Is our duty towards others unlimited, irrespective of how they behave?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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So, is our duty towards others unlimited? Or if the other person, say, cuts off a relationship, say, if Kaikeyi had exiled Ram for life, completely reject. The notion of duty, one of the important principles in the Vedic context is to understand that right and wrong, or what is duty and karma and vikarma, this is not categorical, it is contextual. Categorical means, you know, to consider morality as categorical means, this is always, anything that falls in this category is always right.
Anything that falls in this category is always wrong. It’s not like that. So, yes, to speak truthfully, it is good.
It is the right thing to do. But if, say, rioters have come and our friend is targeted by the rioters, then the friend has come to us and asked us for a place to hide, his friend is hiding in our house, and the rioters come, is there this person in your house? At that time, if we speak the truth, we will be actually defeating the purpose of speaking the truth, because we will cause the death of that person. So, what is right and what is wrong is not just categorical, it is also contextual.
There are categories of right and wrong, no doubt. But, along with the categories of right and wrong, there is also the context that has to be considered. That is why if, say, if we are having a particular relationship and we have a particular duty in that relationship, duty, there is, love can be unilateral, but a loving relationship cannot be unilateral, it has to be bilateral.
I can love someone without that person at all caring for me, but that is not a relationship per se. So, we cannot neglect the context. And depending on the context, rather than thinking of the whole concept of duty as a rigid adherence to some core that is given in some book somewhere, you should not think of duties like that.
It is not that, I mean, we say we should follow scripture, it is not that all the time, when you are traveling on a map, you are constantly referring to a map. Should I go left? Should I go right? Should I go left? Should I go right? It is not that scripture means every single thing that we have to do, we have to find some code somewhere and then decide what I am going to do. No, the point is, yes, we do need to understand scripture, but once we understand scripture, as Krishna says that the more we live according to scripture, the more there are broad guidelines in scripture, when we follow those broad guidelines, then our intelligence becomes clarified, we become purified.
And then from within, we start understanding, okay, this is in this situation, I should do like this, in this situation, I should not do like this. So, usually, when we have to make these kinds of decisions, we should not make them in the rush of emotions. So, if you have to take a particular decision about what is my duty, rather than impulsively saying that I reject you or something like that, we need to, whenever there is emotional attunement, just pause, pause, press the pause button.
Do not take any decision at that time. Press the pause button. And then once you after that when you have calmed down, we can consult our well-wishers, maybe some relatives, some spiritual guides, and then we can pray.
And based on that, we can take a decision. Quite often, even our own emotions, we need to take in consideration. Our emotions are not the only thing that should determine our decision.
But we cannot neglect those emotions also. So, we factor them into the picture and we contemplate, we pray. And over a period of time, if we keep acting, we will gradually the course of action will be revealed for us.
So, one thing is for sure that duty does not mean an unlimited liability. Using say some financial language, duty is not a lifelong indenture to an unlimited liability and of action. That is context that has to be considered.
And the consideration of context requires a certain level of dispassionate analytical capacity. And that comes by spiritual purification and by prayerful contemplation. Did that answer your question? Thank you so much.
Thank you. Yes, there was a question in the end.