INGRATITUDE
‘Ingratitude’ is thanklessness. It is lack of appreciation for
some good done to you. Children are trained to say “Thank You” to those who do
them some favour.
Ingratitude is like pride and is one of those seven things
which God hates. They are: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed
innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to
rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up
conflict in the community.
Gratitude is a sign of good character. A gentleman is never
ungrateful. Friends, relatives, colleagues, team-mates, subordinates, servants
and even masters are expected to have a culture of gratitude.
Human beings must always grateful to God for His innumerable
blessings.
Ingratitude bites, hurts, reduces friendliness, stops helpfulness
and breeds disaffection.
Among animals, dogs are not only most faithful but also
grateful.
In the present-day selfish society, many children, friends
and relatives have become offensively ungrateful.
According to the English poet-dramatist William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
said: Ingratitude is monstrous, and for the multitude to be ingrateful were to
make a monster of the multitude; of the which we being members, should bring
ourselves to be monstrous members. -----Coriolanus, Act 2, Scene 3.
The following lines by the same poet-dramatist are more
quotable:
Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As man’s ingratitude.
Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.
…………
Freeze, freeze though bitter sky,
Thou dost not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot:
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
As friend remember’d not.----As You
Like It, Act 2, Scene 7.
To
conclude: this exclamation also by Shakespeare:
How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child!
********
G.R.Kanwal
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