The Difficulty of Being Good: On the Subtle Art of Dharma by Gurcharan Das

Category: Non-fiction
Publisher: Penguin Random House India
Publisher (Hindi): Penguin Random House India
Publisher (Tamil): New Horizon Media
Rights: Indian Language Rights Available (excluding Hindi, Tamil)

This book turns to the Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata, in order to answer the question, ‘Why be good?’ and it discovers that the epic’s world of moral haziness and uncertainty is closer to our experience as ordinary human beings rather than the narrow and rigid positions that define most debate and discussion today after 9/11.

This book dwells on the goal of dharma, moral well-being. It addresses the central problem of how to live our lives in an examined way – holding a mirror to us and forcing us to confront the many ways in which we deceive ourselves; how we are false to others; as well as how we oppress fellow human beings. In the process, what emerges is a doctrine of dharma that we can apply to our business decisions, political strategies and interpersonal relationships: in effect, to life itself.

The author: Gurcharan Das