I had been toying with reading The Difficulty of being good-On the Subtle art of Dharma by Gurcharan Das. I know it is a mouthful and for brevity sakes I’m going to shorten it To be good or to Be Bad by G.D. Please do not mistake it for our friendly bard’s lost manuscript or a Clint Eastwood western my heathen friends!!
Enough with the wisecracks.
One of the first qs, I was asked was I going on a loony trip and the second one was that G.d. theories are academic and one should read Rajneesh. Well I am not a Looney tune character however much I associate with them and I’d like to venture out on my own coz’ Rajneesh is well Rajneesh….Need I say more…
This is one of the path-breaking books which tries to sort out the meaning of life, the interpretations are all up to us. This mystery which unravels and unfolds itself. It baffles, mystifies, de-mystifies but is governed by the basest of vices at all steps which tempt us at every nook. Mahabharata is the greatest human theme which it plays upon and tries to decipher the good and evil at every step, the choice being with us. If the Gods could win a war with tact and deceit, you would all say who are we, the lesser mortals? To not succumb to the temptations which have plagued Earth since the Genesis?
The beauty lies in not justifying the act but in understanding the subtle drama which is an underlying current played out by the author at every juncture. His is a personal response and so is mine. I am at the first step trying to understand Envy which is the foundation for all life. This emotion which consumes and consummates Duryodhana and sets the path of destruction for the entire clan of Kshatriyas and also draws the Gods to take sides makes it difficult to be just good or just bad... It’s never that easy. We all have shades of grey in us. Think about it.
I certainly would like to know, if making the choice is as easy as it is made out to be
Dear Ravneet ji,
ReplyDeleteAnother of those self judging n soul searching penning by you.I think you are really good at it nd I'm sure you are always looking for these around you,your mind works overtime.
Good v/s Bad...Is there a satisfying definition for either of the two? I really am not sure. Its like pointing one finger towards somebody while rest are pointing towards you. Since childhood we've been told to be good n do good.I think we always try doing it that ways..don't we? But of late I've learnt it bit hard way that a good to someone is bad to somebody else at the same point. How many times in our life we do few things that we are told is Good but from inside we don't want to do them at all.I have realized of late that a Good is or for that matter being Good is more of a compromise or convenience.
To be really true to judge how good you are I think the right time n place is when we are alone before taking a shower,try staring into the mirror and then go about what all you did during the day I think that Image will give you an unbiased opinion.
Its not that easy to comment on such issues but yes we need to self analyze.
Regards,
Sukhvir Singh