I have just finished reading this book - "The Difficulty of Being Good" by Gurcharan Das. This is what I think about the masterpiece.
I started with a word masterpiece which indeed it is. The Book revolves around a one question, and that important question is Why should we be good? The Question is simple but answer appears to difficult and confusing. The book has beautifully attempted to unravel some of the answers and has tried to examine them on the light of the human frailties.
Gurcharan Das was a CEO of a multinational P&G before he took an early retirement and went back to University to study Mahabharata, ancient Indian Hindu Literature/History. The book is born out of his study of Mahabharata and related literature on human nature, morality and society's developments throughout.
Mr. Das, mostly brings forward the stories and anecdotes from Mahabharata, gives us the background of series of actions, the conduct of the protagonists. And, then tries to examine the roles, conduct, reactions replies and characters of the protagonist. He does not do that alone. He involves the readers throughout. He keeps on questioning and make us think: His questions are usual and repetitive like What a character should have done? How s/he would have done? Why something happened to the character? etc. etc.
When he asks these common questions, he makes the readers to sop for a moment and to ponder for an answer. If the answer was an easy one, or rather there were fitting answers to each question, the book would not have been a masterpiece. It attains the status of masterpiece simply because the author manages to ask such questions which can not be easily answered. The attempt of our answering tests our values, our character, our concept of morality, our upbringing, our education and many of such things.
While asking these cryptic questions, the author refers to various events and incidents from Mahabharata and from Bhagawat Gita and examines its teachings vis a vis those of western philosophers like Immanuel Kant, Auguste Comte, Aristotle, Homer.
Lets think for a while. We have been told by our parents from our childhood to be good but what it means when they tell us to be good and why. The question is what is good and what makes people bad. Does it mean not to fight, not to drink, not to gamble? It is generally true that resorting to violence is bad but what if others try to harm us. If others know that we do not fight and always try to humiliate us. They may take our approach of nonviolence as our weakness and may take our advantage.
Gandhi told us fifty years ago that we must turn another cheek if someone slaps us. But, is that possible in this modern nasty and crooked world? These are the questions author asks repeatedly and helps us to find some answers.
Problem with these questions as the author and anyone else would agree that there are no definite answers. Even the term good becomes relative. For Buddha and for the followers of Buddhism, nonviolence is good whatever may be the situation. Contrary to Buddhist belief, for the believers of the Dharmayuddha which was fought in Kurukshetra, nonviolence is not always the solution. In the War at Kurukshetra, Lord Krishna says to Arjuna, "you must fight because of your duty - the noble duty of the Kshatriya - to protect its Kingdom and to rule". So, does Mahabharata encourage War and Violence?
Was it good to fight and kill Kauravas? What Pandavas achieved at the end? Victory. But, the Dharma King Yudhisthira says the victory is hollow as there is almost no one to be ruled. Everyone has died. Then, what was the purpose of the war? What they achieved? Dharma King Yudhisthira himself, resorted to the path of asatya momentarily especially in Killing Guru Drona. Despite that we call it a "Dharmayuddha".
More importantly, was it wise for a great King Yudhisthira to play a game of dice, engage in gambling and in process to wager even his wife Draupadi. If there was no participation by Yudhisthira in the game of dice, most probably, there would never have been Mahabharata. In that sense, should not the entire blame go to Yudhisthira?
No one can answer these questions. It is like our life. There are many situations in our own life where we may not be fair, we may not be certain of our own acts. We may fail to see consequences of our own actions and realize our mistakes only when something unwanted happens. If we try to recover from that unpleasant situations, we may face multiple difficulties, obstacles. This may lead us to believe on fate and not on rationality. We struggle always to be good but circumstances may go against us which force us not to be so good.
The curtains falls on the books without answering things properly but it gives ample clues to show us the path to the answer. Whether you are able to walk on the path shown by it to find the true answers depends on your own conviction and judgement.
Note: If you are interested on the topics of morality and philosophy and little bit on theology, you will enjoy the book and you must read it.
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| The Difficulty of Being Good - by Gurcharan Das Photo Credit: Goodreads |
Gurcharan Das was a CEO of a multinational P&G before he took an early retirement and went back to University to study Mahabharata, ancient Indian Hindu Literature/History. The book is born out of his study of Mahabharata and related literature on human nature, morality and society's developments throughout.
Mr. Das, mostly brings forward the stories and anecdotes from Mahabharata, gives us the background of series of actions, the conduct of the protagonists. And, then tries to examine the roles, conduct, reactions replies and characters of the protagonist. He does not do that alone. He involves the readers throughout. He keeps on questioning and make us think: His questions are usual and repetitive like What a character should have done? How s/he would have done? Why something happened to the character? etc. etc.
When he asks these common questions, he makes the readers to sop for a moment and to ponder for an answer. If the answer was an easy one, or rather there were fitting answers to each question, the book would not have been a masterpiece. It attains the status of masterpiece simply because the author manages to ask such questions which can not be easily answered. The attempt of our answering tests our values, our character, our concept of morality, our upbringing, our education and many of such things.
While asking these cryptic questions, the author refers to various events and incidents from Mahabharata and from Bhagawat Gita and examines its teachings vis a vis those of western philosophers like Immanuel Kant, Auguste Comte, Aristotle, Homer.
Lets think for a while. We have been told by our parents from our childhood to be good but what it means when they tell us to be good and why. The question is what is good and what makes people bad. Does it mean not to fight, not to drink, not to gamble? It is generally true that resorting to violence is bad but what if others try to harm us. If others know that we do not fight and always try to humiliate us. They may take our approach of nonviolence as our weakness and may take our advantage.
Gandhi told us fifty years ago that we must turn another cheek if someone slaps us. But, is that possible in this modern nasty and crooked world? These are the questions author asks repeatedly and helps us to find some answers.
Problem with these questions as the author and anyone else would agree that there are no definite answers. Even the term good becomes relative. For Buddha and for the followers of Buddhism, nonviolence is good whatever may be the situation. Contrary to Buddhist belief, for the believers of the Dharmayuddha which was fought in Kurukshetra, nonviolence is not always the solution. In the War at Kurukshetra, Lord Krishna says to Arjuna, "you must fight because of your duty - the noble duty of the Kshatriya - to protect its Kingdom and to rule". So, does Mahabharata encourage War and Violence?
Was it good to fight and kill Kauravas? What Pandavas achieved at the end? Victory. But, the Dharma King Yudhisthira says the victory is hollow as there is almost no one to be ruled. Everyone has died. Then, what was the purpose of the war? What they achieved? Dharma King Yudhisthira himself, resorted to the path of asatya momentarily especially in Killing Guru Drona. Despite that we call it a "Dharmayuddha".
More importantly, was it wise for a great King Yudhisthira to play a game of dice, engage in gambling and in process to wager even his wife Draupadi. If there was no participation by Yudhisthira in the game of dice, most probably, there would never have been Mahabharata. In that sense, should not the entire blame go to Yudhisthira?
No one can answer these questions. It is like our life. There are many situations in our own life where we may not be fair, we may not be certain of our own acts. We may fail to see consequences of our own actions and realize our mistakes only when something unwanted happens. If we try to recover from that unpleasant situations, we may face multiple difficulties, obstacles. This may lead us to believe on fate and not on rationality. We struggle always to be good but circumstances may go against us which force us not to be so good.
The curtains falls on the books without answering things properly but it gives ample clues to show us the path to the answer. Whether you are able to walk on the path shown by it to find the true answers depends on your own conviction and judgement.
Note: If you are interested on the topics of morality and philosophy and little bit on theology, you will enjoy the book and you must read it.
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