Heroism

Be a man first, my friend, and you will see how all those things and the rest will follow of themselves after you. Give up that hateful malice, that dog-like bickering and barking at one another, and take your stand on good purpose, right means, righteous courage, and be brave. When you are born a man, leave some indelible mark behind you. “When you first came to this world, O Tulsi, the world rejoiced and you cried; now live your life in doing such acts that when you will leave this world, the world will cry for you and you will leave it laughing.” If you can do that, then you are a man; otherwise, what good are you?

What is a “hero” exactly? Heroes are people who transform compassion (a personal virtue) into heroic action (a civic virtue). In doing so, they put their best selves forward in service to humanity. The Heroic Imagination Project defines a hero as an individual or a network of people that take action on behalf of others in need, or in defense of integrity or a moral cause.

Heroic action are:

 1. Engaged in voluntarily; 

 2. Conducted in service to one or more people or the community as a whole;

 3. Involving a risk to physical comfort, social stature, or quality of life; and

 4. Initiated without the expectation of material gain.

Let the world say what it chooses, I shall tread the path of duty—know this to be the line of action for a hero. Otherwise, if one has to attend day and night to what this man says or that man writes, no great work is achieved in this world.  “Let those who are versed in the ethical codes praise or blame, let Lakshmi, the goddess of Fortune, come or go wherever she wisheth, let death overtake him today or after a century, the wise man never swerves from the path of rectitude.” Let people praise you or blame you, let fortune smile or frown upon you, let your body fall today or after a Yuga, see that you do not deviate from the path of Truth. How much of tempest and waves one has to weather, before one reaches the haven of Peace! The greater a man has become, the fiercer ordeal he has had to pass through. Their lives have been tested true by the touchstone of practical life, and only then have they been acknowledged great by the world. Those who are faint-hearted and cowardly sink their barks near the shore, frightened by the raging of waves on the sea. He who is a hero never casts a glance at these. Come what may, I must attain my ideal first—this is Purushakara, manly endeavor; without such manly endeavor no amount of Divine help will be of any avail to banish your inertia.

Social Attributes 

The very concept of heroism has been open to debate and controversy for centuries, given that it is culturally and historically contextualized. It also has been confused with related, possibly contributing factors such as altruism, compassion, and empathy, and identified with popular celebrities, role models, and media-created “fantastic heroes” of the comic book genre. Heroism and heroic status are always social attributions. Someone or some group other than the actor confers that honor on the person and the deed. There must be social consensus about the significance and meaningful consequence of an act for it to be deemed heroic, and for its agent to be called a hero.