Happiness and Morals
--> Posted on 2009-08-06 11:13:19 ByPeople in the West generally hold that the whole duty of man is to promote the happiness of the majority of mankind, and happiness is supposed to mean only physical happiness and economic prosperity. If the laws of morality are broken in the conquest of this happiness, it does not matter very much. Again, as the object sought to be attained is the happiness of the majority. Westerners do not think there is any harm if this is secured by sacrificing a minority. The consequences of this line of thinking are writ large on the face of Europe.
This exclusive search for physical and economic well-being prosecuted in disregard of morality is contrary to Divine Law, as some wise men in the West have shown. One of these was John Ruskin, who contends in Unto This Last that men can be happy only if they obey the Moral Law.
We, in India, are very much given nowadays to an imitation of the West. It is necessary to imitate the virtues of the West, but there is no doubt that Western standards are often bad, and everyone will agree that we should shun all evil things.
Morality is an essential ingredient in all the faiths of the world, but, apart from religion, our common-sense indicates the necessity of observing the Moral Law. Only by observing it, can we hope to be happy?
There are two windows to the mind of every man, the one- revealing himself as he is, the other as he ought to be. It is the duty of every human being to look carefully within, and see himself as he is, and spare no pains to improve himself in body, mind and soul. He should realize the mischief wrought by in justice, wickedness, vanity, and the like, and do his best to fight them. The moral principles that are not followed in practice are good for nothing. We see many men who get by heart maxims of morality, and who talk loudly about them, but who have not the least idea of putting them in practice. There are others who think that all rules of morality are intended only for our guidance in a future world! But we can unhesitatingly assert that he, who is not prepared to order his life in unquestioning obedience to the laws of morality, cannot be said to be a man in the full sense of the word. We should all be able to find our happiness in righteousness and veracity, in spite of the pains and losses which we may have to suffer in this world.
God is omnipotent. He is the embodiment of perfection. None can set limit to His justice and His mercy. How, then, can we, who call ourselves His devotees, dare to infringe the obligation of morality? We should not, of course, lead a moral life in the hope of a reward. A life of goodness is enjoined upon us, not because it will bring good to us, but because it is the eternal -and immutable law of Nature. Good works are, indeed, more than food and raiment to us. We should feel more grateful to one who gives us an opportunity of doing a good deed than to him who feeds us in our hunger.
No man who cares only for show, or who is anxious to make a figure in the world, can be really moral. Morality does not consist in cleanliness, or knowledge, or industry. All these, of course, are a part of morality, but by themselves they are not sufficient to make a man moral. The really moral man leads a life of virtue, not because it will do him good, but because it is the law of his being, the very breath of his nostrils. In a word, virtue is its own reward.
True morality consists not in following the beaten track, but in finding out the true path for us, and in fearlessly following it. True progress is impossible without such strenuous pursuit of Truth. In other words, progress and reform are always intimately bound up with morality.
Our desires and motives may be divided into the classes selfish and unselfish. All selfish desires are immoral, while the desire to improve ourselves for the sake of doing good to others is truly moral. But, if we begin to boast of our services to others, or even to feel proud of them, we cease to be moral men. Virtuous action consists in a strenuous pursuit of good merely for the sake of doing good.
The individual or the family that allows an entrance to the germs of immorality- anger, falsehood, dissension and the like, is ruined for ever. The power to doing good does not come to us from outside. It exists always within us and we have only to develop it by proper means. The highest moral law is that we should unremittingly work for the good of mankind.
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