The Good, the Bad and the Ugly!!

I have a journal with Buddha’s quotes printed on its pages. Once in a while I flip through the pages until one quote catches my mind and starts its wheel of thoughts. It generally depends on my mood, chain of events in the recent past, probably just the state of mind at that moment which finds some solace in one of those quotes. Yesterday was one such day, when I wanted to put on my thinking cap and do some self-review.  The quote that caught my eyes and mind was

“There has to be evil so that good can prove its purity above it.”

I don’t know why but this quote caught my attention and took me into the world of thoughts, analysis, reasoning, philosophies and self-debates. As soon as my eyes fell on this quote, I suddenly reacted saying I don’t think I agree to this and then I began writing.

I have grown up listening to and eventually believing in the concept of Karma - what you give is what you get. Do good and good things will happen to you, do bad and you will suffer.

But over the years, I have started to question this theory. Definitely it doesn't mean that I will stop being good  :) . Be good, do good stuffs and see goodness in everything and everyone around you. It’s a happy world; isn't it?

Okay, then what the heck is your confusion? Alright, I am getting to that. The quote above made me think – at what cost? I mean, when one said, evil should be present so that the good can be acknowledged, my question is - at what cost? I feel that only a pure heart can appreciate another such being, for rest of the evil world he/she is a fool. The evil will always find ways to use/abuse/hurt the good.

From where I see this world, I feel a lot of goodness is burnt every day in the effort of proving its purity. In Hinduism, we call this period as Kaliyug – a period where, in addition to a lot of other things, goodness is also on its road to extinction.  My point is the goodness we show is respected, appreciated and reciprocated by only such similar good people. The moment the evil starts getting involved, the good is tossed over and over; it undergoes suffering just to prove itself to someone who doesn't understand its language. Why then? I know, it’s the weakness of the good, they can’t think evil. But isn't it unfair, that in the process of making the evil understand the value of goodness, the good suffers?

Let me clarify – by Good I mean anyone who is productive, who uses his resources in whatever potential he can, who does not interfere or try to control someone else’s progress, who does not use other’s shoulders to climb up the ladder, whose objective is to live his life and let others live theirs. I don’t believe that the religious books are sole proprietors of defining guidelines for what good & bad is.

I have come across people in my life, who don’t appreciate goodness, but are well off. They aren't productive but good things happen to them, they get things they want pretty easily without much struggle – in short Life is easy and good for them. On the other hand, there are some people who believe in goodness, who are hardworking but for them life is a struggle, things keep getting difficult – in short Life sucks for them.

Even if the good wants to live, the evil won’t let them live. Then why the good should put in all that effort; instead let everyone become unproductive, insensitive and cheaters.  Well doesn't it run a chill down your spine just thinking about such a world; yeah you are right, pretty much the world is already like that. The smart deserving people are at the bottom of the ladder while the undeserving sit above them and watch. 90% of the results of our work go into the mouth of the evils, whether it is politicians, government officials, the middle man in every business, the agents etc…

Simple example – I come from a family with farming background, I have seen how the farmers invest time, money, energy to produce food, and in the end when it’s time to hit the market, we sell it to the middle man at nearly less than half its price. We know that the market rates are much higher, but obviously no one’s going to buy such large quantity. We don’t have facility to store it, cant travel places to sell it, so end of the day – we compromise, sell it to someone who is going to have major share of what we produced. I don’t say that is completely wrong, what I mean is the ratio of who should get how much is screwed up.  Of course, the middle man is putting in effort in selling it to right parties, storing it etc… But shouldn't the farmers get at least 80% of what they invested and remaining 20% gets distributed to parties involved in later phases? Well it isn't happening,  the way today’s business is working is 80% of the benefit of produced goods (whether it be farming or IT or factories) goes to people sitting 1000 feet above the ground, whether it be in the form of taxes or unwanted bureaucracy or undeserving parties with more control, middle men etc… An actor’s son who doesn't even know acting ends up as a hero – thanks to his father, where as there are hundreds of deserving actors out there who don’t get a chance. It’s not just the work that matters these days. It’s this bureaucracy that matters, and it’s there in every field.

It reminds me of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged book. What happens to the world when the prime movers go on strike? What will happen if all the thinking minds go on strike? Where will these undeserving unworthy evil folks get their “share” if there is nothing being “produced” at all? This book is in itself an interesting topic on which I intend to write a commentary someday, I am thankful to a friend who suggested this book to me.

So yes, I don’t agree that the evil should have so much power that it can make the good suffer. I don’t agree that in the process of proving its purity the good faces slow death. In fact I don’t agree that good ever should be out in this world trying to prove its worth.

But I guess that’s the law of nature – there is rain after long summers so that you can appreciate the water, at the same time there is summer after winter so that you can appreciate the heat. There is a balance in nature. Nothing is given in abundance. So I think when Buddha (if it were actually his words; if not whoever told this) made that statement, he meant about maintaining that harmony in nature - there should be some bad, so that the good can be appreciated. 

The sad part is, today the evil is in abundance and is getting powerful day by day; there is no balance between the good and bad. In fact, the bad is getting uglier.

The worst fear is the fact that we can’t go back now. It’s a vicious circle, everyone knows they are in it but no one knows the way out of it. Hence the battle between the good, the bad and the ugly continues...

-Sarita.
Dated – 8/5/2013