this is an excerpt from my samvaad session. I am sure that this will give you the answer of your question.
You can watch this session here-
The question is, ‘How do we decide the right thing to do?’ How to differentiate between right and wrong? What is right and what is wrong? How do you know what is right, and how do you know what is wrong?
To really enquire, first of all you need to look at the facts .
See, Someone told you what is right, and someone told you what is wrong, and not only that, someone also told you there is something called a ‘right’ and something called a ‘wrong’, and you have started believing in it so deeply. What do you mean by right and what do you mean by wrong? All our sense of right and wrong is a borrowed sense of right and wrong. All these ethics, morality, all these are coming from the outside, we never found them on our own.
You were so small and somebody said that don’t hurt others, respect elders, speak the truth, be a loving person, this is right and that is wrong. But if you happen to be a smart kid, and you turn around and ask, ‘Why should I always speak the truth?’, there is a problem. If you further ask, ‘What is the truth?’, there is a yet bigger problem. Papa may try to tell, but he cannot tell. He cannot tell because he himself doesn’t know. He himself doesn’t know because his own Papa told him, and own Papa was told by his Papa, and so on and so forth. And nobody really knows, but this mantra has been passed on since generations.
‘Speak the Truth. That is the right thing to do’. You were told this when you were 3 years old. Today you are 20-25. I ask you today. Why must I speak the Truth? Explain to me. Why must anybody speak the truth? And can you speak the truth without really knowing what is truth? What does it mean to really know? We know nothing. But we all have been like parrots, reciting a mantra.
Now, is it surprising that his world is full of liars who have all been told in their childhood to ‘speak the truth’? All have been told, ‘respect others’, ‘don’t hurt others’, ‘don’t be violent’, but the world is full of liars, rapists and murderers. Entirely, I say. Some rape physically, others in thoughts. Parents told you what is moral, in school the teachers told you. There even was a subject called ‘Moral Science’, and religion and society too have been drilling down morality in your mind. Yet, the world is so deeply rotten, full of suffering, and crime, and violence. Have you never wondered why this is happening?
It is happening because nothing comes in our life out of our own intelligence. All morality comes from outside and when it comes from outside that’s what we get: a botched up human being, a caricature of human being, not a healthy, intelligent man.
All these ‘rights’ and ‘wrongs’ that you have, these ethics that you worship, you have just soaked it in like a sponge from here from there. You read the Ramayana and Ram became the ideal from whom your morality flows, or if you are a Buddhist, then what Buddha said is the code of morality. Or the Christ. Or anybody else. But did Ram follow another Ram, or Buddha follow a pre-existing Buddha, or Christ just borrow his morality from the society?
Had you ever paid a little attention, you would have discovered how fallible your morals are, how incomplete and false they are.
What is wrong in one country, is right in another country. What is wrong in one house, is considered right in others house. What is wrong in one age, is right in another age. What is wrong in one religion, is right in another religion. What is wrong in one’s view point, is right in another’s view point. One man’s terrorist, is another man’s freedom fighter.
What do you mean by right and wrong?
But everyone is insist on asking , ‘what is right and what is wrong?’ The only wrong, if you are so insistent, is asking that what is wrong. The only wrong is to be stupid, that is the only wrong. Don’t be stupid.
The only wrong is to be stupid. What does stupidity mean?
Let us understand stupidity. Being distracted, not being attentive, not understanding, not exercising one’s own intelligence and just absorbing things as they come, this is stupidity. And we have only taken things as they have been handed down to us.
We have taken in so many beliefs, we have taken our religion from outside, we have taken our sense of patriotism from outside, we have taken our sense of purpose from outside, our goals come from outside, every single thought and feeling comes from outside. Just like a dustbin, in which all rubbish comes from outside. Why? Why have we made our mind a garbage-bin in which the entire world: TV, media, religion, friends, colleagues, society, keeps throwing its rubbish. Why is nothing really our own?
But let me say that it is your right, it is your most fundamental freedom, to live in your intelligence. You must act intelligently. Don’t be afraid about that right! I know why you are asking this question. It is not that you do not know the answer. It is just that you are afraid. You are afraid because, till date, your actions have come from the direct or hidden dictates of others. You have become used to taking orders. Servility makes you feel secure. Intelligence is freedom, and freedom means insecurity.
But, why? So and so has told me this is the right thing to do, and everybody does it, so it must be the right thing to do!
When you act on your own like an individual, as an intelligent being, then you are afraid. Face that fear, face that fear, don’t run away. The only wrong is to not be your own man, your own master. To not to be an individual, that is the only wrong. And the only right is to act intelligently, nothing else is right. When you act in your intelligence, let the society say that you are wrong, let them keep on saying, let them keep on declaring that you a fool or a criminal. But you will know. You will know deeply within, that you are right. And you will smile. You will know it so deeply that nobody will be able to convince you that you are wrong. Are you getting it? But that will require some guts. That will require a great deal of understanding which I am so sure that you are capable of. That will need self-love. You surely have that. I know it is a little scary but don’t you want a life that is totally your life and not a dictated life?
If truth threatens you, then surely you are living in lies.
I repeat. You are capable of understanding. You surely are capable of understanding and you have come to a particular age when you must understand, you must act intelligently. You are no more six-year-old, you are mature, you are free, you deserve to live and love fully.
For more clarity- you can visit my blog- www.prashantadvait.com
Q&A-
http://www.querynanswer.com/question/how-to-judge-what-is-right-and-what-is-wrong/
The question is, ‘How do we decide the right thing to do?’ How to differentiate between right and wrong? What is right and what is wrong? How do you know what is right, and how do you know what is wrong?
To really enquire, first of all you need to look at the facts .
See, Someone told you what is right, and someone told you what is wrong, and not only that, someone also told you there is something called a ‘right’ and something called a ‘wrong’, and you have started believing in it so deeply. What do you mean by right and what do you mean by wrong? All our sense of right and wrong is a borrowed sense of right and wrong. All these ethics, morality, all these are coming from the outside, we never found them on our own.
You were so small and somebody said that don’t hurt others, respect elders, speak the truth, be a loving person, this is right and that is wrong. But if you happen to be a smart kid, and you turn around and ask, ‘Why should I always speak the truth?’, there is a problem. If you further ask, ‘What is the truth?’, there is a yet bigger problem. Papa may try to tell, but he cannot tell. He cannot tell because he himself doesn’t know. He himself doesn’t know because his own Papa told him, and own Papa was told by his Papa, and so on and so forth. And nobody really knows, but this mantra has been passed on since generations.
‘Speak the Truth. That is the right thing to do’. You were told this when you were 3 years old. Today you are 20-25. I ask you today. Why must I speak the Truth? Explain to me. Why must anybody speak the truth? And can you speak the truth without really knowing what is truth? What does it mean to really know? We know nothing. But we all have been like parrots, reciting a mantra.
Now, is it surprising that his world is full of liars who have all been told in their childhood to ‘speak the truth’? All have been told, ‘respect others’, ‘don’t hurt others’, ‘don’t be violent’, but the world is full of liars, rapists and murderers. Entirely, I say. Some rape physically, others in thoughts. Parents told you what is moral, in school the teachers told you. There even was a subject called ‘Moral Science’, and religion and society too have been drilling down morality in your mind. Yet, the world is so deeply rotten, full of suffering, and crime, and violence. Have you never wondered why this is happening?
It is happening because nothing comes in our life out of our own intelligence. All morality comes from outside and when it comes from outside that’s what we get: a botched up human being, a caricature of human being, not a healthy, intelligent man.
All these ‘rights’ and ‘wrongs’ that you have, these ethics that you worship, you have just soaked it in like a sponge from here from there. You read the Ramayana and Ram became the ideal from whom your morality flows, or if you are a Buddhist, then what Buddha said is the code of morality. Or the Christ. Or anybody else. But did Ram follow another Ram, or Buddha follow a pre-existing Buddha, or Christ just borrow his morality from the society?
Had you ever paid a little attention, you would have discovered how fallible your morals are, how incomplete and false they are.
What is wrong in one country, is right in another country. What is wrong in one house, is considered right in others house. What is wrong in one age, is right in another age. What is wrong in one religion, is right in another religion. What is wrong in one’s view point, is right in another’s view point. One man’s terrorist, is another man’s freedom fighter.
What do you mean by right and wrong?
But everyone is insist on asking , ‘what is right and what is wrong?’ The only wrong, if you are so insistent, is asking that what is wrong. The only wrong is to be stupid, that is the only wrong. Don’t be stupid.
The only wrong is to be stupid. What does stupidity mean?
Let us understand stupidity. Being distracted, not being attentive, not understanding, not exercising one’s own intelligence and just absorbing things as they come, this is stupidity. And we have only taken things as they have been handed down to us.
We have taken in so many beliefs, we have taken our religion from outside, we have taken our sense of patriotism from outside, we have taken our sense of purpose from outside, our goals come from outside, every single thought and feeling comes from outside. Just like a dustbin, in which all rubbish comes from outside. Why? Why have we made our mind a garbage-bin in which the entire world: TV, media, religion, friends, colleagues, society, keeps throwing its rubbish. Why is nothing really our own?
But let me say that it is your right, it is your most fundamental freedom, to live in your intelligence. You must act intelligently. Don’t be afraid about that right! I know why you are asking this question. It is not that you do not know the answer. It is just that you are afraid. You are afraid because, till date, your actions have come from the direct or hidden dictates of others. You have become used to taking orders. Servility makes you feel secure. Intelligence is freedom, and freedom means insecurity.
But, why? So and so has told me this is the right thing to do, and everybody does it, so it must be the right thing to do!
When you act on your own like an individual, as an intelligent being, then you are afraid. Face that fear, face that fear, don’t run away. The only wrong is to not be your own man, your own master. To not to be an individual, that is the only wrong. And the only right is to act intelligently, nothing else is right. When you act in your intelligence, let the society say that you are wrong, let them keep on saying, let them keep on declaring that you a fool or a criminal. But you will know. You will know deeply within, that you are right. And you will smile. You will know it so deeply that nobody will be able to convince you that you are wrong. Are you getting it? But that will require some guts. That will require a great deal of understanding which I am so sure that you are capable of. That will need self-love. You surely have that. I know it is a little scary but don’t you want a life that is totally your life and not a dictated life?
If truth threatens you, then surely you are living in lies.
I repeat. You are capable of understanding. You surely are capable of understanding and you have come to a particular age when you must understand, you must act intelligently. You are no more six-year-old, you are mature, you are free, you deserve to live and love fully.
For more clarity- you can visit my blog- www.prashantadvait.com
Q&A-
http://www.querynanswer.com/question/how-to-judge-what-is-right-and-what-is-wrong/
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