Burlington, MA –  On October 6^th, 100 business leaders, entrepreneurs and students in Boston gathered at MIT Sloan School of Management with a common question in mind, “Why is it so difficult to be good?” TiE-Boston partnered with MIT Sloan School and the America India Foundation (AIF) to organize an event for Gurcharan Das’s new book “The Difficulty of Being Good.” Das, a noted Indian author, has written several books including the much-acclaimed “India Unbound,” which has been widely translated and filmed by BBC. He spent 2 years at the University of Chicago, on what he termed an ‘Academic Holiday’ to research for this book.

The event was presented as a fireside chat, where Raj Sharma, a Charter Member of TiE-Boston  and  AIF leadership Council member, engaged in a lively conversation with Gurcharan Das discussing his work and the lessons he has harnessed in search for a more meaningful life. Das used the epic ‘Mahabharata’ from India to answer the quintessential question of “Why should we be Good”? With numerous examples, Das shed light on the epic’s influence for the modern day.  

As the audience settled in, the big question was “Why choose Mahabharata?” Das explained that Mahabharata engages politics and represents some of the most profound thinking on morals, ethics and duty ever written. The epic is an attempt to clarify the term ’Dharma’, that is, what acts or behavior define goodness in this world. It helps improve moral reasoning skills and to do this, one needs good moral actions.

While narrating his stories, Das drew effective comparison between the lives of the characters from the epic and the people of today. He narrated several examples from the epic to illuminate our present day moral dilemmas and examined the right and wrong paths of life. According to Das, envy is the crux of most problems in this world which is reflected in Duryodhana’s behavior when he says, ‘What a man of mettle will stand to see his rivals prosper and himself decline?” He cited the example of ‘Duryodhana like’ Anil Ambani whose envious acts provokes him to destroy his brother rather that aiming to prosper himself. Das very beautifully quoted,  â€œIf the sin of capitalism is greed, the sin of socialism is envy.”

The audience looked dazed when Raj Sharma asked a debatable question to Das, “What matters more? The ends or means to those ends.” In this context, Das looked at ‘Dharma’ as the consequences of deeds that we all do. He brought to light the character Yudhishthir and compared him with a common man saving a drowning child. The man did a good deed but his intention was to impress the people around him. On the contrary, Yudhishthir would have followed his Dharma and saved the child even if no one was looking.

Das drew us back to the story where Krishna states “Ends justify the means” but Arjun argues that “Means are also important.” From a political standpoint, there has been a big debate amongst readers of the epic as to who is right? The question then is, “Is corruption justified in India because of the ends it begets?” The answer to this is complex and not easy. For instance, in 2007 when Pratibha Patil’s nomination papers for the post of President of India were filed, numerous corruption allegations surfaced, challenging her nomination to the post. However, once she was elected, respect to the highest office in the land, led the media moguls to back off and dust settled onto normality. 

In the epic, Krishna persuades Arjun that according to dharma, it is his duty to go to war with his cousins to win back their kingdom. Arjun is caught in a difficult moral dilemma and is confused about his true Dharma. “Is it to fight the war or be a good non violent human being?” Das cited very interesting examples of the Hiroshima bombings and the 2003 Iraq War at this point. Saddam Hussein’s evil nature is compared to that of Duryodhan. Defeating Saddam was necessary but not at the cost of the war.

In Indian families today, there is a big dilemma about whether to educate children to achieve success or to leave them with enormous inherited wealth thus making them secure for life. To support his point, he gave a very relevant example of the fall of Ramalinga Raju in the Satyam scandal. Raju’s work and dedication, led to Satyam becoming a respected software company but to fulfill his duty (as he saw it) towards his sons, he started other companies by diverting assets from Satyam for his sons’ comfortable future.  The epic would point out that he did not follow the act of dharma.

Das concluded by saying, “This world is dark and flawed but an act of goodness is one of the things we possess.” The audience walked away with many positive thoughts to reflect on the question of being good and what deeds define their ‘Dharma.’  The book, The Difficulty of Being Good was available for sale at the event and attendees had the opportunity to have Gurcharan Das autograph their personal copies!

Check out the You Tube links below:

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