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The Difficulty of Being Good: On the Subtle Art of Dharma

Lecture | October 19 | 5-7:30 p.m. |  The Bancroft Hotel

Location: 2680 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA 94704

Featured Speaker: Gurcharan Das

Moderator: Robert P. Goldman, Professor of Sanskrit

Sponsors: Center for South Asia Studies, America India Foundation, Dept. of South and Southeast Asian Studies, Asia Society of Northern California

The Center for South Asia Studies, UC Berkeley and
The America India Foundation

are proud to present

Gurcharan Das discussing his most recent publication, "The Difficulty of Being Good: On the Subtle Art of Dharma," with UC Berkeley Sanskrit Professor, Robert Goldman.

Why should we be good? How should we be good? And how might we more deeply understand contemporary moral and ethical failings—splashed across today's headlines—that have destroyed individual lives as well, bringing communities, nations, and the global economy to the brink of collapse?

In The Difficulty of Being Good, Gurcharan Das seeks answers to these questions in the Mahabharata. Each major character in the epic embodies a significant moral failing or virtue, and their struggles evince familiar emotions of anxiety, courage, despair, remorse, envy, compassion, vengefulness, and duty. Das explores the Mahabharata and compares the successes and failures of the poem's characters to those of contemporary individuals, many of them highly visible players in the world of economics, business, and politics. In every case, he finds lessons for everyone faced with ethical and moral dilemmas in today's complex world.

Gurcharan Das graduated with honors from Harvard University in Philosophy and Politics, and later attended Harvard Business School. Over a 30-year business career, working in 6 countries, he was CEO of Procter & Gamble India (1985-1992); Vice President or Procter & Gamble Far East (1992-95), and Chairman and Managing Director of Richardson Hindustan Ltd. (1981-85).

Gurcharan Das is the author of India Unbound, which has been translated into many languages and filmed by the BBC. He writes a regular column for six Indian newspapers, including the Times of India, and occasionally for Newsweek, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Foreign Affairs. His other books include the novel A Fine Family; a book of essays, The Elephant Paradigm; and as a playwright, an anthology, Three English Plays.

The talk will be followed by a reception.

Copies of The Difficulty of Being Good: On the Subtle Art of Dharma will be available for purchase.

Event Contact: csas@berkeley.edu, 510-642-3608