“Who Decides Whether Something is Good or Bad?”

Preity Rashmi

Guest blogger

#loveofwriting

This human society and the customized world of rules have chained an age of abundant theories and their consequences on general spectators. 

Biting nails amidst the crowded school assembly, a girl is punished for violating the cleanliness rule and is slapped in front of her friends and strangers. She is referred to as BAD! Little did anyone know, she is suffering from depression and surrounded with lots of people makes her unendurable from biting nails. From her counselor’s perspective, she is considered NOT BAD! 

If you are a morning person, follow all mechanical rules and obey elders, irrespective of their narrow-minded point of view, do a stable job, and most importantly, never complain of the situations around you, then you can be a star performer for the society and will be praised for being a GOOD person. But giving a healthy point of view to societal norms, chasing something different from the mundane format of working culture, and asking for help in need will make you ineligible for the “GOOD” tag. 

It’s just a point of perception, and the situations all around. 

I have heard one of the folk stories, related to Hinduism, that there were two Dvarapalakas (gatekeepers) of the abode of Vishnu called Jaya and Vijaya. Due to some curse by the four Kumaras, Vishnu had come up with a solution to lessen their punishment, and asked them that either they were forced to undergo multiple births as mortals and a good citizen, or only few births as mortals but as a vicarious sadist with power, who would be subsequently killed by various avatars of Vishnu. They opted for the second option, as they didn’t want to spend more time away from their Lord Vishnu. They were hence incarnated as Hiranyakashipu and Hiranyaksha in the Satya Yuga, Ravana and Kumbhakarna in the Treta Yuga, and Shishupala and Dantavakra in the Dvapara Yuga. 

Now, keeping everything aside, we, the normal bright minds of the universe, will always consider Ravana as a bad person, who did all the possible evil things and was eventually killed by honorable Ram for betterment of humanity. So, who is bad here? 

Sometimes, people just follow the herd, ancestral code of conduct, and don’t ever dare to question the regular patterns of life. These uninformed kaleidoscopic activities can be humiliating for others. 

In many regions of Indian culture, religious people offer sacrifices of innocent animals to esteemed God or Goddess. They feel proud and superior after practicing such deeds. I have even seen a narrow river of blood crossing all the feet of disciples, flowing in front of temples, and people just move aside with a bundle of flowers in their hands to offer more. For them, the almighty would be happy, seeing all those sacrifices and blind faiths. 

And on the other hand, those innocent eyes, who are just following their masters, never know what’s in their future’s bucket. 

I get aggravated by passive resistance to faiths and beliefs. I mean, how can these religious cults maintain sanity for so long and never get questioned? Why to please hunger, some random guy blind-folded the aura of generations and led them to abide by all the rotten decisions of mankind? Why, even after so many developments and growth in technology, people still are not accepting mere rudimentary truths? For them, offering sacrifices is considered “GOOD”. Is this what the dictionary clarifies? 

There’s a thin line between being good and becoming good. And, there’s a huge difference between being evil and becoming evil. Sometimes, people don’t try to be evil, it’s just the outcome that makes them vicious. And sometimes, the upbringing and personal traumas make people intellectually impaired to differentiate between good and bad. 

We can see heaps of instances where the audience feels pity for the villains too. The legendary Marvel characters like Thanos, Loki, Wanda, Green Goblin, Winter Soldier, Abomination (You can see recent episodes of She-Hulk, where he gets bail as there was no intention of over-shadowing Hulk from his side. Quite a bold move for Marvel!) and many more were just the victims of two-sided coin. 

We have seen the other side of professor Snape in the Harry Potter series, how he was always protecting Harry after all those times. We have seen, there’s a part of Voldemort inside Harry in the form of a horcrux and how he overcame that tiny portion of evil by finishing his subconscious life. 

We have heard stories of Karna, the son of God Surya and princess Kunti. Even after being gifted Kavach and Kundal (shield and ear rings respectively) by God Sun himself, how he never got recognised by his family and defeated in the war by treachery. 

From ages in reality and through fictional characters, we have strong evidence of the consequences that the “BAD” side of the story suffers and is hated by all. 

I am not saying, there are no sides, or everything is correct in one or other way. The main issue that I want to highlight is the ball game of story and the related traps that make a person BAD. 

We never blame plants if they don’t bear flowers or if they get drained or the leaves become yellowish or brownish. We look for the environment around, the soil type, the amount of sunlight required for them, required manure type. We take care of them, and then expect GOOD results. That’s how human psychology for humanity should work. That’s the only way we can replace the theme of good vs evil in positive ways. That’s how we can survive Kalyuga.

[ Banner image by Rishabh Dharmani on Unsplash ]

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