First Blog-- Book review on 'The Difficulty of being good - Gurucharan Das'

I had written this book review as part of a pre-joining assignment for Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay. It was the first structured article I had ever written so I thought of publishing it....So go ahead and pour in your feedbacks........

Gurucharan Das, former CEO of Procter and Gamble and author of ‘India Unbound’ inquires on the ‘Difficulties of being good’ by studying and analyzing the moral dilemmas arising in the great Indian epic Mahabharata. After an early retirement from a successful professional career he experiences a void in his life. He sets out in search for the true meaning and aims of life by examining ancient Indian texts. He gets fascinated by the scope and content of the Mahabharata and after six years of patient and complete reading of the text tries to find out the answer to the moral problems, which even existed at the time of the epic as they do today, in the book ‘Difficulty of being good – On the subtle art of Dharma’.

In the quest for finding out the purpose of life author realizes that by depicting the virtues and frailties of various characters of the Mahabharata, the epic is trying to bring out the nature of dharma (the word has various meanings in Indian spiritualism but in its present context it can be related to moral well being). Gurucharan Das probes into the characters of the heroes of Mahabharata to highlight the virtue or failing they represent. He tries to find out the root cause of the existence of such quality or failing in human nature by looking at societal and cultural structures, other philosophical works and even sciences such as evolutionary biology. The author also emphasizes the implications of these moral ideas on the civic society and private lives. He tries to relate each moral idea with economic, political or a personal incident to deepen reader’s understanding. His education in western philosophy, his elaborate readings of ancient Indian texts as well as his broad spectrum of economical, political and social know-how allows him to delve into these diverse fields with élan. He interleaves the stories of the great Indian epic with those of the Greek epics and the ideals discussed here with those of western philosophies to encompass the global audience. By doing so it seems that the author is advocating that the moral ideas being discussed are not only pertaining to classical Indian psyche but even to the modern global collective consciousness.

The author along with discussing various attributes of the heroes of the Mahabharata spells out important lessons for the reader in economic, political, social and personal spheres. While talking about Duryodhana’s envy author discusses the presence of the positive and negative forms of the same emotion in our own lives. He quotes the examples of envy between Ambani brothers as well as the positive aspect of envy which reinforces competition and is a pillar for sustaining free-market economic activities. Similarly through draupadi’s courageous questions in the Kuru court author conveys important ideas regarding sovereignty of slaves and women. The nature of war, its consequences and the view point of a soldier and a political leader about the wars are brought out by various emotions and actions of Arjuna, Krishna, Ashwathama and Yudhisthira. The philosophy of human actions ‘nishkama karma’ as advocated by Krishna and practiced by Bhisma is well brought out in various parts of the book. The nature of caste systems and various harms they cause is discussed at length by depiction of the ‘wronged hero’ of Mahabharata Karna. The flow of the book though seemingly jumps from one hero’s character evaluation to another the author does a good job at maintaining a parallel flow of the original narrative of the epic. The reader thus enjoys the poetic narrative with the intellectually probing, absorbing and satisfying discussion over moral ideals.

The question over the moral ideals, ‘The difficulty of being good’, which the author talks about is not merely the difficulty that one faces in being good but its more of the difficulty that one has in finding out answers to the question such as ‘Why be good?’, ‘What is good?’ and ‘Can good be achieved?’. One of such incidents is very well depicted in the book when Draupadi asks Yudhisthira about ‘Why is he insistent on standing by dharma when dharma doesn’t protect him’. The author furthers this question with other references later to ask ‘What is the nature of dharma’ and ‘Can it be achieved’.

This quest for the search of the elusive dharma goes on through out the book as it does in the Mahabharata. The characters and the author together proclaim that ‘Dharma is subtle’. Through this they try to bring out the ambiguous and incomprehensible nature of certain moral ideals especially when they stand opposing each other.

Through the chapter ‘Mahabharata’s Dharma’ and the author’s own conclusion, the book tries to bring out a coherent message of compassion as the highest virtue and a awareness of the natural tendency of human beings to be moral as evolved social and intelligent creatures. Seeing our own self in somebody else’s place would make us realize that one should not do to somebody what one doesn’t intend to be done on oneself. Along with this author also tries to bring out a rational morality concept of reciprocal altruism which is validated even through scientific techniques of game theory. But the author acknowledges the ambivalence that the Mahabharata and incidentally the book leave the reader with when it proclaims ‘Dharma is subtle’ i.e. it is so subtle that we are unable to grasp it and are still searching for it. Through this uncertainty the author tries to give another message that is very relevant in present times that moral absolutism and fundamentalism is not the answer to any crisis, it is through tolerance, pluralism and continuous evolution of morality that one can face these uncertainties.The author’s style of self reflection actively engages the reader as one feels a personal touch attached to the narrative. The book provides lessons for the governments and citizens alike to reflect upon morality and not mere narrow-minded and short-sighted selfishness. The book is an enjoyable read and keeps the reader’s intellect actively engaged throughout.