21st CENTURY DHARMA - Awaiting publication in The Statesman

The Difficulty of Being Good – On the Subtle Art of Dharma
By Gurcharan Das
Penguin Books
Hardback Rs 699

Das’ highly modern re-think of the Mahabharata is a risky journey that’s well worth taking
A review by Niki Seth-Smith

Gurcharan Das has woven himself the most exquisite of traps. His invigorating, highly contemporary take on the Mahabharata, ‘The Difficulty of Being Good’, shows its readers how to view everyday life through the many-angled prism of the classic epic. In doing so, he leaves himself open to the fate of Drona – whose pupils, the Pandavas, grow to turn their skills against their master. The temptation to analyse Das and his book through ‘the subtle art of dharma’ is too great for a good pupil to resist.

The first dharma Das discusses in his book is sya-dharma, which he describes as arising from ‘good deeds’ approved by society, and conforming to one’s caste or societal position. Is Das abiding by sya-dharma in taking on this foundational text of Indian culture? Taking our cue from the author in updating ideas about dharma, let’s look beyond the issue of caste to Das’ broader status in society.

Das does not come from an academic or religious background. The majority of his career was spent in multinational companies, before he adopted his current role as an author and celebrated columnist. Not only is Das no Sanskrit scholar, he admits to having not studied any Indian classical texts before a stint of study at The University of Chicago eventually gave birth to ‘The Difficulty of Being Good’. One could argue, on these grounds, that Das ‘acted outside his rightful place in society’ by single-handedly taking on the Mahabharata, thus violating sya-dharma. However, the humility with which Das approaches the epic may well absolve him of such a harsh verdict.

Das is acutely aware of the labyrinthine nature of this momentous text, which draws the reader towards one conclusion, before revealing the many faces of the problem in hand. In fact, despite the judiciously cautious nature of the ‘The Difficulty of Being Good’, Das still ends the work with the fear that he has imposed himself too much: “Even by asking the question ‘What is the epic trying to say?’… I may have been culpable of expecting too much logical coherence in the epic when its real position may well be agnostic…”

The very structure of ‘The Difficulty of Being Good’ deters the author from attempting to pin a ‘final meaning’ to the Mahabharata. The book is divided into ten chapters, the first nine of which deal with nine of the main players in the epic through what can be called their ‘ruling natures’: we discuss Duryodhana’s envy, Draupadi’s courage, Arjuna’s despair etc. Through focusing in on each of these themes, Das avoids sweeping statements and is able to bring the epic’s lessons to bear on everyday life in the twenty-first century.

In ‘Bhishma’s Selflessness’, the position of the great karma yogi is brought home to us through a touching story concerning the author’s own father. As a civil engineer, Das’ father had disagreed with his boss in public. Despite being subsequently fired, he remained content to have spoken the truth. Thus the concept of nishkama karma – being ‘intent on the act, not its fruit’ – is called down from the realms of the abstract into a world we can easily understand. The book’s contemporising impulse throws up many ingenious examples. Duryodhana’s envy is paralleled with the rivalry between the millionaire Ambani brothers; Yudhishthira’s concept of duty is presented as having aided Nazi Germany, while Ashwatthama’s musings on revenge are employed as justification for the US death penalty.

If Das just about escapes from the judgment of sya-dharma, can he join the ranks of his father and Bhishma as an upholder of nishkama karma? As far as being ‘intent on the act’, the clarity and resonance of Das’ prose, coupled with the beautifully-wrought structure of the book, speaks for ‘The Difficulty of Being Good’ as an ‘end in itself’. Yet Das is clear that he wrote the work in order to overcome his self-proclaimed ‘third-stage melancholy’: the third stage within the classical Indian way of life being marked by an urge to disengage from worldly pursuits. Perhaps, then, the author is concerned as much with the project’s benefit to his psyche as with the book itself. It seems hardly a goal we can grudge him, however, given the infinitely more banal desire for money and acclaim that drive so many authors in the business.

Lastly, Das must stand up to perhaps the most inscrutable notion of dharma: that associated with Yudhishthira, the eldest of the Pandavas. Yudhisthira’s sadharana-dharma is universal and its foremost duties are to compassion and truth. Here, if anywhere, ‘The Difficulty of Being Good’ hits a quagmire. While Das’ efforts to contemporise the Mahabharata’s ideas on dharma births some truly cutting-edge discussions, some of his assertions about the current political and cultural climate are unsubstantiated, and therefore questionable. Among other contentions, the book states that Indians today respect Arjuna more than Yudhishthira, that hatred of the ‘American Empire’ almost killed the Indo-US nuclear deal and that the Lehman Brothers might have been saved were it not for the envy of Hank Paulson, formerly of Goldman Sachs. While these assertions may well all be true, they appear as unsupported statements in the book, and hence fail to rise above the level of seemingly hubristic opinion.

The Mahabharata has enjoyed such profound and lasting influence due to its powerful argumentation and refusal to provide any black and white conclusions. Das may have exposed himself to attack by encouraging his readers to view the world through the lens of this epic text. Yet, in so doing, he has ensured that ‘The Difficulty of Being Good’ escapes the judge’s verdict. All we can do is argue it out, and thus reach a more enlightened perspective. At least, that’s my personal take on the work. I’m sure – in fact, I hope - that future readers will agree to disagree.