Guest guest Posted January 4, 2000 Report Share Posted January 4, 2000 Man Responsible For His Actions Ethical values are universal in nature and hence everyone knows them instinctively. Even a child, for instance, knows that telling a lie is wrong. A thief is not unaware that he is transgressing the law when he steals or commits a crime. Then why do people commit wrong deeds with the certain knowledge that they are doing them? The Mahabharata portrays this enigma through the character of Duryodana who exclaimed when his faults were pointed out to him, "I know Dharma; but I am unable to follow it." This paradoxical human behaviour has been addressed by every major religion of the world. Many of them posit an external force which forces man to violate Dharma, to explain this contradiction in human conduct. Some who do not accept an external agency go to the extent of wondering whether it is Divine Providence that impells man's to act in a particular fashion and conclude that God must be held responsible for man's actions. If this is true, then, does man have any control over himself or is he just a puppet in the hands of a superior force? It amounts to questioning whether man has a free-will at all, i.e., whether he has the freedom to act according to his will. Those who to the view that there is an external agency become fatalistic believing that they are controlled by destiny. In the Bhagavad Gita Arjun raises this doubt to Lord Krishna, "Impelled by what Krishna does man commit sin involuntarily, as though driven by force?" In answer to this, in the verses that follow, the Lord clarifies that there is no such external force controlling man and that he is ultimately responsible for his actions. In his lecture, Swami Paramarthananda said that it was man's ignorance of his Self (Atman) that was ultimately responsible for his misconduct. Ignorance about the spiritual nature of his Self is the root cause of all man's worldly problems. Due to this he loses his capacity to discriminate between the eternal and the transitory in life. Ignorance of the Self translates itself into desire for material pleasures of the world. Anger results when one is unable to fulfil one's desires. Desire and anger are thus powerful forces capable of destroying man totally. Everyone desires something or the other in life; only the object of desire varies from person to person. Anger is not postulated as a separate entity in the Bhagavad Gita, because it is only the outcome of frustrated desire and hence they are both the same. Source: An Article from the Religious Section of The Hindu taken with permission: "Copyrights 2000 The Hindu & Tribeca Internet Initiatives Inc." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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