Another chapter of GurCharan Das's book "The difficulty of being Good", brings another question to my mind....What exactly is Dharma??? and How should I practise it???
Yudhishthira(nick name Yudhi) believed that it is his dharma to keep his promise and spend life in forest according to the agreement. It is only then that he should go back and ask for his kingdom. For him it is in his nature to behold dharma. On the other hand, Draupadi was more pragmatic and she would favour consequentialist ethics to get Pandavas to wage a war( in the middle of the exile period) instead of siting in forest facing hardships. This brings us to the question of Consequentialist vs Yudhisthira's dharma???
Lets take an example, imagine that to bring peace and happiness to the World, the only way is to give unacceptable torture and sufferings to a little child. Yudhi, who believes in honest and moral means to achieve his goal would say no to such act. But consequentialists, who derive the moral worth of a action on its consequences would be ready to give sufferings to the child. Thus this dilemma between consequences and means - that makes dharma subtle. I am not choosing one over other, but one of the criticism of consequentialist ethics is that it ignores the justice in distribution of goods. It is indifferent to the needs of the poor as long as the overall satisfaction of the society at large is maximised.
Keeping this tussle aside, lets again focus on Yudhi's dharma. Draupadi always wondered what is the need for Yudhi to be good?? Why should he behold his dharma in this wicked world???
Lets compare this situation with a primary school teacher. A teacher, who has bicycled 30kms each day for the past twenty years without missing a single day of school, when asked the reason for this hardship, replied " Teaching is my dharma." Now compare this with present schooling system in India, wherein one in four teachers in our govt schools is absent and one in four, although present, is not teaching. The epic Mahabharata has offered a number of reasons to these school teachers to be good. First, it is one's duty. Second, good acts produces good consequences. Third, social order will collapse if people will not keep their commitments. Fourth,virtue dharma i.e. one who neglects his capabilities will fail to achieve life's purpose.
Although i understood that it is neccessary to be "Good",but i am not sure what is true dharma??? Here comes GurCharan Das for to rescue. Our epics tell us that there are plural ends to life - dharma (righteousness), artha (material well being) and kama(desire). Hence in life one faces situations where they come in conflict with each other. What is the most difficult of the situations is when dharma sets limits on the pursuit of pleasure and wealth. It is then Mr. Das says one maximises pleasure as long as it doesn't diminish another's. Thus i am truly able to understand the idea of dharma and how to practice it.
This conclusion might have popped up a question in your mind, whether Yudhi was correct in beholding his definition of dharma??? Well there is a turning point in his idea of dharma as well. When he decides to wage war on Kauravas (which an idealistic Yudhi,who stands for absolute moral standards, wouldn't have waged), he understand the limitations of his dharma. His new dharma is grounded in self-interest but without being amoral. In a single word, it is 'reciprocal altrusim': adopt a friendly face to the world but don't allow yourself to be exploited.
Now without lengthening my post, i would like to state that YES Dharma can be Taught!!! A person's character is not something that one is born with. It is constantly evolving repeated actions and when I repeat certain actions, I accumulate karma of certain kind which builds a certain kind of character and predisposes me to act in a certain way.
Yudhishthira(nick name Yudhi) believed that it is his dharma to keep his promise and spend life in forest according to the agreement. It is only then that he should go back and ask for his kingdom. For him it is in his nature to behold dharma. On the other hand, Draupadi was more pragmatic and she would favour consequentialist ethics to get Pandavas to wage a war( in the middle of the exile period) instead of siting in forest facing hardships. This brings us to the question of Consequentialist vs Yudhisthira's dharma???
Lets take an example, imagine that to bring peace and happiness to the World, the only way is to give unacceptable torture and sufferings to a little child. Yudhi, who believes in honest and moral means to achieve his goal would say no to such act. But consequentialists, who derive the moral worth of a action on its consequences would be ready to give sufferings to the child. Thus this dilemma between consequences and means - that makes dharma subtle. I am not choosing one over other, but one of the criticism of consequentialist ethics is that it ignores the justice in distribution of goods. It is indifferent to the needs of the poor as long as the overall satisfaction of the society at large is maximised.
Keeping this tussle aside, lets again focus on Yudhi's dharma. Draupadi always wondered what is the need for Yudhi to be good?? Why should he behold his dharma in this wicked world???
Lets compare this situation with a primary school teacher. A teacher, who has bicycled 30kms each day for the past twenty years without missing a single day of school, when asked the reason for this hardship, replied " Teaching is my dharma." Now compare this with present schooling system in India, wherein one in four teachers in our govt schools is absent and one in four, although present, is not teaching. The epic Mahabharata has offered a number of reasons to these school teachers to be good. First, it is one's duty. Second, good acts produces good consequences. Third, social order will collapse if people will not keep their commitments. Fourth,virtue dharma i.e. one who neglects his capabilities will fail to achieve life's purpose.
Although i understood that it is neccessary to be "Good",but i am not sure what is true dharma??? Here comes GurCharan Das for to rescue. Our epics tell us that there are plural ends to life - dharma (righteousness), artha (material well being) and kama(desire). Hence in life one faces situations where they come in conflict with each other. What is the most difficult of the situations is when dharma sets limits on the pursuit of pleasure and wealth. It is then Mr. Das says one maximises pleasure as long as it doesn't diminish another's. Thus i am truly able to understand the idea of dharma and how to practice it.
This conclusion might have popped up a question in your mind, whether Yudhi was correct in beholding his definition of dharma??? Well there is a turning point in his idea of dharma as well. When he decides to wage war on Kauravas (which an idealistic Yudhi,who stands for absolute moral standards, wouldn't have waged), he understand the limitations of his dharma. His new dharma is grounded in self-interest but without being amoral. In a single word, it is 'reciprocal altrusim': adopt a friendly face to the world but don't allow yourself to be exploited.
Now without lengthening my post, i would like to state that YES Dharma can be Taught!!! A person's character is not something that one is born with. It is constantly evolving repeated actions and when I repeat certain actions, I accumulate karma of certain kind which builds a certain kind of character and predisposes me to act in a certain way.
