Para-Ethics: The Greatest Compromise On Truth And Ethics

Truth is a live wire and who can touch a live wire and yet remain alive?

- DR. JERNAIL SINGH ANAND

Whenever we think of men of morality, our thoughts go back to the greats like Socrates, the Buddha, or Guru Nanak Dev. These were the people who we can expect never strayed from the right path. But the next question is: Is it possible to imbibe that high sense of morality by ordinary men? If not, can we say they are leading immoral and unethical lives? How can a man justify himself (to be 'surkhroo') in his own eyes and before God too? Every person, before slipping into sleep, counts how much good and how much bad he had encountered during the day.

The idea of good and evil is embedded in religious thought which extrapolates how the bad are punished in hell, and the good, rewarded. Even when no evidence as to what happens post-death is available, we tend to believe whatever is said in the name of God, his Kingdom, the horrors of Hell, and the joys of Heaven. How ethical are we in our daily operational life? Can we afford to act like the Buddha? If we remember how the Sikh Gurus were treated by the world and how they had to suffer?