The Difficulty of Being Good: On the Subtle Art of Dharma is authored by a man who let pass a chance of doing a PhD in Philosophy from Harvard University, as he had no desire to be a philosopher. As Gurcharan Das, former CEO, P&G, dwelled with subjects of dharma and goodness and dabbled with the Mahabharata by subjecting contemporary reality and putting it under the lens of the epic, spoke to Sarika Malhotra on how the philosophical evolution came about.
How did the idea of The Difficulty of Being Good evolve?
After writing India Unbound, an optimistic view of India, I reached the conclusion that prosperity will now spread in India because of the reforms. But I felt tremendously depressed after finishing it because I found the state of governance in the country was very poor. The widespread state of corruption hangs over us like Delhi?s smog. It led me to ask if there is a moral dimension to failure. I got interested in the notion of dharma and asked whether the Mahabharata, which dealt extensively with dharma, would be able to help me with answers.
So did you find the answers?
The Mahabharata is not a ?how to? book. It makes you think about moral failure and improves your sense of reasoning and ability to understand what is right and wrong. It sharpens your sensibility. When the characters get stuck, they do not know the answers. They are in moral dilemma (Dharamsankata). Dharma is subtle, as Bhishma says, ?it?s not easy to know?. In the case of Satyam, we all said it was Raju?s greed, but if you go deeper and look at the motive you realise, that actually his actions were motivated, like Dhritarashtra?s partiality for Duryodhana. He had to steal from Satyam to provide for his sons? companies. In the Ambani case, everyone says it?s greed, but on dwelling, you will realise it?s Anil Ambani?s envy towards Mukesh, as Mukesh is regarded as more competent. Anil wants to prove to the world ? I am as good as my brother, which is driving him, like Duryodhana?s envy.
What is more dangerous ? greed or envy?
I think both are bad. But what?s driving the Mahabharata is clearly Duryodhana?s envy. Is there any human being who is without envy? Envy is more elemental. It?s more basic to human beings. We are all flawed. If greed is the sin of capitalism, envy is the sin of socialism. What is driving the socialists is envy, which can be destructive.
You mentioned that for success, fundamental discontent has to be there. But isn?t this iscontent leading us to misery?
A writer in order to write must feel some discontent with society, with the way things are. If you are too comfortable with the way things are, then why write at all. You should be writing to change things. Even when you are trying to entertain?telling a story, there has to be something driving you to tell a story. Human beings need a reason to do things.
Yes, discontent leads to misery. If it is not channelised ? it can be very destructive, as Duryodhana?s discontent. If you can make it constructive, it can give you ambition.
What do you think is the right mix between free market and central planning?
For most people today, central planning is discredited. The Communist state is dead. So the choice is how we reform our regulatory mechanism so that on one side we can catch crooks like Duryodhana but on the other side we can reward good behaviour. Law is always concerned with punishing people. It is not concerned with rewarding good acts of behaviour. You have to be very careful that you don?t over regulate ? if you do, you kill the animal spirit; kill the driving force of entrepreneurs, as we did during the licence raj.
Which character from the epic impressed you most?
It?s not fashionable to like Yudhisthira. No mother in India wants her son to be like him or names her son after him. Whereas every third child is called Arjuna. The real hero of Mahabharata is Yudhisthira ??an unhero?. He is a bit austere for my taste but I would rather have such a person than the kind of conventional heroes we glorify. He makes you realise that an act of goodness in the world is maybe one of the best things that happens to us.
Between India Unbound and The Difficulty… which was more satisfying to write?
My books are an exercise in self cultivation. For me, the purpose of writing is to learn what the world is all about. You build convictions as you read and talk to people and once you have strong convictions, you express them with vigour. So in that sense, Difficulty… has been a more difficult book. For thousands of years we have been judging each other, and it has got us nowhere. In some ways, this has left me more frustrated because there were no easy answers.