LEARNING ETHICS FROM RAMAYANA

Understanding ethics has never been easy. More so in the present times when there is so much emphasis on ethics. Ethics are supposed to be the science of right and wrong. But often the dividing line between right and wrong is thin. Especially in the present era, that is Kalyug, in which an individual is more concerned about him than society.

While ethics are suddenly becoming popular, their practice leaves much to be desired. In management, one of the most modern subjects of social sciences, the focus on ethical management practices has suddenly increased. From ethics committees to ethical training, corporate houses and business leaders are trying to ensure ethical behaviour on the part of employees.

Even as reams are being written on what is ethical and what is not, instances of unethical practices are legion. From newspaper stories to electronic media exposes every day, we find volumes written and discussed on ethical conduct that has become a part of our everyday life. Yet questions like what is ethical and why people behave unethically remains unanswered.

However, even if we cannot zero in on a definition of what is ethical, we can certainly say that a deed or act is ethical or not when we see or hear it happen. It is about both the act and context. More than the instance or the incident, it is the intent that defines ethics.

While those big volumes and references in management literature may not be able to vividly explain ethics or do justice to the subject, the ancient Indian scriptural text Ramcharitmanas, the saga of life and times of Lord Ram written by Goswami Tulsidas, can be a valid reference book on ethics.

The country recently celebrated Ram Navami and it is time to draw lessons from the classical text. Perhaps, it is this assumption that Ram’s rule was the ideal rule that the expression ram rajya has been coined. A society is said to be ideal when the social actors perform their acts in the ideal way. That is to say that they play the roles assigned to them in the right way. But what is the right way is often not clear and ethical dilemmas arise.

Reading the Ramcharitmanas may offer clear insights into what is right and what is wrong for a particular role. The greatest difficulty is that the same person performs many roles, and dilemmas arise when the demands of one role come in conflict with the demands of another role.

Ramcharitmanas helps us resolve these role conflicts with beautiful insights. Ram as a son, Ram as husband, Ram as a king, Ram as a brother, and Ram as a father had encountered many such conflicts which were not easy to resolve, yet he could come up to the expectations of all these roles in the best possible way. When Ram was asked to go into exile, he had options. Yet he chose the ideal path.

Similarly, Bharat, his younger brother, also had many ethical dilemmas but he resolved them in the most objective and ideal way. The same applies for Sita, Ram’s wife,  Lakshman and Shatrughan — Ram’s other two brothers. At times, for a casual reader, the actions of these persons would appear to be out of sync on standards of social desirability. But that is the precise lesson of Ramcharitmanas. Socially desirable may not always be ethically desirable.