The social environment reacts to these tendencies, modifying and shaping them in turn.Every individual has a permutation and combination of the four temperaments within oneself which makes life going and growing. The four temperaments can be grouped into three Gunas ‘Sattva, Rajas and Tamas’ as mentioned in the 14th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita.Each Guna manifests overpowering the other two. Our lives are determined by how we handle the three gunas.But then whichever of these gunas maybe predominate in our being, we can learn to control and redirect them through following the principles of personality development.Every guna generates the kinds of thoughts and feelings one has or the way one behaves or the decision one makes and so on. We will have to understand the role of these gunas which will help us to deal with others and ourselves in a better way.This is possible by developing a proper and a healthy self-image of oneself. In the prologue to a remarkable book ‘Dibs in search of self’, (pub: Ballantine Books, New York, 1967) the author Virginia Axline writes, ‘this is the story of a little boy named Dibs. As this child came forth to meet the abrupt forces of life, there grew within him a new awareness of a selfhood, and a breathless discovery that he had within himself a stature and wisdom that expanded and contracted even as do the shadows that are influenced by the sun and clouds. Dibs discovered that the security of his world was not wholly outside of himself, but that the stabilizing centre he searched for with such intensity was deep down inside that self.’ Hundreds of young people today imprison themselves due to wrong self-image.This results in living a life of false adjustments and shallow ideas. The four temperaments mentioned throw up challenges and create a storm in the minds of the youth. Until one learns to break through this falsehood and create a new world full of strength, creativity and fulfilment one cannot have peace and joy in life.Swami Vivekananda says, “The ideal of all education, all training, should be this man-making. But, instead of that, we are always trying to polish up the outside.What use in polishing up the outside when there is no inside? The end and aim of all training is to make the man grow.” This inner change can be achieved by regular and systematic training in daily life. Through these training sessions the inspiring and practical teachings of the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita and Swami Vivekananda on Personality Development can help the youth gain self-confidence, self-knowledge and self-esteem.
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