True. For pure gold is soft and too malleable, thus it bends too easily and cannot be made into ornaments. Thus we require a tinge of silver, or copper, in order to reduce the purity of gold, and allow it to be made into befitting ornaments.
Talking by this analogy, let us take Ideals as gold and practice as copper.
Ideals cannot themselves be very practical in every stretch of our lives. We need our ideals to be working in practice.
If a robber robs you, and you do not retaliate, seeking that non-violence and truth will bring you justice, is lame stupidity.
In another example, it is said not to lie. But has anyone uttered not even one? If a person says so, then no that iteself is a big lie. Has anyone tried to speak every truth? If one has done so... it has only led one into more and more troubles, for absolute truth can damage, ruin or disrupt ourself.
It is not that I am against pure and good ideals. But the fact remains true that we are not so perfect that we may speak the truth all the time.
This is Practical Ideals.
Any person who goes against them is nothing but Miguel de Cervantes's chivalric hero, Don Quixote.
I really liked the book. Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra articulates in close proximity, the perils of following a complete ideal.
But I go beyond that!
Why not put into practice our ideals! Let us mix Gold into Copper, and in our daily life , uphold our cherished ideals. This is by far the best option of all this debate of Idealsim and Practice.
That is what Mahatma Gandhi did. He asked even the poorest of the farmers to uphold his ideals, in as little way as they could have, and better their lives.
Thus this brings us to a new conclusion and a dawn of the new Ideal Practicalist.
(Adapted and inspired from a writing of Kaka kalelkar)
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