– Can you really "DO" ANY Good??

Last updated on: October 14, 2005 at 8:27 pm by Desh Kapoor

– Can you really "DO" ANY Good?? 2005-10-14T20:27:47-05:00 Desh Kapoor

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I borrowed one book from an 8 book series of lectures and writing by Swami Vivekananda from the AS temple library last week… if you get a chance you SHOULD read him. He was a great thinker! In fact, he starts from a different point … takes a diff route.. and ultimately ends up where Krishnamurti says.. but he uses lot of scientific thought in what he says..and very often is strong enough to make statements – which though logical … but could be blasphemous to others.. like in one place he calls Budhha and Jesus – second rate .. although he praises them profusely elsewhere.. but his point is good… that they came out to show their knowledge.. and “teach”.. while the 24 “Buddhas (Gautam Buddha said he was the 25th) passed off quietly.. without showing off their “stuff”…

also he makes some very interesting point.. . he thinks (and I believe rightly so) that you CANNOT “do good” or improve the world! The creation is result of disequilibrium and inequality… many came and went… but it remained the same.. it will always.. even if 100 Jesus, Buddha and Guru Nanaks descended on the earth! Symmetry or equality will lead to the destruction of the world.. and my friend – (a PHD/IIT kinda guy). was saying that the most prevalent thought on origin of universe is that the big bang occurred when the “Symmetry” was broken.. so in that sense.. this in equality is critical to the existence of the world!

To “improve” the world and take it upon yourself as an end to your effort .. is selfish and ignorant. Duty to do something.. without attachment or even speculation of its result is true unselfishness. Vivekananda says: that a situation to do good is an ‘opportunity” for YOU to improve and to inculcate the ability to give away. To think that anyone can truly make a difference is nonsense. (thats the exact word he uses.. and I concur)

But that hwoever, does not stop you from doing good as a detached duty.

Also, he says (and I completely believe) – that you CANNOT do complete good or complete evil. In every good action is an evil result.. and vice versa. the prime example is the efforts of all the saints and prophets. Although ALL wanted to improve upon spiritual ignorance of fellow humans. . and none wanted to start religions…. but the probability of their failure in their endeavour is 100%. EVERY one of them ended up starting a religion.. and therefore wars and bloodshed.. and none of their followers who closed their minds following ‘principles” as mere laws without reflection or rigor of tests.. could banish their ignorance after all! Everyone still struggles! So in effect they took them off smoking and made them alcoholics.. either way the mind was stunned into no attempt for enquiry.

Morality he says can ONLY be judged from the standpoint of Selfish and unselfish actions. A butcher can be one with Universal Consciousness if he does his duty in a detached manner. In fact the story of one such butcher forms the central focus of Vyaddha Gita within Mahabharata. Vyaddha is a Butcher. This actually ties into what Krishna (in Gita) and Krishnamurti says all the time.

Krishnamurti says.. time is the movement from “here” to “there”. or from “What is” to “What should be’. .. or from “Being” to “becoming”. The moment you are one with “what is” .. the time stops. In that state.. here=there.. or observer and observed are same. And .. if you look carefully.. the “I” goes away. That “I” is responsible for the duality. And the moment “I” goes away.. the selfishness vanishes and whatever you do is God’s nimitt… The “urge” to “change” betrays that the person still has not really lost the “I’.

Further, you can either have knowledge of happiness… or be happy. the saints could say anything about God because of their ‘experience”.. and that experience comes from self, open, free, and comprehensive enquiry. Acquired knowledge is no good. No one ever .. EVER experienced bliss by someone else’s assertions. That… is what all saints completely ignored. And in my view, that is why, all the Saints and Gurus and Prophets who went around clearing the ignorance of people…. were second rate – as Vivekananda asserts later. They could not believe that the real source of their bliss was something that anyone… ANYONE could find on their own. They were just taking too much credit for it!

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