Good and evil – The Hindu

One of my neighbours lives in such a way that he never hurts anyone even a little, never says an unnecessary word to anyone, and spends his time going on pilgrimages and quietly living his life.

“What’s there to say about that? Aren’t we all basically prototypes of him?” — that’s probably what most people would think.

But is that really enough? Shouldn’t life be lived by actively doing small acts of goodness? That is a question.

While discussing this topic, a friend of mine asked me how I would define good and evil. I told him I had at least a grain of knowledge on the matter and would explain.

As an example of goodness, I first told him a story — about how a tiny act of kindness once saved a man’s life.

In a large fish freezer plant employing about 500 workers, one night an employee was doing the final inspection before the plant was locked. Suddenly, the massive door of the freezing unit shut behind him.

Sensing danger, he used all his strength to bang on the door and shouted for help. At minus-30 degrees, the terrifying truth struck him — he had only a few minutes to live. He could almost feel his blood beginning to freeze.

Just then, to his astonishment, the heavy door opened. The plant’s security guard rushed in, lifted him out, and saved his life.

The next day, when everyone heard what had happened, the management organized a function to honour the security guard. The plant head asked him how he had managed to notice the situation.

The guard replied: “About five hundred people come and go through this plant every day. But only one person greets me with a ‘hello’ in the morning and a ‘goodbye’ at night. Yesterday night, I didn’t hear the goodbye. That raised my suspicion — and that is why I opened the freezer door.”

I could see from my friend’s face that the small story of a small kindness had made its point.

Think of our ancient ancestors who lived in caves, constantly threatened by nature’s fierce forces, wild animals, and darkness. Imagine one person pointing out a snake creeping along the cave wall and loudly warning another of the danger. This is psychological engineering at work — the expectation that the same help would be returned if roles were reversed.

As human society gradually formed, actions beneficial to fellow beings came to be called good, and actions harmful to society were labelled evil.

Nature itself has no such categories in its business.

Imagine a solitary human living alone in some remote corner of the earth. For him, survival is the only motive; concepts like good and evil have no meaning. Only when a second person enters the interaction do good and evil come into play. In other words, humans needed these ideas in order to live collectively.

According to Jiddu Krishnamurti, goodness is the inner and outer order within a person. That order prevents destruction, violence, and chaos — and that itself is goodness.

According to Darwin, the roots of good and evil lie in the survival instinct.

Good and evil are human constructs: “good” and “bad” do not exist as independent realities in the universe. Therefore, in nature they have no standalone meaning or existence. Their scales are always shifting.

So, the earlier-mentioned neighbour’s position of “I simply keep to myself” doesn’t quite hold strong.

It seems my friend understood my definition of good and evil.

Soon after, he invited me to the nearby KFC.

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