Rediscovering the importance of virtue

By Kandaswamy Gnanamurthty

‘A’ for apple was and is how the English language was introduced to our children and grandchildren. Around 1200 AD, the Tamil poet Avvaiyar chose to give the first expansion to ‘a’ as ‘Aram seyya virumbu’, meaning “Have desire to do good and virtuous deeds,” which is what we learnt on the first day in school using slate for writing ã and ear and throat for shouting the verse. In Kannada it is ‘Adarsa jivana nadesu’ meaning “Lead an ideal life,” as said by several, including the Kannada poet Kuvempu, who wrote extensively on the importance of living a simple, honest, and compassionate life. 

There are scores of examples in other languages on different interpretations of virtue. ‘Quality of mercy is not stained,‘ says Shakespeare, emphasising compassion. Without exception, all great scriptures talk about virtues.

But then, what has happened to us — having to go through all the things that were not good, let alone virtuous? Let’s stop blaming the young for all the things that are going wrong. We haven’t done better ourselves to write home about. We have been responsible for the two world wars, the cold war thereafter, dismal poverty in the neighbourhood of shameless riches, violence, murder, slavery, and social apartheid, to name a few, to put our souls in to shame.

When did we humans, calling ourselves the pinnacle of creation, turn back on what we learnt as children and go after greed, treachery, and power? No other life forms have any of the wrong things we have. They may kill for food and for a small domain at their worst. You don’t see greed, treachery, violence, or slavery there. The intelligence and consciousness we had developed to compensate for the absence of several other protective faculties of other life forms, we seem to be using them all for the self-destruction of ourselves. Do all humans fall into that category, or are there still some who wish to do good deeds?

A very long time ago, the Readers Digest magazine reported a study conducted on the topic of self-imposed honesty. In several cities in the world, purses containing some cash were dropped on busy streets to be observed from discrete places, what the common man does after seeing the purse. Well, a vast majority of men or women, handed over the purse to the nearest police station, or left them alone even after noticing them. The finding was across nations, ethnic background, and haves and have-nots.

There is hope in the world, after all.