Acharya Prashant responds to a questioner who feels that despite doing good for everyone, they end up being perceived as bad. The speaker begins by noting that there are many stories in the Panchatantra and Hitopadesha about those who wanted to do good for everyone but received a lot of abuse in return. He questions how the person finds so much free time to set out to do good for everyone, suggesting that this itself is a full-time occupation. The one who is trying to do good for everyone has their attention constantly on others, which means they cannot pay attention to themselves. When you constantly look at others and don't look at yourself, you will inevitably become bad. The speaker clarifies that a bad person is not one who performs bad deeds, but rather the one who is the doer of the deeds. The doer who is ignorant of themselves is the one who is bad. A bad person is one who doesn't know why they are doing what they are doing; things just happen through them. This is the real badness. A bad person is not someone who intentionally does bad things, because no one does. A bad person is one from whom actions happen unknowingly, in ignorance, even if they are good deeds. Most people, in their own eyes, are doing good deeds. Doing good in your own eyes without understanding who the doer is, why you are doing it, and where your action is arising from—this itself is a bad thing, a bad action. Good and bad deeds are not determined by their societal definitions but by the state of the doer. If the doer is conscious, the action is good. If the doer is unconscious, like a 'monkey', the action is bad, no matter how good the intention. The speaker narrates a story from the Panchatantra about a king's pet monkey. The monkey, deeply attached to the king, saw a fly repeatedly landing on the sleeping king's nose. To protect the king, the monkey picked up the king's sword and, in an attempt to kill the fly, cut off the king's nose. This is what happens to those who set out to do good without being aware of the 'monkey' within them that is driving their actions. Their intentions might be good, but the outcome is bad. The speaker advises the questioner to first become conscious, understand their own mind and life. Only then will their actions truly benefit others. A conscious person knows who is capable of receiving help and who should be left to their own devices for the time being.
