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results are inconsequential. Results are important, and in every responsible act there is the guiding element of consequences. But often results of our action are unforeseen to us. In such circumstances, we simply have to assure ourselves that our motive is pure, that the action itself is good, and leave the rest to God.
AGENTS TO WHOM RESPONSIBILITY IS OWED.
Gandhiji believed in a three-fold order of responsibility: to ourselves, others, and to God.
Responsibility to Ourselves.
Our first responsibility is to establish dialogue with ourselves, for the creation of inner peace. This is an unconditional duty. It is dialogue of the self with the Self, for it is God who speaks to us through us. Thus there is a vital connection between religion and morality, because the inner dialogue is unconditional. If the basis of responsible decisionality is unconditional, it is a matter of some wonder whether this is defensible when the concrete decision proves morally incorrect. Can a decision be deemed responsible, and yet turn out to be unfair, unjust, and incorrect? Gandhi's answer is that responsibility first belongs to the form of the moral decision. We are obligated to make an honest response to the inner voice by which we are addressed in dialogue, but the validity of will depend on many conditions. Every responsible decision is therefore fraught with the risk that we could be acting incorrectly; but risk does not justify passivity. Action is its own teacher. We the same in the two cases, are always under the responsibility to act
it is moral
Thus the primary responsibility we have in life is to achieve personhood-to become persons. This above all, to thine own self be true is the personal dimension of responsibility.
Responsibility to others.
In life personal and social dimensions are integrally connected. We become persons only through communitarian dialogue. Humans are social animals. Deprived of others we experience self-deprivation. Social integration calls for a dialogical ethic of ahimsa, that is: non-violence toward those of different gender, class and color, different economic and social status, different religion, culture and species.
Responsibility to God.
Who is God? Truth is God, nothing else, nothing less. The nearest Sanskrit word for Truth is Sat. Sat means 'being' God alone is Sat. He alone is. As the ground of all being, Truth is the sum mum bonum (highest good) of all ethics; it is the essence of dharma. I reside in each individual as divine potential; therefore it is man's foremost obligation to discover Truth in himself, and to begin dialogue with it. Gandhi states Devotion to Truth is the sole justification of our existence. Once Truth is internally naturalized, and becomes the breath of our life, moral conduct becomes spontaneous,
14th Biennial JAINA Convention 2007
Jain Education International
66
For Private & Personal Use Only
Suppose two men are in the habit of feeding the poor, one moved by pity,
the other with a view
to earning a name for some selfish end. Though the action is
in the one and clearly immoral in the other. Hence, no action can be called moral unless it is prompted by moral intention. The end cannot justify the means.
PEACE THROUGH DIALOGUE
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