Are you a human or a man?

“A true man is only he who is a man-hus –one endowed with a sense of self-respect. Others are men only in name,” says Sri Ramkrishna.

THE ENGINE whistled and gradually the train gathered momentum. As its speed escalated, people were back to their conversation. While moving their chatter boxes, a man sitting in my compartment made fun of another guy by saying 'tum insaan ho ya aadmi?'(Are you a human or a man?). Everyone laughed at him and their talks continued.

But this very sentence struck my mind and certain questions started revolving around. Is it that human beings have degraded themselves so much that they have lost the right to be compared to animals also? What is the difference between man or a woman and a human being? How much this difference has widened with time? Is it true that we have lost humanity?

Human beings are best known for their attitudes, feelings, emotions and utmost - caring nature. But with the advent of time, the feeling of brotherhood is completely dissapearing from everyone’s life. People have started focusing more on their civic amenities rather on their civic duties.

Man has become a machine with the machine age. Today, none of us is bothered of what is happening around in our locality. People seem to be too busy with their own lives that they are losing social relation in and around their lives. Ms Sharma went to see her neighbour’s mother, who was ill for a few days. But to her surprise, her neighbour told her that she does not want anyone to disturb her by visiting her house. That’s why she never tells anyone about what is going on in her family. An auto rickshaw driver does not show sympathy to the old and fragile couple in his rickshaw and continues to fill up his rickshaw with more passengers. When the auto rickshaw driver was asked to show sympathy towards the old, he bluntly refused by saying that 'I can’t suffer the loss by not allowing more passengers to enter in the vehicle'.

“Man is the only creature that refuses to be what he is,” Albert Camus.

The difference between a man or a woman and a human being can best be illustrated with the same difference that is found between heart and mind. To read more Please click here