Dark Motives: A Show-stopper?

During a recent trip to India, I saw a quote from Srila Prabhupada that is meant for leaders. “If he is planning something that “I shall be leader,” I shall be doing something, that is not Vaishnavism.” Though it is a quote targeting those aiming to be spiritual, as Vishnavism denotes the philosophy that is centred around pleasing Lord Vishnu, the Supreme, it is very relevant for anyone. When we set out to do something, to lead something, what is our motivation? Is it out of our love of the topic, activity etc., or is it in pursuit of our own self-aggrandisement. There are countless people trying to become big entrepreneurs, to find an invention no one has thought of, and become the next big thing. Why? What is our why? If our Why is indeed self-centred, even to the point it can become reckless and unethical, should we continue to follow the pursuit? The Vedic stories have a few examples that shed an interesting light on motive.

We should only act if our motive is pure?

This is the first hypothesis, and it goes along the lines of, if our motive is impure, then we are not doing something with the right intention, which should be to help others, be self-less, and not feed out own ego. This will then not lead to the right results, and will cause problems. We saw that with the great demon Hiranyakashipu, where he had a motive to kill Lord Vishnu. He went in pursuit of powers “to lead”, and vanquish anything that stood in front of him. Lord Brahma cautioned him by refusing the boon of immortality saying that this is not attainable by mortals by such means. Ignorant and uncaring about the ethical premise of his motive, Hiranyukashipu continued, and saw a nasty and bloody end with his body being torn into by Lord Narasimha. Hiranyakashipu was an outlier; an extremely powerful personality, with a motive endued with self-aggrandisement. There are plenty of people with this combination even today in what is quite a ruthless society and system. Does that mean the right thing for them to do is stop in their tracks? How can one purify their intention?

What if our motive is slightly impure?

If we believe that at spirit in our true essence in the right environment and with the right people around us we are all capable of exhibiting pure feelings and motives, then what stops us? A misunderstanding of who we really are, false ego, contaminated ambition, pride, envy, greed, etc stop us. So does that mean we should cease to act unless and until we get those sorted out? According to the Bhagavād Gita, no; it is through our introspective action that we find a means to purify our intent and motive, which is the ultimate goal. Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra was asked to purify his motive, and fight, by Krishna. He was not asked to go away and purify his motive, and until he had purified it, do not act. He was asked to do the two simultaneously. They go hand in hand. We purify our motive by introspective action. If we do not act, we will not be engaging our particular individual tendencies. This in turn will result in frustration. Arjuna was aware that his duty was to kill the Kauravas, however it was just some weakness of mind and a misunderstanding of his spiritual identity which got in the way, temporarily. His motive was slightly off, it wasn’t hugely off. It needed some assistance in re-orienting. If our motive is however hugely off i.e. child abusers entering a teaching system, then certainly we should abstain. Hiranyakashipu’s motivation was hugely off, and therefore he should have disengaged for the betterment of everyone. Ravana who kidnapped Sita, Lord Rama’s wife, his motivation was hugely off. Therefore he was told to disengage. But on the whole, if our motivation needs some tweaks, we should introspect and act, and not wait until it is pure.

“Therefore, Arjuna, you should always think of Me in the form of Kṛṣṇa and at the same time carry out your prescribed duty of fighting.” 

Krishna to Arjuna, Chapter 8, Verse 7, Bhagavād Gita