A moral compass...

By Vichara


“What the outstanding person does, others will try to do. The standards such people create will be followed by the whole world”. Taken from the Hindu sacred text called the Bhagavad Gita that dates back between the 5th and 2nd century BC, these words have even more relevance considering the moral and political changes we are witnessing. There is a need and cry to cut away the obese malignant weeds of greed and excess and to form a new standard of fairness and compassion. “The ignorant work for their own profit, the wise work for the welfare of the world, without thought for themselves”. Again from the Gita. The short 18 chapters of this document was used as a moral compass by Gandhi for most of his life and even today still can be one of the many texts to guide our lives. “Perform all work carefully, guided by compassion”.

reticent • \RET-uh-sunt\ • adj
1 : inclined to be silent or uncommunicative in speech : reserved
2 : restrained in expression, presentation, or appearance
3 : reluctant

Example Sentence:
Unlike the chatty, gregarious protagonists of his novel, the author is quite reticent in public.

Did you know?
"Reticent" first appeared about 170 years ago, but the "reluctant" sense of "reticent" is a mid-20th century introduction. Though it is now well-established, this newer sense bothers some people, particularly because it has veered away from the word's Latin origins -- "reticent" is from the verb “reticēre,” meaning "to keep silent." But there is some sense in the way the newer meaning developed. We first tended to use the "reluctant" sense of "reticent" when the context was speech (as in "reticent to talk about her past"), thus keeping the word close to its "silent" sense. Eventually, however, exclusive association with speech was abandoned. Now one can be "reticent" to do anything.

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