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MRA AND MAIIAVIR
KRISHNA-So you are not happy: no one is in this world.
Yet all wish and strive to be so, in one form or an
other. Don't they ? MAHAVIR-Yes, in one form or another. We all seek
some satisfaction-success or pleasure. That is the
object of all our actions. KRISHNA-Yes, some satisfaction-success or pleasure
and to avoid some dissatisfaction. failure, or pain. That is the object of all human action--at the time it is undertaken. The next moment the pleasure may turn to pain, success to defeat; but the following action again is intended to secure a new satisfaction, a new pleasure, or a new success. The object of all action, for the individual, himself, is, therefore, always something positive. It serves a purpose which, for the moment, is regarded by the actor
himself as something pleasurable and good. MAHAVIR-Yes, I agree. But what of that? What has
that to do with God ? KRISHNA-If that is the object of each individual human
action, it follows that the object of all collective human action, at a particular moment of time, is the
same. MAHAVIR-Yes, perhaps. But one man's meat may be
another man's poison. KRISHNA-Even so in the case of individual action.
A medicine may be bitter to the taste, but a man takes it, for he believes that it would do the
