Courage takes many forms, from Alexei Navalny’s fatal opposition to Russian
corruption to everyday acts like confronting a friend who drinks too much.
Yet getting a handle on this virtue scientifically, empirically, and
psychologically has not been easy. “Because courage is so intricately tied
to an action and that action has a specific context, it is very hard to
measure it,” said Aakash A. Chowkase, PhD, an associate research scientist
at Yale University who studies human virtues. A lot more work is also
needed to understand it conceptually, he said. There are other reasons
courage is not easy to study. It is a multifaceted concept with divergent
faces: social, political, personal, psychological, moral, and more. Is
courage a rare act of nobility committed largely by extraordinary
individuals, or is it an action that any of us can take at any time? Are
actions that take place without much forethought—running into a burning
building to save someone, for instance—courageous even though they are
driven by impulse? Or is courage always the product of deliberate
reflection and difficult decision-making that ultimately results in acts of
heroism? Answering those questions could not come at a more pivotal time,
according to Robert J. Sternberg, PhD, a professor of human development at
Cornell University and a main researcher in positive psychology, which
includes virtues like courage. “The world has plenty of people with high
IQs,” Sternberg said. “What the world lacks, and desperately needs, are
more people with the courage to do the right thing at a time when so many
leaders, including those of high IQ, are scrambling to do the opposite.”
The model focuses solely on situations that give people the
opportunity to think and analyze before they act, rather than those that
happen so fast that one must behave automatically. In the model, once a
person faces a courage trigger—a fellow employee’s mistreatment by a
superior, or seeing the opportunity to join a protest, for example—they
face the dilemma of whether to approach or avoid the encounter. The
quandary is “that you want to approach the situation because you want to do
the right thing,” said Chowkase, “but at the same time, you’re afraid to
take the action because there is a perceived risk—either to you or to
someone else.” In the work scenario, that risk might be angering your boss,
and in the protest scenario, it might be the threat of getting arrested.
As this larger conflict is playing out, the person is also asking
themselves questions that help inform their decision—specifically whether
taking a courageous action is sufficiently meaningful to warrant the risk,
and whether they have enough efficacy, or personal power, to take the
action. If the answer to one or both questions is no, they will likely
retreat; if it is yes for both, they must still decide whether to act.
{AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGY TODAY}
Bg. 2.14
मात्रास्पर्शास्तु कौन्तेय शीतोष्णसुखदुःखदाः ।
आगमापायिनोऽनित्यास्तांस्तितिक्षस्व भारत ॥ १४ ॥
mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya
śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ
āgamāpāyino ’nityās
tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata
O son of Kuntī, the nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and
their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and
disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense
perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without
being disturbed.
Bg. 2.33
अथ चेत्त्वमिमं धर्म्यं सङ्ग्रामं न करिष्यसि ।
ततः स्वधर्मं कीर्तिं च हित्वा पापमवाप्स्यसि ॥ ३३ ॥
atha cet tvam imaṁ dharmyaṁ
saṅgrāmaṁ na kariṣyasi
tataḥ sva-dharmaṁ kīrtiṁ ca
hitvā pāpam avāpsyasi
If, however, you do not perform your religious duty of fighting, then you
will certainly incur sins for neglecting your duties and thus lose your
reputation as a fighter.
Bg. 2.35
भयाद्रणादुपरतं मंस्यन्ते त्वां महारथाः ।
येषां च त्वं बहुमतो भूत्वा यास्यसि लाघवम् ॥ ३५ ॥
bhayād raṇād uparataṁ
maṁsyante tvāṁ mahā-rathāḥ
yeṣāṁ ca tvaṁ bahu-mato
bhūtvā yāsyasi lāghavam
The great generals who have highly esteemed your name and fame will think
that you have left the battlefield out of fear only, and thus they will
consider you insignificant.
Thus, being morally courageous is a boon or self-created
version, and 99% lack in that ability. K Rajaram IRS 27925
On Sat, 27 Sept 2025 at 04:06, Jambunathan Iyer <[email protected]>
wrote:
> You have to be courageous to fight with your fears. Fear will never leave
> your side, not in professional or your personal life.
>
>
>
> *N Jambunathan , Chennai " What you get by achieving your goals is not as
> important as what you become by achieving your goals. If you want to live a
> happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things "*
>
>
>
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