THE DIFFICULTY OF BEING GOOD - GURCHARAN DAS

“One should not do to another what one regards as injurious to oneself. This in brief, is the law
of Dharma.”

From the author of ‘India Unbound’ , comes another intriguing and highly acclaimed work-
‘The Difficulty of Being Good’, written with a view to project the relevance that the voluminous
epic, ‘The Mahabharata”, holds in this day and age. This work is a take at the plethora of notions
of Dharma that are inherent in our lives. With an exhaustive reference to anecdotes from the
great epic, or ‘The Epic of Revenge’(as it is better known), Das emphasizes on how every social,
political and religious phenomenon has brought out the subtleness of Dharma.

The book begins on a note of envy and intense jealousy that the Kaurava kin, Duryodhana
possesses against his Pandava counterpart, Yudhishtira. What starts as a benign envy for a
flourishing kingdom, sets off as an undying vice to overthrow the well-governed system of the
Pandavas. Das, here, has aptly related benign envy today, as one that may help in promoting a
healthy competitive spirit. With illustrious examples, such like the Ambani brother feud, he
observes that envy is felt more betwixt people on an equal footing or almost equal footing than
among those widely separated. Associating envy with Dharma, he best justifies it (Dharma), by
calling it something that is vividly remembered in its very absence. He portrays how it is in the
absence of contraries that you realize otherwise. Moreover, Das pertinently talks of our
susceptibility to envy and its other fierce forms, which is evident from the behavior of the mighty
Duryodhana, who is quite candid about his envious sentiments.

The opening chapter of the book serves more as an overture to the remaining part, where envy,
malice, deceit, subterfuge,poignancy and the like form a crucial part of the book, thereafter.

In the epic, after the Pandavas lose to the evil scheme of gambling devised by Shakuni,
Draupadi brings into picture the material question of Dharma, as law and as what is right,
thereby weighing it in both, the moral and legal context. In the twelve years of exile that the five
brothers face, Yudhishtira becomes an idealist and wishes to practice forgiveness and forget that
which their brothers did unto them. Through Bhima’s and Draupadi’s provocation, he is made to
realize that an idealist is not what he is expected to be, which only throws light on the
vulnerability of the human mind and shows how his realist approach leads only to destruction
later on.

An intriguing aspect in that Das has finely highlighted in the book is selflessness or altruism.
Consider Bhishma or Krishna, and their practice of following the ‘Nishkama Karma’ (doing an
action without the desire of seeking its fruit) and the essence of following such an ideal. To this,
Das holds it to be a pragmatic approach if the likes of Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa and
Sonia Gandhi are anything to go by.

Moreover, what ahs been beautifully and metaphorically illustrated is our two inner selves, much
like two plumed birds on a peepal tree. Das opines that within all of us, there is one inner self
which does or refrains from doing something and there is another self which watches the act
being omitted or committed.

A relevant and truly realistic aspect that the author has brought out is the quest for being a certain
‘somebody’ that every ‘nobody’ desires to be. The embedded problem faced is that of ‘status
anxiety’, which if related to the epic text, starts in a subtle sense in outwitting somebody and
turns into belligerence when Karna challenges the strongest Arjuna that he is better than him.
Karna’s impoverished social background makes his ego, “a leaky balloon”, that is in dire need of
appreciation and attention. Convincingly, Das compares this day and that, by throwing light on
the much deliberated concept of Reservation which the state regards as an affirmative action and
many think otherwise. In this context, merit has been taken to mean flexibly. Alluding back to
the text, the Kshatriya nobility is given credit over status anxiety when Karna remains inexorable
even after being heavily persuaded by Krishna and Kunti. He realizes his need for a higher
position in the social hierarchy and waves off the proposal.

This work presents how every character has their moment of pride, anguish, chagrin, envy,
deceit, vengeance, remorse and guilt and the role played by Krishna in the entire episode can
only make one ponder over his divinity. It only raises doubts over the same. Krishna’s deceitful
tactics, of using ends which supersede the means, only leaves behind one rhetoric….A God or
man himself? One, then , can be rest assured of him possessing multiple identities. If the Karma
theory is anything to go by, it has rightly been marked that he died the meanest death in history.
Through the course of the book, Das addresses a multitude of concerns, namely, following war
conventions, which epitomizes the global position today, where a strong country ignominiously
practices brutality on a less influential one, without adhering to the laid down war protocol. The
knowledgeable author also makes a reference to hovering problem of evil, where one cannot tell
the good from the bad and that is where the subtleness of Dharma lies. A few instances of the
violation of Dharma prove its significance and worth in our lives, for instance the dishonest
means used in slaughtering Duryodhana and Drona.

Further, what forms a quintessential theme of the play and also serves as a backdrop throughout
is the concept of “What goes around, comes around”. Whether it be Shakuni’s evil plot
countered by an equally grotesque and gory battle or the subterfuge of the Pandavas in the war
being countered by Ashwattama when he set their camps ablaze and killed all the Pandava kins,
the book promulgates the ‘Karma Theory’, of course, in lines of Dharma.

Towards the end of the war, the book shows how every victor also has so much to lose and that
can be deciphered from the remorse-struck Yudhishtira, who has anything but happiness and
comfort in his life post the fierce war. This only reiterates how today revenge ahs become a
“human need” and thus, we have devised retributive mechanisms to penalize violations of law.

Moreover, an irony that leaves a lingering impact is that the Pandava kin, Yudishtira, the
perpetrator(if he may be called so) of war, defiles and derogates his very foundation, considering
he emanated from the God of Dharma. However, his remorse, pity and actions whilst on his
heavenly abode, qualify him as one who abides by dharma.

All in all, be it the selfless Bhishma, the envious Duryodhana, the powerful Arjuna, the tricky
Krishna, the inexorable Karna, the idealist-turned-pragmatist Yudhishtira, etc., throughout this
book, Das has appositely made a point that all such practices have been inherent in society since
time immemorial, though it is only now that it has become the order of the day. With a note-
worthy ability of interpretation and relating that day to today, and by quoting statements of
eminent people from all walks of life, Das has ensured a joyful read to every reader.

As for the great epic, it has been rightly held,

“The Mahabharata sees a vice behind every virtue, a snake behind every horse, and a doomsday
behind every victory, an uncompleted ritual behind every completed sacrifice.”