"The Difficulty of Being Good-"on the subtle art of dharma (authored by Gurcharan Das).
The Mahabharatha is about our incomplete lives, about how difficult it is to be good in the world."Nature does not give a man virtue; the process of becoming a good man is an art". The Mahabharata believes that our lives should not have to be so cruel and humiliating. This explains its refrain, "dharma lead to victory!". Although it is spoken with irony at times, the epic genuinely desires that our relationships be more honest and fair.What comes in the way is our tendency to deceive ourselves, rationalize our actions, and readily find fault in others while remaining blind to the same fault in ourselves.
From the beginning the West has sought for what was "wondrous in the East" and it seemed to find it in India's religious and spiritual identity. This focus on the exotic neglected the" deep-seated heterogeneity of Indian traditions". Indian for their part, have been happy to embrace this self-image of 'spirituality' as a way to recover their self-esteem after long years of colonial history. It makes them feel superior to the 'materialistic' West. But they have paid a price. In their obsession with "moksha", the "spiritual" end, they sometimes lose sight these days of the three worldly goals-dharma, artha, and kama- which are needed to lead a more balanced life. These are the very pursuits that the Mahabharata commends to its listeners:
When this great incomparable tale, esteemed
By dispassionate men of wise erudition,
Is studied in detail, their spreading insight
Into the three pursuits will conquer the earth.
The Mahabharatha is about our incomplete lives, about how difficult it is to be good in the world."Nature does not give a man virtue; the process of becoming a good man is an art". The Mahabharata believes that our lives should not have to be so cruel and humiliating. This explains its refrain, "dharma lead to victory!". Although it is spoken with irony at times, the epic genuinely desires that our relationships be more honest and fair.What comes in the way is our tendency to deceive ourselves, rationalize our actions, and readily find fault in others while remaining blind to the same fault in ourselves.
From the beginning the West has sought for what was "wondrous in the East" and it seemed to find it in India's religious and spiritual identity. This focus on the exotic neglected the" deep-seated heterogeneity of Indian traditions". Indian for their part, have been happy to embrace this self-image of 'spirituality' as a way to recover their self-esteem after long years of colonial history. It makes them feel superior to the 'materialistic' West. But they have paid a price. In their obsession with "moksha", the "spiritual" end, they sometimes lose sight these days of the three worldly goals-dharma, artha, and kama- which are needed to lead a more balanced life. These are the very pursuits that the Mahabharata commends to its listeners:
When this great incomparable tale, esteemed
By dispassionate men of wise erudition,
Is studied in detail, their spreading insight
Into the three pursuits will conquer the earth.
worth thinking about !
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