Do What’s Right, Ignore the Outcome

Mahatma Gandhi published an article in his magazine Young India in the year 1920.

He revealed many profound concepts through this article.

There was a Britisher, Mr. Stokes, who was involved in humanitarian work in India.
He expressed a concern — if the British leave India all of a sudden, what if the tribes from Afghanistan and the hills, what if they suddenly attack India?

For this, Gandhiji responds with a poem by Cardinal Newman:

'Lead, kindly Light, amid th'encircling gloom;
Lead thou me on!
The night is dark, and I am far from home;
Lead thou me on!
Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene – one step enough for me.'

This is the reply: one step at a time.

If you want to imagine, you can imagine — there is no limit.
You can keep on imagining.
But Gandhiji says — one step at a time.
This means the problem of the British is a present problem.
This has to be solved.
There are no two ways about it.

The British have to quit India. They have to go away.
Because it has become unbearable. The British were a wrongful state at that time.
Now, the fear of another bad thing happening — can that stop you from doing the right thing today?
No, it should not.
Because fight against evil is simply fight against evil.
Even the result may not matter.

Another great visionary has said — someone asked him, why are you fighting them? Don’t you realize that you will not succeed? You will never be able to change them?
He said — I am fighting not because I hope to change them.
I am fighting because they don’t change me.

There is violence going on.
You can take three stands:
You contribute to violence.
You ignore it.
You take a stand against violence and try to bring peace.

You contribute to it — if violence is in you, this is what you would do first.
You can ignore — but if you ignore, you will start accepting violence as normal, as the norm.
Soon you will also become violent.

So, it is necessary that you also take a stand.
It is about taking a stand.
Unless you take a stand to be with the third group — the non-violent — in some time, you will also become violent and you will not even notice.
So, it is necessary to take a stand so that the evil doesn’t make you evil without you even noticing it.

Fear for repercussions from evil forces cannot be a reason to avoid fighting for what is right.

Gandhiji connects this to the famous saying of Gita —
Karmanyeva...
Don’t get attached to the result. Don’t even bother about the outcome or the result.
Do the task which is now right in front of you.
Don’t even bother about success or failure.
You won’t be able to see them because they are away from you.

About his own movement of non-violence, he says — I don’t know whether this will be successful.
But give it a try.
Because this is what is right.

Do what is right.
Sanatana Dharma says himsa should be avoided.

Mahabharata
In Pauloma Parva, Chapter 11:
अहिंसा परमो धर्मः सर्वप्राणभृतां स्मृतः
तस्मात्प्राणभृतः सर्वान्न हिंस्याद्ब्राह्मणः क्वचित्

Markandeya, Samasya Parva, Chapter 198:
अहिंसा सत्यवचनं सर्वभूतहितं परम्
अहिंसा परमो धर्मः स च सत्ये प्रतिष्ठितः
सत्ये कृत्वा प्रतिष्ठां तु प्रवर्त्तन्ते प्रवृत्तयः

Danadharma Parva, Chapter 117:
अहिंसा परमो धर्मस्तथाहिंसा परो दमः
अहिंसा परमं दानमहिंसा परमं तपः
अहिंसा परमो यज्ञस्तथाहिंसा परमं बलम्
अहिंसा परमं मित्रमहिंसा परमं सुखम्
अहिंसा परमं सत्यमहिंसा परमं सुखम्

Bhagavad Gita 10.5
अहिंसा समता तुष्टिस्तपो दानं यशोऽयशः।
भवन्ति भावा भूतानां मत्त एव पृथग्विधाः॥

Gita 13.8
अमानित्वमदम्भित्वमहिंसा क्षान्तिरार्जवम्।
आचार्योपासनं शौचं स्थैर्यमात्मविनिग्रहः॥

Gita 16.2
अहिंसा सत्यमक्रोधस्त्यागः शान्तिरपैशुनम्।
दया भूतेष्वलोलुप्त्वं मार्दवं ह्रीरचापलम्॥

Gita 17.14
देवद्विजगुरुप्राज्ञपूजनं शौचमार्जवम्।
ब्रह्मचर्यमहिंसा च शारीरं तप उच्यते॥

There is a shloka doing the rounds in social media:
Ahimsa paramo dharma dharma himsa tathaiva cha
It would be good to get the reference of this shloka from the Mahabharata.
I am not sure whether this is part of Mahabharata.
Anyway, presuming that it is there —
Still, if you see the context —
If at all Krishna had told this to Arjuna, then it should have been part of Gita.

Let’s say somebody deliberately took it out from the Gita.
Even then, in the Gita, Krishna is telling Arjuna to do himsa only — no doubt.
The whole Gita is about that.
But what is dharma here? Dharma here means Kshatriya Dharma.
Today also, rulers are allowed to kill — army kills, police kills.
Lord Rama went for hunting, to kill animals that attacked men.
That is Raja Dharma, that is Kshatriya Dharma.
This can be called Dharma-ya Himsa — himsa for dharma.
But seeing that, if a common man takes law into his hands, then it is Dharmasya Himsa — killing of dharma, not killing for dharma.

A judge knows law — that’s why he wouldn’t sentence a lawyer he doesn’t like to be hanged.
He knows what is dharma.
Rama killed Ravana — that is killing for dharma.
Krishna killed Kamsa — that is dharma himsa, killing for dharma.
Both are Kshatriya dharma also — dharma of the king.
Himsa by kings who know what is dharma.

Observe ahimsa, except when you are entitled to himsa in the capacity of duty entrusted to you by the society — like that of the kings, the Raja Dharma, Kshatriya Dharma.

Gandhiji had thorough understanding and great insight into Sanatana Dharma.
Non-violence was not a novel or fancy idea for him.
He was also quite practical.
He said — let’s try this out. I am not sure whether this will succeed.
But let’s try it out because this is the right thing to do.

It is also not that Gandhiji is not confident that good acts may not yield good results.
That he is sure about.
That is the most fundamental principle of Sanatana Dharma.
But he is saying this in line with the principle:
One step at a time.

What he is trying to do may or may not yield immediate results.
It yielded results — we know that.
But he was the first one to try it out on a political level.
That’s why he said — I cannot assure you of immediate success.
But this is what we should do — because this is right and this is as per our dharma.

Children should be taught that doing what is right is important — not what you gain from it.
Doing what is right will strengthen you from inside.
Doing wrong things may give you immediate gain but will land you in trouble some day or the other.

Ramaswamy Sastry and Vighnesh Ghanapaathi