I have always found that staying aligned with one's virtuous self has been the most effective and efficient policy.

And it seems the reason could be that it removes doubts and unclutters the mind. For instance Gandhi's insistence on truth
led to choices that he made and that the nation emulated which defeated the machinations of the finest minds of the empire.

As my mom says in common paralance "beta Gandhiji ek satya ka kona pakad ke poore desh ko ubaar gaye - satya ko kabhi nahin chodna".
{Son, Gandhiji made the whole nation free by sticking to truth, don't ever leave truth}.
Now, my mom is a high school level literate but the most educated woman I've ever come across. She could not study because the elders
in her life did not consider girl education very important. However, she has been a self-educated person who has studied tomes and who
still nourishes herself by a regular and intense diet of reading.

Following the path of truth is not easy - it leads to many sacrifices big and small along the way which can absolutely improve
one's lot in the short term. However the conscience, which by its very definition is virtuous, keeps tugging one back and slows
down the momentum, causes pain and grief and makes us feel wretched from inside. How does one feel after hurting someone's feelings deliberately,
after taking credit for work that you have not done or using someone for one's benefit? I find this feeling of hurt within self after hurting
another the clearest manifestation that we all belong to some common supreme continuum. If I stab another, I feel the pain
equally or more myself.

An elder in my life gave a practical advice once to me which he indicated he had learnt from reading management books in his corporate
library - use other people's time and other people's money to your advantage. Come to think of it, it is a very practical advice and probably
with many followers. But, I was brougth up by another elder in my life whose only possessions were bicycle and a gun apart from a house
inspite of being a vet in one of the most corruption freindly institutions. (The animal husbandry departtment of the Govt. of Bihar , a state of India).
He did not wear a Gandhi topi but was a true Gandhian - he literally instilled in my elder brother and me an uncompromising attirude towards honesty and service).
I still remember helping him build the roads and pavements that led from our home to the main road every rainy season. It was a common pavement
that everyone used and yet he single handedly built it every season. No one came out - sometimes my dad did when he had time off from work.
He never said it but his actions were loud and clear - be the change that you want to see in the world.

Why has this sense of service gone away? Why can't we adopt a road or area in our corner of the world (read India) and say clean it up? My grandpa cleaned up
the gutter with his own hands. He was not a janitor. He had been requesterd by the Govt. of Bihar to go to Switzerland for higher studies (he did not go however),
was an expert on cows in high demand. But he did not consider anything below himself.

As he grew older and as he saw corruption around him growing, he became increasingly bitter and that saddened me.

Most of us (including me) go about our daily lives committing these minor and major forms of corruption and couching it in myriad terms - adjustment, jugaad, compromise,
to make things work, etc. etc...

But these are just that excuses. I feel with every dishonest act, a part of me is whitteled while every honest act builds up my self.

To be continued...