Why do the honest suffer?
Why do I always suffer? Why am I victimised? Why is everybody against me? We come across these questions very often in life. But every time we are faced with these questions, we blame others for our problems. Not once do we look within to see if the root of the problem lies within us.
As a philosopher says:
This has been the general grievance everywhere. But only a few have attempted to analyse and investigate the cause of it. The lay person meekly resigns to his fate without realising that there is a reason for this paradox in life – the good suffering at the hands of the bad. A careful scrutiny will show that it arises from the distinctions in the nature of their inner personalities. Usually, the ones with a weaker constitution suffer. That is why those who remain in ignorance, complain of inequity and injustice prevailing in this world…that wickedness is rampant everywhere…that innocent are being deceived and harassed by the vicious.
As long as we will remain ignorant, we will continue to point fingers in different directions, without realising the source of the problem. Unless we understand the source of the problem, we will not be able to either resolve them or succeed in life.
How many times in our lives have we not wondered why the dishonest prosper, while the honest suffer? We all meekly resign to fate, without realising that it is not our fate which is to blame for our problems. The reason for this paradox in life lies elsewhere. Paradox is the good, suffering at the hands of the bad.
Let us first analyse how human activities are propelled. We have a body. The body cannot act on its own. It is directed by the mind, which in turn acts as per our desires and emotions. Up to this we are all fine, but we stop here and do not realise that if our mind has to act rationally and intelligently, someone somewhere has to question our desires and emotions… someone has to question the motives, desires and emotions of the other person…we have to explore who is creating those desires / emotions in such person… their motives have to be questioned. Only then can we carefully plan our actions. All our actions are required to be questioned by ourselves and carefully analysed. If required, we should then change our actions.
QUESTIONING: This can be achieved through questioning. You should question your own mind and your own actions. Analysing all actions and happenings cannot be done by our mind. In 99 per cent of the cases, we stop reasoning at the level of the mind. Most do not realise that we humans possess something more powerful than the mind. That is our intellect. Intellect gets developed only by constant questioning, contemplating and controlling our desires and emotions, thereby controlling our mind from making wrong and immature decisions, or decisions which end in failure.
Most of us humans fall into two categories:
1. The Aggressive
2. The Passive
To quote from one of the books I have read:
The term Aggressive and Passive is a special connotation derived from the use or the non-use of the intellect. The body is controlled by the mind. The body by itself does not act — the thought process starts…thoughts create desires…desires culminate in action…the mind instructs the body to act…and the body acts accordingly. But the mind is full of emotions and you act with your emotions. You go wrong because you have not planned your action…because you act impulsively.
But this is not the case when you apply intellect over your mind. Here, you will act only after carefully considering the consequences of the action.
The Aggressive are those who use their intellect in life’s activities, while the Passive operate from the level of their minds.
These two categories are further classified as good or bad. Hence, there are the Aggressive good and Aggressive bad persons. Likewise, there are Passive good and Passive bad people.
All human activities are driven by the mind and intellect. The actions are processed from either the mind or the intellect. A person is considered passive when he acts from his mind without the guidance / directions of the intellect. On the other hand, those who use their intellect to direct their mind and body to act are classified as aggressive.
PASSIVE NATURE: A passive person functioning from the mental level lives by his feelings rather than by reason and judgment. He does not think or discriminate with his intellect. Nor does he scrutinise or analyse his actions. Much less, question the merits or demerits of his actions. He lives a routine, mechanical life. He blindly follows the life of his family or predecessors. The environment around him, a given situation and circumstances shape his individuality rather than the other way round. By and large, he lives an unintelligent, dogged life of passive acceptance of the past that has gone by him. He lacks the intellect and initiative to use his human resources to rise above the external influences and steer himself to a meaningful and purposeful life.
Such passivity may lean towards good or bad.
A passively good person is involved in a way of life which happens to be good and moral without even realising it. He merely leads his life based on good impulses. He does not plan and execute a virtuous way of living. His intellect has not gone through the process of analysing and determining the right course of life. He carries on unmindful of the repercussion of his actions. Such indiscriminate action, however good, may at times prove detrimental to oneself and to the society.
AGGRESSIVE NATURE: The aggressive nature is the opposite of the passive. An aggressively bad person viciously plans and schemes, manipulates and manoeuvres. He follows the immoral and corrupt ways of life for pursuing his selfish motives. He observes no scruples. He breaks customs and traditions, rules and regulations, all for his self-centred, personal aggrandisement. Unlike the passive people, the aggressive constantly employ their intellect in programming their lives. Consequently, the aggressive are more powerful. The aggressive bad dominate over the passive good and bad and freely exploit them to serve their personal interests.
The fourth kind is the aggressively good person. They are rare to find. The aggressive good is inherently virtuous and divine. He uses his intellect to plan and programme his course of life for the benefit of one and all. He never functions impulsively. His reason and judgment steer every activity directed to the well being of the community. He studies facts, foresees consequences and works towards the best interest of the people. A single aggressively good person can bring about peace and harmony in the community.
The proportion of the passive far exceeds the aggressive everywhere. This is because human beings hardly use their intellect. They live at the level of their mind and its emotions, feelings, likes and dislikes. And suffer the consequences. They do not care to exert or strive for bettering themselves. The passive are rising in numbers.
Among the aggressive, the good are indeed very rare. So the aggressive bad exploit the weakness of the passive good and bad. The passive become victims of the vicious practices of the aggressive bad. This explains why the honest suffer while the dishonest prosper. It is the intellect scoring over the mind. This is the law of human nature.
The passive do not realise their weakness. They make no attempt to strengthen their intellect. They choose to remain in their mental and emotional frame. They get overpowered by those who operate from the level of the intellect and complain of the world being corrupt. To solve this problem they must shed their complacency and develop their intellect. Until they fortify themselves they may need to seek intellectual guidance from others to combat the viciousness of the aggressive bad.
The epic Mahabharata presents a picture of the passive and aggressive natures of human beings. The royal cousins, Pandavas and Kauravas, in the epic represent these two categories. The Pandava princes were distinct in their passive goodness and the Kauravas in their aggressive badness. Consequently, the Pandavas suffered untold humiliation at the hands of the Kaurava prince, Duryodhana. He was a clear specimen of aggressive badness. He schemed and planned the destruction of his passively good cousins.
The Pandavas sought the guidance of Lord Krishna. Krishna was a personification of aggressive goodness. He employed his intellect effectively to destroy the vicious plans of Duryodhana and the rest. The aggressive good prevailed over the aggressive bad. Krishna relieved the suffering of the Pandavas and resurrected righteousness in the country.
The moral is that we have to strive to become aggressive good to overcome the aggressive bad. So far we have remained passive good due to our basic nature. The solution likes in fortifying ourselves where we are weak. We need to study the inner constitution, reflect over it and strengthen the intellect. Having developed a strong intellect one becomes equipped to deal with the treacherous practices of the world. That is the only way to win the battle.
Why do I always suffer? Why am I victimised? Why is everybody against me? We come across these questions very often in life. But every time we are faced with these questions, we blame others for our problems. Not once do we look within to see if the root of the problem lies within us.
As a philosopher says:
This has been the general grievance everywhere. But only a few have attempted to analyse and investigate the cause of it. The lay person meekly resigns to his fate without realising that there is a reason for this paradox in life – the good suffering at the hands of the bad. A careful scrutiny will show that it arises from the distinctions in the nature of their inner personalities. Usually, the ones with a weaker constitution suffer. That is why those who remain in ignorance, complain of inequity and injustice prevailing in this world…that wickedness is rampant everywhere…that innocent are being deceived and harassed by the vicious.
As long as we will remain ignorant, we will continue to point fingers in different directions, without realising the source of the problem. Unless we understand the source of the problem, we will not be able to either resolve them or succeed in life.
How many times in our lives have we not wondered why the dishonest prosper, while the honest suffer? We all meekly resign to fate, without realising that it is not our fate which is to blame for our problems. The reason for this paradox in life lies elsewhere. Paradox is the good, suffering at the hands of the bad.
Let us first analyse how human activities are propelled. We have a body. The body cannot act on its own. It is directed by the mind, which in turn acts as per our desires and emotions. Up to this we are all fine, but we stop here and do not realise that if our mind has to act rationally and intelligently, someone somewhere has to question our desires and emotions… someone has to question the motives, desires and emotions of the other person…we have to explore who is creating those desires / emotions in such person… their motives have to be questioned. Only then can we carefully plan our actions. All our actions are required to be questioned by ourselves and carefully analysed. If required, we should then change our actions.
QUESTIONING: This can be achieved through questioning. You should question your own mind and your own actions. Analysing all actions and happenings cannot be done by our mind. In 99 per cent of the cases, we stop reasoning at the level of the mind. Most do not realise that we humans possess something more powerful than the mind. That is our intellect. Intellect gets developed only by constant questioning, contemplating and controlling our desires and emotions, thereby controlling our mind from making wrong and immature decisions, or decisions which end in failure.
Most of us humans fall into two categories:
1. The Aggressive
2. The Passive
To quote from one of the books I have read:
The term Aggressive and Passive is a special connotation derived from the use or the non-use of the intellect. The body is controlled by the mind. The body by itself does not act — the thought process starts…thoughts create desires…desires culminate in action…the mind instructs the body to act…and the body acts accordingly. But the mind is full of emotions and you act with your emotions. You go wrong because you have not planned your action…because you act impulsively.
But this is not the case when you apply intellect over your mind. Here, you will act only after carefully considering the consequences of the action.
The Aggressive are those who use their intellect in life’s activities, while the Passive operate from the level of their minds.
These two categories are further classified as good or bad. Hence, there are the Aggressive good and Aggressive bad persons. Likewise, there are Passive good and Passive bad people.
All human activities are driven by the mind and intellect. The actions are processed from either the mind or the intellect. A person is considered passive when he acts from his mind without the guidance / directions of the intellect. On the other hand, those who use their intellect to direct their mind and body to act are classified as aggressive.
PASSIVE NATURE: A passive person functioning from the mental level lives by his feelings rather than by reason and judgment. He does not think or discriminate with his intellect. Nor does he scrutinise or analyse his actions. Much less, question the merits or demerits of his actions. He lives a routine, mechanical life. He blindly follows the life of his family or predecessors. The environment around him, a given situation and circumstances shape his individuality rather than the other way round. By and large, he lives an unintelligent, dogged life of passive acceptance of the past that has gone by him. He lacks the intellect and initiative to use his human resources to rise above the external influences and steer himself to a meaningful and purposeful life.
Such passivity may lean towards good or bad.
A passively good person is involved in a way of life which happens to be good and moral without even realising it. He merely leads his life based on good impulses. He does not plan and execute a virtuous way of living. His intellect has not gone through the process of analysing and determining the right course of life. He carries on unmindful of the repercussion of his actions. Such indiscriminate action, however good, may at times prove detrimental to oneself and to the society.
AGGRESSIVE NATURE: The aggressive nature is the opposite of the passive. An aggressively bad person viciously plans and schemes, manipulates and manoeuvres. He follows the immoral and corrupt ways of life for pursuing his selfish motives. He observes no scruples. He breaks customs and traditions, rules and regulations, all for his self-centred, personal aggrandisement. Unlike the passive people, the aggressive constantly employ their intellect in programming their lives. Consequently, the aggressive are more powerful. The aggressive bad dominate over the passive good and bad and freely exploit them to serve their personal interests.
The fourth kind is the aggressively good person. They are rare to find. The aggressive good is inherently virtuous and divine. He uses his intellect to plan and programme his course of life for the benefit of one and all. He never functions impulsively. His reason and judgment steer every activity directed to the well being of the community. He studies facts, foresees consequences and works towards the best interest of the people. A single aggressively good person can bring about peace and harmony in the community.
The proportion of the passive far exceeds the aggressive everywhere. This is because human beings hardly use their intellect. They live at the level of their mind and its emotions, feelings, likes and dislikes. And suffer the consequences. They do not care to exert or strive for bettering themselves. The passive are rising in numbers.
Among the aggressive, the good are indeed very rare. So the aggressive bad exploit the weakness of the passive good and bad. The passive become victims of the vicious practices of the aggressive bad. This explains why the honest suffer while the dishonest prosper. It is the intellect scoring over the mind. This is the law of human nature.
The passive do not realise their weakness. They make no attempt to strengthen their intellect. They choose to remain in their mental and emotional frame. They get overpowered by those who operate from the level of the intellect and complain of the world being corrupt. To solve this problem they must shed their complacency and develop their intellect. Until they fortify themselves they may need to seek intellectual guidance from others to combat the viciousness of the aggressive bad.
The epic Mahabharata presents a picture of the passive and aggressive natures of human beings. The royal cousins, Pandavas and Kauravas, in the epic represent these two categories. The Pandava princes were distinct in their passive goodness and the Kauravas in their aggressive badness. Consequently, the Pandavas suffered untold humiliation at the hands of the Kaurava prince, Duryodhana. He was a clear specimen of aggressive badness. He schemed and planned the destruction of his passively good cousins.
The Pandavas sought the guidance of Lord Krishna. Krishna was a personification of aggressive goodness. He employed his intellect effectively to destroy the vicious plans of Duryodhana and the rest. The aggressive good prevailed over the aggressive bad. Krishna relieved the suffering of the Pandavas and resurrected righteousness in the country.
The moral is that we have to strive to become aggressive good to overcome the aggressive bad. So far we have remained passive good due to our basic nature. The solution likes in fortifying ourselves where we are weak. We need to study the inner constitution, reflect over it and strengthen the intellect. Having developed a strong intellect one becomes equipped to deal with the treacherous practices of the world. That is the only way to win the battle.
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