The War Within - Between Good and Evil : (Reconstructing Money, Morality and Mortality) : (Reconstructing Money, Morality and Mortality)

By Challa, Bhimeswara

Book Id: WPLBN0100303696
Format Type: PDF eBook:
File Size: 0.1 MB
Reproduction Date: 7/20/2021

Title:	The War Within - Between Good and Evil : (Reconstructing Money, Morality and Mortality) : (Reconstructing Money, Morality and Mortality)
Author:	Challa, Bhimeswara
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Non Fiction, Human psychology, Sociology, Human nature, Social sciences, Human conflict, Behavioral science, , Philosophy, Religion, Spirituality, Morality, Mortality, Money, Ethics, Inner jihad, Good and evil, Scholarly Non-fiction
Collections:	Psychology, Authors Community
Historic Publication Date:	2021
Publisher:	Various

Member Page:	Bhimeswara Challa
Citation APA MLA Chicago Challa, B. B. (2021). The War Within - Between Good and Evil : (Reconstructing Money, Morality and Mortality). Retrieved from http://gutenberg.cc/

Description
The human has always prided himself as an exceptional ‘moral species’ but has always been haunted by two questions: ‘Why am I not good when I want to be; ‘why do I do bad when I don’t want to’. This is at the heart of what scriptures and sages have long alluded to as the eternal internal struggle-between good and evil - that wages in the human consciousness. The book posits that much of our confusion and angst stems from our inability to recognize the ramifications of this ‘war’ between two sides of our own ‘self’. It is because we are ignoring this ‘war’ between two sides of our own ‘self’. It is because we are ignoring this war that we are losing all other wars of the world. That ignorance is the primary source of all the horrors, malevolence, and violence that fill us with so much dread. But a ‘favorable’ outcome is possible only if the forces of goodness are aided to get an upper hand consistently - and that calls for two cathartic changes: consciousness-change by inducing a turn from the mind to the heart; and contextual-change, by radically reconstructing the roles of morality, money, and mortality in our everyday lives. The book offers a menu of insights and options we all can use to tilt the scales in the war waging inside each of us.

Summary
I did not write the book; the book got written by me. I meant the author is the unknown; I was only a scribe. It was not meant as a sleight of a phrase or a show of cleverness. I always felt I was more a conduit than a creator; more a monkey than the organ grinder. I am the builder, not the architect, in a reversal of what Herman Melville said about himself while writing Moby Dick (1851).

Excerpt
The Twin Questions and Twin Inabilities Why can’t I be good? Why do I do bad? Such angst-filled questions and reflective ruminations have, ever since man became self-aware, crossed the minds of many among us, not only saints and rishis, epic heroes, and moral philosophers but even evil geniuses and plain folks. Notable among them is Saint Paul, acclaimed as one of the authors of the New Testament,1 Saint Augustine, the author of The City of God,2 and Sage Veda Vyasa, the author of the great Indian epic Mahabharata, which, it is often said, is the last word on the nuances of ethical dilemmas that harass human life.3 And the Pandava prince Arjuna, a central character in the same epic, asked Lord Krishna, “Why is a person impelled to commit sinful acts, even unwillingly, as if by force?” What is strange is that Arjuna’s arch enemy and villain, Duryodhana, also strikes a similar refrain and confesses, “I know what is dharma,4 but am not able to practice it. I know what is not dharma, but I am not able to keep away from it.”5 In our own times, Gandhi, the ardent advocate of ahimsa or non-violence, lamented, “What evil resides in me?” From Arjuna to Saint Paul to Gandhi, no one has been able to come to terms with who they seemed to be from the outside, and who they felt they really were deep within their own better selves. In the words of Ralph Barton,6 “the human soul would be a hideous object if it were possible to lay it bare”. They (and all of us, too) cannot understand how they could be ‘who they did not want to be’, and, worse, felt compelled to do what they hated to do. We also don’t understand why, when the ideals and imperatives of life are to be cooperative, compassionate, loving, and selfless, we are so competitive, callous, aggressive, and selfish. As Carl Jung noted, “Unfortunately, there can be no doubt that man is, on the whole, less good than he imagines himself or wants to be”.7 Jung aptly sums up the tragedy of the human condition and simplifies the direction of our aspiration and effort—try to do on the whole, more good and less bad in whatever we do routinely and reflexively. The primary reason why even great saints have been frustrated is due to the fact (which this book highlights) that we have not connected it to the war within.

Table of Contents
Epigraph—Why Me? 1 What I Owe to Whom 13 The Beginning 15 The Twin Questions and Twin Inabilities • The Lure of the Forbidden and the Streak of Cruelty • Struggle for Supremacy Over Consciousness—the War Within • Homo sapiens to Homo Deus • In the Melting Pot of Life and Death • Coming Soon—‘Machines-Better-Than-Me’ • The Way Forward is the Way Inward. Chapter 1: Musings on Mankind 101 The Human Animal • Empathy—Not a Human Monopoly • The Mood of the Moment • Governance Deficit • Helping: When Joy Comes Calling • Packaged Pleasures • Being Better Than We Were Yesterday • Scientific Insignificance and Spiritual Completeness • The Age of Loneliness • The Two Journeys—Outer Space and Inner Space • The Natural Need for ‘Negatives’ • Tikkun Olam—Healing the World • A World of Individuals • Seminal Choice—Merger with the Machine or Evolution from Within • Brain—the Beast Within • Man—Noble Savage, Civilized Brute, or Half-savage? • Has God Gotten Weary of Man? • Conclusion. Chapter 2: The Two Cherokee Fighting Wolves Within— And the One We Feed 185 The Triad of Worlds We Live In • Forward—Outward or Inward? • Consciousness-change and Contextual-change • The Power of the Heart • The Evil Within • The Three ‘M’s and the War Within • The Cherokee’s Two Wolves • Mind Over Mind • The Quicksand ‘Within’ the War Within • Technology and the ‘War Within’ • Court of Conscience • A Stinging Word and a Withering Glance • Sexuality, Gender-neutrality, and the War Within • Our Two ‘Hearts’ and the War Within • Kurukshetra—Arjuna’s War Within • Empathy vs Reason • Of Head and Heart • Restoring the Heart to Its Rightful Place. Chapter 3: Money—Maya, Mara, and Moksha—All-in-One 283 Money, Homo economicus, and Homo consumens • Epiphany of Modern Man—Money • Mind and Money • The Three ‘M’s • Money—Maya, Mara, and Moksha • The Many Faces of Money • Money—from Summum malum to Summum bonum • The Great Moral Issue of Our Age—Money Management • Money, Body, and Brain • The ‘Good’ That Money Can Do • Killing Kids for Money • Money, Poverty, and Morality • Materialism, Market, and Morality • Morality and Money • Money, Good Life, and Goodness of Life • The New Gilded Age and the Emergence of the ‘One-Percent’. Chapter 4: Towards a New Vocabulary of Morality 359 Malice and Morality • Enlarging the Circle of Compassion • ‘Cast Out the Beam Out of Thine Own Eye’ • The Doctrine of Dharma • Moral Progress and Animal Rights • Morality and Duty • Satya, Himsa, and Ahimsa • ‘Moral Crisis’ to ‘Morality in Crisis’ • Moral Gangrene and Unbridled Evil • Morality and Modernity • Moral Ambivalence and Serial Fidelity • Every Minute a Moral Minute • Kith and Kin—And the Rest • Monetary Affordability and Moral Accountability • Schadenfreude, the Modern Pandemic • If God Does Not Exist… • Nexus With Nature • Morality and Mundane Manners • The Five-Point Formula for Decision-Making • The Age of the Anthropocene? The War Within—Between Good and Evil Chapter 5: From Death to Immortality 473 Death, Be Not Proud • The Mystery of Mortality • The Moral Purpose of Mortality • Becoming a Jellyfish, at the Least a Turtle • Immortality—Are the Gods Hitting Back At Us? • When Death Strikes Home • ‘Desirable Death’ and Anaayesaena maranam • Missing the ‘Dead’ • Morbidity and Mortality • ‘Practical Immortology’ or ‘Immoral’ Immortality • Immortality of the Soul • Four Paths to Immortality • Pandemics of Suicide and Homicide, and the ‘War’ • Death—the Default Mode • Morality of Murderous Weapons and ‘Murderous Martyrdom’ • Morality and ‘Gamification’ of Violence and War • Mrityor ma amritam gamaya: From Death to Immortality • Mortality and Famous Last Words • Climbing Heaven’s Hill With Mortal Skin • Death and ‘Worn-out Clothes’ • Conclusion. The End of the Beginning 547 Are Humans ‘Worthy’ of Survival? • Can We Win the War Within? • From Akrasia to Enkrateia. References and Notes 633 Index 677