‘The Choice is Ours’ is the first of the series of blogs we will be publishing from the book, ‘The Choice is Yours‘ by Swami Chinmayananda. Our choices should be based on some ethics and values. Here we understand what are the ethics mentioned in Vedanta. After reading and understanding each value we will be better equipped to make the ‘Right Choice.’

Life is a series of challenges. Moment to moment we are faced with decisions to do or not to do. Our intellect and discriminatory powers are called upon each moment to evaluate independently and come to a judgement. The material objects, being finite, can never remain the same even for a single moment. As such, their combinations and patterns eternally present a kaleidoscopic variety. With reference to this every changing pattern, man is called upon to make independent decisions from moment to moment to ascertain and to maintain his relationship with the external world.

At each challenge two paths are upon us to follow. On one side we are temptingly beckoned to dance playfully through a seemingly well-lit “path of the pleasant” (preyas), but the path ultimately leads to a dark cave of sorrow and misery. On the other side lies a quiet but uninviting path, unused, winding, and steep, which ultimately leads us to the sun-lit meadows of happiness. This latter path is called the “path of the good” (sreyas). 

One is good, while the other is pleasant.

These two, having different objectives, chain a man.

Blessed is he who, between them, chooses the good alone;

But he who chooses what is pleasant, loses the true end. – (Kathopanisad I:II:I)

Every action of each living being is motivated by an irresistible instinct to be happy. Happiness seems to be the goal of every struggle and strife in life. Even a worm crawling in refuse wanders about motivated by a hope that it will reach a greater joy. In full and absolute contentment along all search will end, and this supreme state of happiness is the goal of all life;  this is called Godhood or the state of Kaiwalya. Of this state of total contentment, it is important to analyse our experiences and decide for ourselves what the true way of striving is.

It is in this light that the teacher in the Kathopanisad classifies all actions into 2 divisions with reference to their results. The fruits of action can be of two kinds: those contributing to the ephemeral joys in life and those leading to immortal bliss. That is to say, our efforts can either contribute to some immediate passing material gain or contribute in the long run to our self nurturing and self purification.

A corrupt official, through foul and fiendish methods can excel in accumulating wealth. To the ignorant and sensuous this may appear as an inviting prospect and a welcome success. On the other hand, we are free to build our lives upon more enduring principles of life such as honesty, piety, mercy, love and tolerance and live for the greater wealth of inner peace and joy. 

It is these two paths of choice freely open to each individual that have been mentioned in Kathopanisad  as: “One is good while the other is pleasant.” What is good need not necessarily be pleasant at the same time. The spiritual hero, who adheres to the path of good, unmindful of the unpleasantness and material privations, and who is ready to suffer in the course of his higher pursuits, is the one who reaches the true end, the enduring state of joy.

The wise and discriminating man at each juncture gently judges the various challenges that he faces, and determines never to swerve from the path of the good. He continues his pilgrimage and ultimately fulfils the mission of his life. The ignorant man, on the other hand, lives like a mule following the crowd and choosing the path of least resistance motivated by the animal urges. He follows the path of the pleasant, the sensuous mode of satisfying the demands of the ever-craving senses.

Both the good and the pleasant approach the mortal;

the intelligent man examines and distinguishes them;

the intelligent man prefers the good to the pleasant.

The ignorant man chooses “for getting and keeping” the pleasant for the sake of his body. – (Kathopanisad I:II:2)

These words of the master, Lord Death, provide a direct and effective clue to the ideal way of living successfully. If we are to live each moment of our lives as slaves to our desires and cravings, we will, in our thoughtlessness and indiscrimination, slowly sink down to the level of the animals.

The beautiful idea suggested in the above two versus gives us the theory and the logic of self-development through self-effort. At each moment of challenge, the path of the pleasant and the path of the good are stretching upon before us, but the lord does not stand at the junction of these two roads either to abduct us through the path of the pleasant into the caves of sorrows or to direct our journey through the path of the good. At each moment man has a limited freedom to be good or to be vicious in his moment-to-moment contact with the external world. This limited liberty is available to man to use to soar into the greater realms of perfection.

Man, though he is an animal, is considered as the roof and crown of beings because of his reasoning ability. He alone is the one animal who can, at each challenge in life, discriminate between the path of good and the path of the pleasant. When man, of his own accord, refuses the blessings of his powers of discrimination which his intellect is capable of, he is deliberately flouting his privileges as a human being. When one has thus of his own free will chosen to be only an animal, certainly nature will bless him only with the sorrows and limitations of the animal being.