MAN, KNOW THYSELF — Purpose of Life

moral choice has to be made, and also purely accidental happenings whose outcome, whether good or bad, cannot be judged from the moral standpoint because they contained no purposive element. The second category is very different in nature because it covers a wide and complex range of actions the rights and wrongs of which have to be scrupulously considered before being carried out. This is known as the ethical category. Imagine a broken branch precariously hanging from a tree. You walk under it, it falls, hits you, and you find yourself badly injured. Do you strike the tree and bear a grudge against it? Of course not. But suppose a man picks up a stone, throws it at you with the intention of injuring you and actually does so, won’t you become enraged and feel an urge to retaliate in like manner? You would be perfectly justified in feeling that this wrong should be punished because the act was intentional. Here it is a question not just of some random happening, but of right and wrong action, good and bad intentions, in a word, of “Ethics”. Death is the one reality that everybody acknowledges. It is a reality to which everyone, big or small, has to reconcile himself. The examples chosen to clarify this point are of a simple nature in that the outcome of the action is immediately apparent and, moreover, in the second case, it is possible to make an instant moral judgement. But there are other much more complex situations in life where wrongdoing goes undetected, its effects may be hidden or delayed for long periods, and the culprits may never be brought to book either by the moral condemnation of society or in a court of law. Sometimes evil-doing is, of course, perceived as such, but the miscreant is so clever and resourceful that he is able to escape punishment, or the human resources required to inflict punishment are lacking and so the evil-doer goes scot free. Crimes are often repeated for exactly these reasons. But the perpetrator of evil should not congratulate himself too soon on the success of his schemes or on his ability to escape, as it is exactly this type of action for which he will be called to account for by his Creator on the Day of Judgement. Everyone, no matter from what walk of life he hails, will be required to stand before his Maker and lay his life absolutely bare before Him. On the basis of the actions which fall into the ethical category, where moral precepts, scruples, are of