THE MORAL COMPASS: NAVIGATING LIFE'S CHOICES
Written by -Shalini Bishi
Life is not just a word; it consists of four words that have the power to change life from "MY LIFE IS A MESS" to "I AM LIVING MY BEST LIFE." And how is this possible? According to my point of view, there is a sentence that has an important reservation in our life:
L- LIFE
I- IS
F- FULL OF
E- EXPERIMENT
As the title of the article suggests, life is nothing but a phase that consists of happiness, sadness, adventure, learning, experience, and more. We learn some things from the start, while others we learn through experience. In day-to-day life, we learn many things.
For instance, a beggar asks for ₹10 because he is hungry, and beside him is an idol of Lord Hanuman. If I donate ₹10 to the spiritual place and not to the hungry person, is this right or wrong?
We can take another example: if a person spends ₹10 lakhs on their marriage but doesn't give even ₹5 for charity, is this good? According to me, in both cases, the person is wrong because we have enough resources to fulfill our needs, but there are some people who don't, and helping them is not a legal duty but a moral duty.
All these come under the word "MORALITY." So, the question is, what is morality?
Can we rename this concept as
"MORAL CLARITY: MAKING CHOICES THAT MATTER"?
As the subtitle "MAKING CHOICES THAT MATTER" suggests, we have the choice to follow morality or not. This leads to the profound statement: "MORALITY IS NOT THE DOCTRINE OF HOW WE MAY MAKE OURSELVES HAPPY, BUT HOW WE MAY MAKE OURSELVES WORTHY OF HAPPINESS."
This statement has a deep meaning. For instance, if a person seeks revenge and successfully causes the death of another, they may feel happy, but does it truly bring happiness to others? Morality cannot be measured by the amount of happiness it provides, as reasons for happiness vary from person to person.
Morality is not about whether an act provides us happiness or not; it's about the inner sense that guides our actions. The meaning of morality may differ for every person. If the meaning were the same, there would be no crime.
However, I would argue that while the meaning of morality may vary, the feeling of morality is universal. Perhaps we can say that "MORALITY IS THE LANGUAGE THAT THE DEAF CAN HEAR AND THE BLIND CAN SEE."
This raises the question: Does morality truly exist in society? There are two possible answers: yes and no. Let's examine the negative aspect. Why does morality seem to be lacking? We can refer to this period as a "societal moral crisis" due to cases like the Nirbhaya rape, Priyanka Reddy case, Kolkata rape case, and Ayodhya case, where people harm each other based on religious differences and more.
Is this morality? Perhaps for some individuals who commit such acts, but according to me, it's not. Morality is something that morality is not inherent from birth; rather, it's something we learn from our experiences over time. Morality is like a feeling of love and care that a deaf person can intuitively understand, a blind person can sense, and a child can feel.
If we ignore the negative aspects, we can still feel that morality exists, allowing us to live a fearless life and trust others. Ultimately, it's up to us to decide how we behave towards others.
As DALAI LAMA said, "HAPPINESS IS NOT SOMETHING READY-MADE. IT COMES FROM OUR OWN ACTIONS." This emphasizes the importance of our actions in shaping our lives and the lives of those around us.
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