Vivekananda Mailing List-1/3/03

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Yet there is duty from the subjective side. Any action that makes us go

Godward is a good action, and is our duty; any action that makes us go

downward is evil, and is not our duty. From the subjective standpoint

we may see that certain acts have a tendency to exalt and ennoble us,

while certain other acts have a tendency to degrade and to brutalise

us. But it is not possible to make out with certainty which acts have

which kind of tendency in relation to all persons, of all sorts and

conditions. There is, however, only one idea of duty which has been

universally accepted by all mankind, of all ages and sects and

countries, and that has been summed up in a Sanskrit aphorism thus: “Do

not injure any being; not injuring any being is virtue, injuring any

being is sin.”