Declining Moral Values

‘Moral values’, ‘Goodness of mind’, ‘Purity of soul’…..Well, don’t worry; this is not going to be one of the church sermons. Moral values, which you and I learnt in the moral science books of standard fifth, have beautifully survived to be the most cherished topic of drawing rooms. The discussion on the topic knows no bounds. Be it a low or high socio-economic strata, my grandmother or my teenager friend, the middle-class arm-chaired theorist or the hi-fi seminar presenter, everyone everywhere discuss it ad lib. Nor is its domain constricted to money-matters. But unfortunately, it remains only to be discussed. We discuss and argue on it, and forget it. And the fact that the moral virtues have to be ‘practiced’ and followed and made a part of our existence is also conveniently forgotten. Here, we err to harm ourselves and our future generations. But it is really never too late to ‘debug’.



Here, I need to point out that the concept of relativity is applicable to every situation in our life. With changing times, the meaning of morality and its application has also changed. Long time back, it was considered wrong for a girl to be outspoken and candid in her demeanor. But today, such a girl is given the title of being ‘bold’ and a ‘bubbly extrovert’. Many more such examples can be quoted, of how things have changed; but the basic concept of morality will always be the same. It says that whatever you do, whatever you say, and whatever you think, you should never hurt or harm anyone, and, also, it should be in conformity with the established values. If every human remembers not only this principle, but, also, that he isn’t supposed to budge from it, the world would become a much better place to live.



Unfortunately, not everyone realizes this fact. Status, power, money, today tend to downplay other good things in life like education, joy of existence, friendship, love, gratitude, sacrifice etc e.g.- There was an era, when the ‘giver’ considered ‘giving’ to be his foremost duty. The ‘receiver’ realized that ‘receiving’ was probably his right, but not without gratitude. The trends have changed today. The giver wants to give minimum possible while the receiver is interested in getting much more than what he actually deserves. And the concept of ‘gratitude’ seems to have completely disappeared.



Morality, to some extent, is also a combination of the restraints we apply to our behaviour and actions to make them justified. In this process, we apparently suffer (ironically by forsaking the ‘forbidden fruit’) so that the community prospers, and consequently the individual prospers. If we discard these restraints and indulge in our desires, we might enjoy an immediate release, but the community will suffer, and inevitably we ourselves, too. If the by-line is, ‘I have no desire to be the scapegoat, let values be it’, the ultimate result would be a complete chaos, lot of which already exists.


Being moral basically means being good. But, defining Good and Evil is not a simple task as it differs from person to person, religion to religion, culture to culture and from time to time. Anyway, there is always a very flimsy demarcation between the two. But interpreting it wrongly means either punishing the good or rewarding the evil, both furthering evil. As humanity is only effective as a group, the judgment of good or evil must be the recognition of what is good and what is bad for the group.

But, neither is being moral equivalent to ‘load s of sacrifice’ and nor is being immoral necessarily being completely selfish. For those who have drunk the ‘selfish syrup’ too well to vomit it out; also, there is a solution. You can be moral for all selfish purposes. Because if we talk about the latest trends, one of which is spiritualism; practicing morality helps you feel peaceful within. Don’t the latest meditation gurus talk about ‘positive energies’ and ‘negative energies’? One can have all the positive energy just by being good.



There is a concept of subjectivity that says ‘As long as we approve of or believe in what we are doing, we can do no wrong.’ But didn’t Hitler believe that exterminating Jews was right? Does his belief make his crime pardonable? Subjectivism sanctions any action as long as the person performing it approves of it or believes that it's right. But what Hitler did was wrong, even if he believed otherwise. So, believing something to be right can't make it right.



Intelligence gives humanity its power over all other creatures, but what is not generally understood is the dependence of this faculty upon a necessary foundation of unquestioned values- our moral values. No intelligence can exist without a set of values. It is an essential part of every creature’s mind, as it is the foundation of identity. Along with an ability to think, we (humans) are bestowed with a power to distinguish between ‘right’ and ‘wrong’. Scientific thinking, backed by moral values is the most urgent need in today’s world; for as we are moving ahead, ethics are being left behind. (This is where we started, sitting in the drawing room comfortably…….didn’t we?)



Morality is not just a set of values but an integral part of ourselves formed in childhood, which dictates how we see the world.



Maximum value of moral values is in the resultant peace of mind and hence delayed medical problems. This it self, is a meditation in its non-physical, purest and most-effective form. If we don’t practice it, we might get some immediate benefits; but, in the long run, our health, prosperity and happiness will be adversely affected. I can dare to say that if we are not moral in a good measure (being absolutely moral seems next to impossible in today’s date), we are harming our own children and grand children. After all, they have to live in the same social environment that we create for them.