Ethics & Moral Values

By

Dr T.H.ChowdaryDirector: Center for Telecom Management and Studies

Chairman: Pragna Bharati (intellect India )Former: Chairman & Managing Director

Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited &Information Technology Advisor,

Government of Andhra PradeshT: +91(40) 6667-1191(O) 2784-3121®

F: +91 (40) 6667-1111hanuman.chowdary@tcs.com

Talk @ ISB : Hyderabad , 17 June 2010

Satiated but not satisfied• Na Vittena tarpaneeyoh manushyah (Man is not satisfied by wealth) - Kathopanishad • “Man does not live by bread alone” -Mathew IV: 2:4, The Bible• We have people satiated but not satisfied with all their wealth, comfort,

luxury, prosperity, affluence an d opulence.• Where is the life we having lost in living Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge

Where is the knowledge we have lost in information The cycles of heaven in twenty centuries Bring us further from God and nearer to the dust – TS Eliot

• What is the reason?– Deficiency of ethics, morality, spirituality, humanism

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Ethics & Morality

Ethics Morality

• Principles

•Morals

•Beliefs

•Moral Principles

•Moral Values

•Code of Conduct

•Ethics

•Moral Principles

•Goodness,

•Decency,

•Probity

•Honesty

•Uprightness

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Humans are Social Beings

• Part of family*, community*, society*, nation*, humanity*• Communicative, interactive , interdependent yet freedom-

loving.• No man is an island…• The severest punishment: Solitary confinement • These * can exist and prosper in peace and harmony only if Individuals have self=restraint and • Society nurtures imposes norms of conduct and punishes the deviants• Ethics & Morality govern individuals- Self –Regulation• Law & Order: External Regulation of Human Conduct

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Loka Sangraha – Preserving the Social (cosmic)Order

• Why don’t people steal, lie, molest…? – Not because of law and punishment – But because of ethics & morality

• Rita and Satya• Harischandra; King Bali• The Rishi in Penance – the hunter-king-the fleeing antelope• Krishna’s conduct in the Kurukshetra War• Kurukshetra Battle - slaughter• Hiroshima Nagasaki atom-bombed

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Divine Command or Self-cultureThe Ten Commandments The Bharatiya Culture

1. Do not have any other gods before me. Om Sahanaavavatu, sahanu bhunaktu

Sahaveeryam KaravaavahaihTejasvinaavadheetamastuMaa Vidvishaavahaih,

Om! Shantih, shantih, shantih

2. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

Yo yo yam yam tanum bhaktah sraddhayaa architumichati; tasya, tasyaachalaam taameva vidathamyatam

3. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me

Parasparam bhaavayantah sreya paramavaapsyatha

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Divine Command or Self-culturecontd…

The Ten Commandments The Bharatiya Culture

4. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name

Taih dattan apradaayetayah bhukti stena eva sah

5. Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

Dharmaa viruddho bhuteshu kaamo-asmi…

6. You shall not murder. Aatmaupanyena sarvatra samam pasyatiSamo-ahm sarva, bhuteshu, mame dveshyo-asti, na priyah

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Divine Command or Self-culturecontd…

The Ten Commandments The Bharatiya Culture

7. You shall not commit adultery

8. You shall not steal.

9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor

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CULTURE

• Is the sum total of one’s being towards himself; family; society and God• To know something of everything and

everything of something• Is obedience to unenforceable laws• A gentleman/lady is one who never inflict pain

upon others• We must so live as to “add to the sum total of

happiness” in the society/world

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Cultured Conduct

• Modesty, Vinaya• Greeting, Poorvaabhashi. [Sumathi….]• Not done in public [sneezing, yawning, spitting, blowing,

guffawing ….• Queuing• Not speaking on Cell-phone in lifts, waiting rooms, public

places. (Smoking is injurious to public health; even passive smoking so is cell-phone talk in lifts, auditoria, Qs……)

Endeavour and Unattachement

• Uddhareth aatmanaa, naatmanamava sadayet!(one should uplift oneself up; not degenerte/ degrade oneself)

• Yallabhase vittam tena vinodaya chittam(Entitlement, employment, entrepreneurship)

• Competitive politics destroying values of work, thrift, sharing, caring and wealth creation - various “welfare” schemes

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Robinhood Socialism

“You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.You cannot keep out trouble by spending more than you earn.You cannot build character and courage

by taking away man’s initiative and independence.You cannot help men permanently by doing for themWhat they could do for themselves.”

- Abraham Lincoln(Source: Freedom First, May 1989)

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Unprincipled Politics w/o Principles

Politics without principlesWealth without work

Commerce without moralityKnowledge without characterPleasure without conscience

Science without humanityreligion without sacrifice

are sins verily- Mahatma Gandhi

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Qualities thatUplift Degrade

Abhaya, Jnaana, Daana, Damah, Daya,

Swaadhyaayah, Aarjavam, Ahimsa, Satya,

Akrodha, Tyaga, Saanti, Samathva,

Apaisunan, Hree ( modestry), Kshama

Raaga, Asooya, Dwesha, Kaama,

gambling, (yudhisthira), Hunting, drinking,

Dambha, Darpa, covetousness, greed,

accumulation, Indulgence (sex,

attachment)….

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Sins & VirtuesWho determines what

•Time, place &context•Bhisma in Santiparva The King, Ruler, leaders, the dominant minority of intellectuals… Eg: Adultery: stoning to death –Jesus•Paschattapa: Reparations: Germany of France, USSR, Israel (Dalits, Muslims)•In Gratitude- Macaulay & Indian Penal Code•Inequality& Excellence – can they co-exist•Competition and Equality - can they co-exist

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Sins & Virtuescontd..

•Is Ahimsa always a virtue? What happens to Dharma, Loka Samgraha, collateral damage ( terrorism , aggression) •Hiroshima/Nagasaki ; * Iran/Iraq Vs Israel •Soft speech – non-hurting–Japanese never say “no”–Chinese- keep face–Arab – (especially the desert Arab) Partakes

•Contrast: Duryodhana, Karna, Palestinian Hamas, Hizbullah, Iran’s Ahmedenejadi (denies holocaust)• Modesty: Immodesty–Kasturbhai Lalbhai–Duryodhana’s Schoba yatra

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Sins & Virtuescontd..

•Power & Arrogance & Covetousness–Power & Morality-Pitirim Sorokin–Parricide, fratricide (Medieval Muslim rule in India)–Imperial fascist “democrats” – Stalin, Mao, Gandhiji, Hitler, Saddam Hussain;–The “secular” “social Justice” “inclusive growth” –wallahs–Power Corrupts– Absolute Power Corrupts –Absolutely

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Ethics & Morality in Public LifeCorporate Businesses

•Can gentlemen be in politics?•What do “socialism”, ‘secularism” , “democracy, manifesto, welfare, “minority”, “social justice”, backwardness” , “service to poor”•Human rights ( to terrorists, zihadis, rapists; “transparency”•“empowerment (before enlightenment)•A “poor” servant of the poor increasing wealth by Rs. 550 mln in one year•Another pretender to father’s eminence and service to the poor having a 20 times increase in income (declared)

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Values in Corporate Governance

• OYT deposits for Telephone • Tatkal passports & rail reservations• Building & Layout Regularization Schemes• Triple entry book-keeping• Enron, Satyam..• How about Booking deposits for some cars?

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Finally

•Ethics & morality to be cultivated, ingrained from childhood•Exemplified by parent’s conduct•Learnt from the great literatures of the world – in India

–The Upandishads, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagavatha, Bhatrihari; Katha Saritsagara, Neeti Satakas

•Criticism/ self criticism – introspection•Cultivation of : Asteya, Aparigraha, Indriya Nigraha, work as a fulfillment of one-self; samatva (equanimity)•Remembering:

IsaavaasyamidamSarvam yatkincha jagatyam jagat

Tena tyakena bhujithaahMaa gridhah kasysuwiddhanam

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Quotable Quotes

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He that is first...

“ In every field of human endeavour, he that is first must perpetually live in the

white light of publicity. Whether the leadership be vested in a man or manufactured

product, emulation or envy are ever at work. In art, in literature, in music, in industry, the reward and punishment are always the same.

The reward is widespread recognition; the punishment, fierce denial and destruction. If the leader truly leads, he remains-the

leader…That which is good or great makes itself known, no matter how loud the calmour or denial. That which deserves to live, lives.”

(from an advertisement of Cadillac motor car company on January 2nd, 1915)

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Vision

• One man with conviction is the majority

• Life’s battles are often won not by those who

are strong but by those who think they can.

– Hannibal [30,000 against 150,000]

– Churchill’s Battle of Britain

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Ill fares the land to hastening ills a prey,Where wealth accumulates and men decay,Prices and lords may flourish or fade,A breath can make them as a breath has made,But a bold peasantry, their country’s prideWhen once destroyed can never be supplied

- Goldsmith in Deserted village.

‘I want an India where the peasants are not beguiled orintimidated into giving up their lands for Mr. Nehru to build castles in thin air through co-operative farming…”

--Rajaji

Wealth accumulates ….Men decay….

Bhagawadgita defines the good and moral on the one hand and the evil and immoral on the other hand

( 16th chapter)Abhayam satva samshuddhir

Jnana yoga vyavasthitihDanam damascha yegnachya

Swadhyaayastapa arjavam(fearlessness, purity of mind, wise apportionment of knowledge

and concentration, charity, self-control and sacrifice, study of the scriptures, austerity and uprightness)

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Ahimsa satyam akrodhasTyagah, santir apaisunamDaya bhuteshu aloluptam

mardavam hrir achapalam[non –violence, truth , freedom from anger, renunciation,

tranquility, aversion to fault finding, compassion to living beings, freedom from covetousness, genteelness, modesty and steadiness (absence of fickleness)]

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Tejah kshama dhrithi sauchamAdroho naatimaanita

Bhavanti sampadam daiveemAbhijatasya Bharatha

(vigour, forgiveness, fortitude, purity, freedom from malice and excessive pride - these are the endowments of him who is

born with the divine nature)

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Chintaam aparimeyamcha Pralayanthaam upasrithah

Kamopabhoga paramaaYetavat ithi nischitah

( obsessed with innumerable cares which would end only with death, looking upon the gratification of desire as their highest aim, assured that this is all)

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Aasaapaasa sathairbadthah Kama krodha parayanaah

eehante kamobhogardham Anyayena ardha sanchayan

( bound by hundreds of ties of desire, given over to lust and anger, they strive to amass hoards of wealth by unjust means for the gratification of their desires)

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Idamadya mayalabdham Imam prapsye manoradham

Idam asthi adamapimeBhavishyathi punardhanam

[ this today had been gained by me, this desire I shall attain, this is mine and this wealth also shall be mine (in future)]

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Asau maya hatah satrurHanishyecha aparan api

Eeswaro aham aham, bhogiSiddho aham balavan sukhi

( this foes is slain by me and others also I shall slay. I am the lord, I am the enjoyer, I am successful mighty and happy)

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Aadhyo abhijanavan asmiKo anyo asti sadruso maya

Yekshye, dasyami, modishyaIthi agnana vimohitaah

(I am rich and well born. Who is there like unto me ? I shall sacrifice, I shall give , I shall rejoice . Thus they are deluded by ignorance)

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DHANYAWAD

THANK YOU