ETHICS OF RESPONSIBILITY

Justice T.U.Mehta

Actions follow the Doer

Great minds think alike, and the depth of thought almost always digs out the same truth. The conclusions to which the great German philosopher Schopenhauer came to, were reached thousands of years ago by Indian philosophers too. ‘Desires', according to them was the root cause of every karmic activity of a human being. They went deeper into the question and found out the root cause of all human problems which have afflicted the mankind ever since its birth. Consciousness being the intrinsic attribute of the self, and the self being in association with Karmic matter called ‘Pudgala' since time immemorial, the dynamism of the self, the spirit, is always guided and prompted by desires. The more the self desires, the more it remains busy with the activities which bind it more and more, and the cycle of birth, death and rebirth goes on endlessly till the self realises the futility of remaining permanently involved in the bondage of karmic fetters. It is this realisation which brings the turning point in the self's career in spiritual journey. It is at this point of time that the self is beginning to realize its ethical responsibility to itself. ‘Kattarameva Anujai Kamma', meaning ‘actions (Karmas) follow the doer', said the Jaina philosophers. This developes and fixes the ethics of responsibility for the self to strive by its own efforts to get itself free from the karmic bondage.