Or Doing the Right Thing the Right Thing to Do​?

Are you with God and His Laws or with Society and Its Flaws? 

“A King may move a man, a father may claim a son. That man can also move himself. And only then does that man truly begin his own game. Remember that howsoever you are played, or by whom, your soul is in your keeping alone. Even though those who presume to play you be kings or men of power. When you stand before God, you cannot say “but I was told by others to do thus” or that “virtue was not convenient at the time.” This will not suffice. Remember that.”

~ Baldwin IV (Kingdom of Heaven, Hollywood Movie)

Either Please God, Or Please Society

There are rebels without cause. People who do not live to please the society, who live to rebel against society. Like the hippies in the seventies.

Then there are pleasers without cause. People who live to please the society, who worry about their “self-images”. They have no care for what they are doing, but how do they look to others. If they are assured that others won’t find out and their “self-images” won’t be tarnished, they will do whatever pleases them. They live by no principles. Only principle is how does it affect their “self-image”. These people only fear the society, they have no respect for God’s Laws.

So, either you can live respecting God’s Commandments and worry about how you will face Him on the Judgment Day. Or you can live pleasing your family, friends and society worrying about “What will they say?” In these times of Kaliyuga, you can’t expect the societal norms to match God’s Commandments. The “Will of the Absolute” is totally absent on this plane.

Either, you can do “what is right”. Or, you can do what is pleasing to you and others. Most of the times, both do not match.

Of course, when you do what is pleasing to you and others, you receive immediate pleasures, however short lived they might be. Doing “what is right”, often times bring hardships in the short term, entails sacrifices on your part, entails facing tough situations and the result only comes in the long run.

That is why, most people live pleasing themselves and society, and only remember God when they visit a temple or church. And also when they land in trouble. But even in those times, they never care for His Commandments.

Then, when you see a person suffering terribly because of some physical problem, financial problem, emotional or relational problem, or mental tensions, you think why is there so much pain and suffering in the world? Because looking at the “self-images” you are unable to discern what wrongs they have been doing whole their lives! 

Pleasures vs Happiness

The hard truth is you can’t have both – short term pleasure and long term happiness. You can only have one. If you choose short term pleasure, you will be choosing long term suffering. If you choose short term sacrifice, you will be choosing long term happiness. Which one you choose is your free will.

In The Katha Upanishad (Kathopanishad) – The Path to Knowledge of the REAL, Yamaraj – the God of Death tells Nachiketa:

अन्यच्छ्रेयोऽन्यदुतैव प्रेयस्ते उभे नानार्थे पुरुषंसिनीतः ।

तयोः श्रेय आददानस्य साधु भवति हीयतेऽर्थाद्य उ प्रेयो वृणीते ।।

“Two kinds of Karma chain a person. One is right, while another is pleasant (easy and tempting but leads to suffering later). Blessed is he who, between them choose the right alone, but he who chooses what is pleasant, loses the true end.”

श्रेयश्च प्रेयश्च मनुष्यमेतस्तौ सम्परीत्य विविनक्ति धीरः ।

श्रेयो हि धीरोऽभि प्रेयसो वृणीते प्रेयो मन्दो योगक्षेमाद्वृणीते ।।

“Every person is faced with two choices: the right and the pleasant, a wise person chooses the right even though it’s not pleasant; a fool chooses the pleasant with only instant gratification in mind and suffers later.”

It’s a constant fight between choosing Pleasure or Happiness.

The Soul seeks Happiness.
The Senses seek Pleasures.

PLEASURE ➡️ Small Indulgence/Give In ▶️ BIG Pain & Loss

HAPPINESS ➡️ Small Discipline ▶️ BIG Gain & Fulfilment

It’s a choice you make every day.
Stop choosing fleeting Pleasures.
Choose Happiness.

Just employ your WILL to follow the Small Discipline in small small moments everyday instead of giving in to Indulgences. Not only you will save yourself from BIG Pain & Loss later, also you will Gain long term Happiness and Fulfilment.

The more you will use your WILL to not give in to the temptations of Pleasures, the more your WILL becomes strong.

Social Currency vs Karmic Currency

There is “Social Currency”, things that you do whether in person or digitally on social media that enhance your social value, your value in the eyes of the society.

Then there is “Karmic Currency”, actions that you do that enhance your karmic account, your real value in the cosmos.

Time is a perishable commodity on this plane. So you have to choose, whether you will live to earn “Social Currency” or “Karmic Currency”.

Some people are so deeply programmed to please the authorities, whether it’s their parents and teachers in childhood, or their peers in teen, or their bosses and spouses later, they just do not know the difference between right and wrong. When they come in CFEL, instead of following the Dharma, the laws taught to them, they just make a false appearance of following the guru trying to please him. They seldom understand that the guru will be pleased when you will start walking on the right path. And when the guru is not pleased with their false “self-images” and reprimands them for their wrongdoings, they become disillusioned with the guru, they start disliking the guru.

Then they move to the other side, that of self-righteousness. At one side are people who have no care for right or wrong, they only live for pleasures. On the other side of the spectrum are people who have programmed beliefs about righteousness and whosoever does not come good on those beliefs, is judged and accused of wrongdoings. These people live judging others.

Self-Righteousness Doesn’t Make You Right

Of course, how easy it is to affirm your negative beliefs and make corresponding rules for yourself to apply on others!

Just like Calvin affirms above: 
“I don’t believe in ETHICS (God’s Laws) any more”
and makes a RULE for his life:
“The ends justifies the means. Get what you can while the getting’s good. Might Makes Right! The Winners write the History Books.”

So it’s a SELF-RIGHTEOUS rule ignoring the God’s Laws, in fact not just ignoring but audaciously disrespecting the God’s Laws and others.

But what Calvin forgets and is soon reminded by Hobbes is that if the “OTHERS” also start following the same rule then he will only receive pain and suffering.

Thus, whatever you do to others affirming your own rules which your egos make to feed themselves and thrive, definitely give you a short term high and pleasure. 

But, you forget that “Your Rules” are over-ruled by God’s Laws. 
Thus, in the long term, it all comes back.

In the long run, whatever you give and howsoever you treat others is paid back to you in the same coin and that too many many times over.

Be Aware that all the Self-Righteous RULES that you live by daily while disrespecting the God’s Laws are only setting you up for pain, suffering, disease, death and hell.

So beware! 

*Self-Righteousness Doesn’t Make You Right*

​Do the RIGHT THING and you will end up all right. Try to do things to please others and you will end up displeasing all. 

In all circumstances, do the RIGHT THING, not the thing that pleases somebody. That is the mantra for happiness and peace.