Right and wrong, good and evil. Conflicting choices — diametrically opposite options, with the power to make or mar reputations — stare us in the face many a time in life. Which way do we go? Which option do we settle for? Do we take the time to ponder, reflect before we take those potentially life-altering decisions? These are questions for which answers can be found deeply embedded in our psyche.
As a child, I remember my grandmother telling me and her other grandkids things like, ‘If you eat the food before offering it to God, He will poke your eyes.’ Or, reminding us that those who lie are bound to go without food. I am not sure if such blandishments put the fear of punishment in us and made us do the right thing, or whether we felt that there was some incentive to being good.
Why is it that Indians visiting Singapore think twice before littering? Because, as the joke goes — it is “a fine city”? After all, in many of our own Indian villages, breach of conduct was often dealt with sternly with the offender being branded, paraded and publicly humiliated. Was the very thought of that ostracising experience enough of a deterrent?
But I think one should perhaps do the right thing for its own sake and not out of fear of punishment or fear of karma catching up with us; or for the rewards that lie in store. Character, as they say, is defined by doing the right thing even when no one is watching. Which is easier said than done.
Until very recently, society didn’t provide too many incentives for being good. Wrongdoers were often deified, projected as heroes and managed to get away scot-free. Worse still, when you try hard to be upright and law abiding, there are enough people urging you to ease up and be less inflexible.
Temptations abound everywhere, luring us so tantalisingly. Unless one has a strong set of values, it is so easy to give in. The poet W.B. Yeats stated it beautifully, “Every conquering temptation represents a new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit, makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before.”
The lines between right and wrong often blur when one is drunk with power and imagines oneself to be invincible. Power, after all, corrupts — as the adage goes. Small wonder that Abraham Lincoln, former President of the USA, said, “Nearly all men can stand adversity. But if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”
Could it be that at times, one falls into the wrong company and is blinded by the love of the good life? Rajat Gupta, the brilliant but beleaguered former head of McKinsey, who finds himself embroiled in charges of insider trading, is a case in point. It starts with little things that they get away with, and then they get better at it. As Robert Brault says, “There is an ongoing battle between conscience and self-interest in which at some point, we have to take sides. You don’t wake up one morning a bad person. It happens by a thousand tiny surrenders of self-respect to self-interest.”
So what are the rewards of doing the right thing as opposed to the wrong thing? As a French proverb goes, “The softest pillow at night is a clean conscience.” Imagine the luxury of being at peace with yourself, when you’ve played by the rules; or the joy of being able to hold your head high.
There are also some real rewards — the ultimate one that our scriptures promise us when we choose right over wrong. Look at what the Bible has to say — “The wicked is thrust down by his wrongdoing. But the right has a refuge when he dies.” (Proverbs 14.32)
“For it is better if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right than for doing what is wrong.” (Peter 3.17 NASB).
Or, what the Bhagvad Gita teaches us — “He who walks under the guidance of desire, forsaking what is written concerning right and wrong, does not achieve perfection.”
The best places where we can learn about right and wrong are our homes, our families, our schools and from our society. Bill Clinton, former President of the US, whose misdemeanours in his personal life cost him dearly, noted, “Individual character involves honouring and embracing our core ethical values. Parents must teach their children from the earliest age the difference between right and wrong. But we must all do our part.”

The writer has a keen interest in spirituality and philosophy and writes on the same