In order to remove fallacy about goodness or being
good, I have tried to extricate the notion of being good and how it affects our
lives if we are good or are trying to be good. I am inspired to write on this
topic by a book written by Gurucharan Das called ‘The difficulty of being
good’. It is a great book and its central theme of goodness revolves around
different characters of the famous Indian epic called ‘Mahabharata’. So far I
have not read the book and whatever I have heard from my wife in bits and
pieces has helped me in conceptualizing the notion of being good with an idea
of analyzing goodness and what goodness means to me in our day to day lives. My
analysis is based on my own philosophy and logical reasoning on the topic and
it has nothing to do with the book written by Gurucharan Das or any of the
characters in his book.
Suman Saran Sinha, CMC
Certified Management Consultant
To understand the goodness we will have to
ask ourselves what goodness means to us. Is goodness an inborn quality of human
beings or does a person become good due to their surrounding environment? If we
are good in nature or behaviour or in contrary then what difference does it
make in our lives? Does goodness pay off? Do people take advantage of goodness?
Is there any correlation between goodness and cleverness? Can we survive in
this world being good and not being clever? How do we differentiate between
natural goodness and pretentious goodness? Do people become good by going to
university or learning books of knowledge or by going to religious places or
are they born good nature?
Goodness is the quality of a person and being good is
the outcome of such qualities which differentiates between the acts of kindness
and gentleness. A person can show the sign of kindness or gentleness apparently
but may not be a good person by nature. An act of kindness and gentleness is a
part of our emotional outburst which may be enacted due to the spur of a moment
or in specific circumstances. It may be temporal in nature whereas if a person
is good in nature then kindness and gentleness will become an inseparable part
of the personality. The quality of goodness will remain with person in all
times to come.
Goodness is not a measure which will fluctuate with
the time, mood or circumstances. It is a constant which never changes. It is
also a quality with which a person is bestowed upon. It is a state of mind
which provides a person with calmness, tranquility and positive thoughts in
every circumstance to act or behave in a manner which is filled with
understanding, forgiveness, compassion, tolerance and kindness. In fact these
are the key attributes of goodness. Person having the quality of goodness
reflects virtues, piety and moral excellence. This is the reason that Jesus at
the time of being crucified, instead of cursing the perpetrators, was filled
with empathy and forgiveness and prayed for taking their sin upon him.
Mahatma Gandhi knew very well that goodness always
pays and can move the strongest empire on earth, as such instead of revolting
with anger and revenge or taking upon arms, he responded to the British Empire
with his goodness, tolerance, forgiveness and piety which became an example in
the world.
A person, who does not have these inherent qualities
and tries to become good or behave like a good person by force, will soon be
unable to pretend and their true nature will become visible sooner or later or
the act of goodness fades away with the mood and time. There are examples when
bad people have become good, cruelty has subsided and they have started
behaving like good people due to the awakening of inner knowledge or happening
of extra ordinary experiences in their lives. Bad people also change with time
if the seed of goodness is present in their personality. Often it takes time
for the seeds of goodness to sprout and till then a person is void of this
divine quality.
I have seen people going to religious places sincerely
or listening to lectures on higher knowledge or reading books for their
spiritual awakening. They become religious or spiritual or philosophical for
the time being and then as time passes they go back to their original or true selves
like elastic. Since the feelings of being good are not the original nature of
the person, a veil of serenity is temporarily created around their personality
due to the surge of emotions. And once the surge subsides they go back to their
true selves.
Most of us have certain nature as part of our mental
make-up which influences us to become temperamental, emotional, rude, arrogant,
egoist, or to become jealous, introverted or extroverted etc. These qualities
create a conflict with the attributes of goodness. As mentioned earlier,
emotion may make a person kind and generous but as the emotion subsides people
go back to their true selves good or bad, kind or unkind, generous or miser.
These people even if they try hard, their original nature will keep surfacing
or will keep bringing them back to their true selves. True nature is permanent
and all efforts to improve ourselves are temporary. Meditation or spiritual
practices or the grace of a guide or Guru may make a difference in person’s
personality but in the absence of inner strength, will power and strong desire
to change it would be extremely difficult to alter the true nature.
I am an ardent advocate of maintaining one’s true
personality good or bad. Because this is what one’s personality is made of and
any attempt to bring change into the true personality will tantamount to
compromise, struggle and that may be hurtful. It is always good to act as per
one’s true nature than to be deceitful. But it does not mean that people should
not try to improve themselves if there is a presence of strong desire to do so.
Our nature is not what we wanted to become but various
elements and factors determine the making of our nature. These factors are so
overpowering that even biological, social, spiritual and educational
backgrounds do not make much difference in our personality. That is why all
siblings are different in nature and behaviour even after getting the same
parenting and environment.
Now the question comes up does goodness pay off? To my
mind, it does not make a difference to good people whether their acts will
bring any benefit or not. It is their inborn quality and they have to act with
all their goodness in every circumstance. A good person will remain good
in all times to come. Even in adverse circumstances the quality of goodness
will never subside. The vagaries of time have no impact on them. Those who want
to see advantages or disadvantages, gain or losses in being good are
basically not good people by nature but they try to demonstrate goodness by
logic. I can cite several hundred examples to reinforce my assumptions in this
regard.
An act of goodness is never forgotten and even the
wild beast can become the best friend in times of need. I remember a story from
Jataka tales (a compilation of stories of Lord Buddha’s previous lives) when a
king in exile was travelling through a thick forest when he heard the roar of a
lion at a distance. For a moment he was frozen with fear and saw the lion
limping towards him. Being a kind and good person his heart immediately was
filled with kindness and compassion. He fearlessly went near the lion and found
that a thick thorn was stuck in his paw as a result the lion was in great pain
and unable to walk. Without fearing of his life, he sat down near the lion and
removed the thorn. He tore a piece of his cloth for dressing of the wound and
after sometime lion vanished into the forest.
After a while the king in exile was captured by his
enemy and thrown in a dungeon together with a hungry and starving lion. The
king thought his end was near but to his surprise when the lion came near him
instead of attacking him the lion kneeled down before him and started wagging
his tail. The king immediately realized that he was the same lion whom he had
helped some time ago.
I have also come across several incidences where offspring was benefited by the good deeds of their parents. The act
of goodness may cause pain and suffering in short term but it never goes waste
and it comes back to the person doing good in present life or in subsequent
lives or to their progeny.
Therefore goodness does not need any certification or
recommendation, it reflects from a person’s nature and behaviour. The way one
cannot conceal the rays of the Sun, the same way goodness is revealed from a
person’s personality.
I have tried to express my thoughts on the topic and I
look forward to hearing from you with your comments and what you think about
goodness. I would also like to ask questions from our professional friends -
Does goodness pay off in the professional world? Have you faced hurdles in your
professional life due to your goodness? Can you share your personal experience
in this regard?
Suman Saran Sinha, CMC
Certified Management Consultant
