by Naresh Jotwani and R. Srinivasan

Should I try to be a moral person? A nice guy? A law-abiding citizen? Or would that turn me into a loser? An impractical dreamer?

How do I become a winner? A realist?

Can I become a cunning operator in a philanthropist’s garb? Is that option available to me? Or only to some billionaires? Is greed really good – as they say on Wall Street?

Questions, questions … and more questions! But – alas! – no clear answers!

In the hope that a discussion around such questions would be of interest to everyone, we attempt here an exploration of some basic issues.

It is natural, perfectly in order, that an individual acts in his or her own interest; after all, an individual’s primary objective is his or her well-being. Even those who are driven by compassion towards others must first look after themselves – or their genuine compassion will be frustrated by personal failures. Within a family, affection plays a major role, but every family member wishes to be self-reliant, not a burden upon others.

In the Indian tradition, the concern with one’s own well-being is known as स्वार्थ, svārtha – that is, self-interest, having one’s own well-being as the goal. It would be incorrect to say that svārtha is an immoral or a wrong instinct. A natural instinct essential to one’s well-being cannot be dubbed immoral.

Indian tradition further deals with this question by pointing out that: (a) svārtha does not justify immoral acts, and (b) with the changing stages of life, a healthy individual outgrows the essential, earlier svārtha stage of life, and moves towards the परमार्थ, paramārtha stage. This latter word does not mean ‘other people’s well-being’, but rather ‘the supreme goal’.

[Note: परम means ‘supreme’, not ‘other’; the latter meaning is conveyed by the prefix पर, as in परदेशी versus स्वदेशी. The prefix स्व refers to ‘self’, while अर्थ refers to meaning, significance, or goal; probably at a later stage, this word also came to refer to means of sustenance.]

When svārtha transforms into paramārtha, the individual realizes his or her true purpose and potential. In other words, actions rooted in self-awareness and the intent to serve to lead to the highest fulfilment. This is the path to achieving a harmonious balance between personal and universal well-being. This insight is the great gift of our ancient Rishis to all of mankind.

Svārtha, individual self-interest, when pursued righteously, lays the foundation for personal growth and fulfilment. When properly balanced, svārtha aligns with one’s Dharma, creating a sense of purpose and happiness that can sustain not only the individual but also his or her family and community.

Paramārtha, representing the higher universal good, teaches us to look beyond personal gain and commit to selfless actions that uplift life in any of its myriad forms. It moves us to contribute meaningfully to life as a whole and leave behind a legacy of goodwill, wisdom, and sustainability.

A normal adult mind experiences constant interplay between svārtha and paramārtha. These two driving motives are therefore not opposites, but complementary. A harmonious balance between svārtha and paramārtha can lead to a more fulfilling life, wherein individual success is achieved in a way that also benefits the larger world.

Bhargav Vyas, a friend, has shared this valuable insight: svārtha carried out with true self-knowledge is supreme; indeed, true svārtha lies in paramārtha.

It would be foolishly naive to think that every Indian shares the insights briefly outlined above. Many do, and many don’t. Many would laugh at them. Fair enough. That is exactly what happens in any large population.

Here we are asserting only that the concepts outlined above have quite a broad foundation of belief among the population of India. We all respect Guru Nanak, but not ‘Big Bull’ Harshad Mehta, the stock market manipulator of a few decades ago. Nobody in his right mind would claim that Harshad Mehta performed wonders for the Indian economy, or that he was a better person than Guru Nanak.

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We must now turn to how the much-touted and much-hyped ‘Western Civilization’ approaches the troubling but very typical questions which face every individual. How does that particular culture deal with the basic question of achieving a balance between svārtha and paramārtha?

We must put aside for now the teachings of Jesus Christ, which receive at best only a token nod today. The dominant attitude in ‘the West’ seems to be ‘Everyone for himself, and the devil takes the hindmost‘. The first half of this dictum is indeed svārtha, a natural instinct, as discussed above. However, the second half of the dictum implies that we all must necessarily be engaged in a deadly race, with no possibility of cooperation, and that the worst possible fate awaits the losers.

There is no concept here truly equivalent to, or even similar in spirit to, paramārtha, the supreme goal of human life.

Naturally, ‘the West’ needs a fig leaf of protection against being seen as a society comprised wholly of selfish individuals, all proclaiming that greed is good. Unmitigated selfishness is very bad PR. Day and night, therefore, they must claim ‘higher civilizational values’; otherwise, they would lose the hugely lucrative ‘moral franchise’ to deride all other humans as ‘barbarians’. Every schoolyard bully knows that to call somebody else a bully, he or she must loudly and pre-emptively lay claim to being virtuous. PR is an indispensable tool in games of deception.

Words such as altruism, philanthropy, and charity have been hijacked to provide cover for unbridled greed. Clever PR uses such words to, in effect, fashion attractive sheep’s clothing for hungry wolves. Recent additions to such verbiage of deception are democratic values, freedom, equity… et cetera.

When selfish ends cannot be achieved by deception alone, violent protests, conflict, and war comprise the next escalatory stage in the story of greed. Proof of this strategy can regularly be found in news headlines.

The ruling degenerates of the West – sometimes naively called elites – exemplify endless greed and extremely short-sighted svārtha, totally blind to any possibility of paramārtha. Even the mildest public policy reference to paramārtha results in angry accusations of ‘socialism’ or ‘communism’ invading the society.

In such an environment, flow of unbridled but extremely narrow svārtha does not merge into the ocean of paramārtha. Instead, the outcome of their total moral blindness is a stagnating pool of ever-worsening corruption. Human sharks within the pool seek to dominate not only the pool but also the world outside. Dangerous sharks follow each other into seats of great power, each one claiming parrot-like to hold up the highest civilizational values.

Such is the self-proclaimed, morally blind leadership of the so-called ‘free world’. A US president once famously said of a cruel dictator: ‘He may be an SOB, but he is our SOB’. Clearly, this is tantamount to saying, ‘We would have even befriended Hitler, if only he had agreed to be on our side’.

It’s too bad nobody taught these people the meaning of paramārtha, the supreme goal of human life. The hallowed ‘Western’ institutions of education – Ivy League, Oxbridge … and all the rest – have thereby failed in their duty, and the resulting ignorance is a huge burden on life on this planet.

Indian Rishis saw all this clearly thousands of years ago and provided the right answers.

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Notes:

1. Two of our earlier posts were on a similar theme: Cooperation, Competition — or Both? and The Four-stage Roadmap.

2. Sharks were mentioned in the post. The song Mac the Knife, here sung by Louis Armstrong, is about a fictional gangster. The shark is introduced in the very first line of the song, and its behaviour compared in a light-hearted manner with that of the gangster. On the paramārtha scale, the gangster would come in at ZERO, whereas everybody’s favourite Robin Hood would do very well indeed.