person? Almost all of us somewhere crave for respect. Respect in society, respect in relatives. Whatever may be the kind of it, everyone is behind it. Today, I face the question- Is it good to be a respected person?

For what purpose do we respect? If we go deep and study human psychology, respect symbolizes that the person is superior to us or to be more precise, he is different than us. So, respect creates a difference, a gap. Respect is good if it is something which is earned naturally. Not so good when it is forced. Also, a person who is a respected person, he should try to minimize the gap between him and the other people. What happens in society is quite different. The so called respected people deliberately pretend that the gap between them and others is very big. They pretend as if it is almost impossible to bridge the gap.

A never noticed fact about respect is, it makes you dependent. People hungry for respect can never be authentic. Socrates never cared about being  a respected person. If he would have lived his life to please the people, he could have been the most respected person on the earth. But, in that case, he would not have been the same Socrates; with burning fire inside. What would you prefer? A respected Socrates or an alive, burning Socrates?

Perhaps this is the reason why many of the knowledgeable person are away from respect. Tansen was a respected singer, his Guru, Swami Haridas is known to very few people. But, Tansen used to sing as per the will of his king whereas for Swami Haridas, his music was divine, coming from within. That is the reason, King Akbar came to his hut to listen to his music.

Should we then run away from respect? Or should we act to get more of it? As per me, it depends on many things. Is the respect demanded by you or is it natural, grown naturally into heart of a person? Anything that is natural is beautiful. Same rule applies to respect. When you are naturally respected by people, you are not dependent and addicted to that respect. You can walk away from it any time to do justice to your natural nature.