Chapter - 5: What Is Moral Action?
— By M.K. Gandhi
Comprehension Questions
I. Answer briefly the following questions.
1) In paragraph one, Gandhiji says that our conventional behaviour is : a. Immoral b. moral c. neither moral nor immoral d. necessary e. unnecessary
Answer: (c) neither moral nor immoral.
2) What is a non-moral action?
Answer: Action which does not necessarily involve morality, but is born of prevailing conventions.
3) What is the difference between a mechanical act and an intentional act?
Answer: If the action is done mechanically and does not spring from our own will, there is no moral content in the act. It is a mechanical act. Such action would be moral if we think it proper to act like a machine and do so since in doing so, we use our discrimination.
4) Give an example each for conventional behaviour and a moral act.
Answer:
5) The first Paragraph discusses what is not a moral action. The second paragraph gives one important criterion to decide what constitutes a moral action. What is that criterion?
Answer: A moral act must spring from our own will, from the use of our discrimination. This is the criterion.
6) When can the messenger’s act become a moral action?
Answer: When the messenger, instead of mechanically delivering the order, does it because it is his duty to do so, it becomes a moral action.
7) When, according to Gandhi, can we regard ourselves to have stepped on to the moral road?
Answer: When we all care only for what our conscience says, then alone can we be regarded to have stepped onto the moral road.
8) What is the belief that Gandhi talks of in paragraph 2?
Answer: Gandhiji says that we cannot be truly moral if we do not believe and experience the belief that God within us, the God of all, is the ever-present witness to all our acts.
9) All good actions need not be moral acts. When does good action become a moral act? (paragraph 3). Give an example
Answer:
10) In the example of feeding the poor, whose action is moral action?
Answer: When a man, out of pity for the poor, feeds them, it is a moral act. When he does the same act with the motive of earning prestige, the action is no longer moral.
11) The result of our action determines whether our action is moral or non-moral (say whether the statement is True or False)
Answer: False
12) Why does Gandhi say that Alexander’s conquests cannot be called moral actions? Answer: Alexander’s conquests cannot be called moral actions because the intention behind all of them was only power and renown.
13) In each paragraph, Gandhiji adds one criterion to consider an action moral. What criterion is added in paragraph 4?
Answer: Gandhiji says that an action is moral if it is done voluntarily and without compulsion or fear.
14) When does simple living become moral?
Answer:
15) When does an employee’s action of paying higher salaries to his employees remain nonmoral?
Answer: When the employer sympathizes with his employees or pays them higher wages lest they leave him, his action remains non-moral.
16) When Gandhiji quotes Shakespeare (in paragraph 5), what argument does he want to strengthen? Answer: When he quotes Shakespeare, Gandhiji wants to emphasize the point that any action, even one of showing love, done with a profit motive, ceases to be a moral action. Honesty should be resorted to, not because it dies the best policy of all, but because it is the right policy.
17) Gandhiji mentions the name of Henry Clay as an example of moral/ non-moral action. (Choose the right answer)
Answer: Non-moral action.
18) What qualities of David Webster does Gandhiji mention?
Answer: David Webster had great intellect and a wonderful sense of the heroic and the sublime.
19) What is the single mean act of Webster mentioned in paragraph 6?
Answer: He once sold his intellectual’ integrity for a price.
20) Why is it difficult to judge the morality of a man’s action?
Answer: It is difficult to judge the morality of a man’s action because we cannot penetrate the depths of his mind.
21) What arguments does Gandhiji give to justify that a moral act should be free from fear and compulsion?
Answer: He says that there is no morality in a person’s act if he rises early out of the fear that, if he is late for his office, he may lose . his situation. Similarly, there is no morality in his living a simple and unpretentious life if he has not the means to live otherwise.
Answer: springs from one’s will (paragraph 2) is done with the intention to do good (from paragraph
3) is done without compulsion or fear (from paragraph 4) has no self-interest behind it (from par’1 u is not done with expectations of benefit in life after death (paragraph 6)
Answer: is not done with expectations of benefit in life after death.
II. Close Study: Read the following extracts carefully. Discuss in pairs and then write the answers to the questions given below them.
1) The great Saint Theresa wished to have a touch in her right hand and a vessel of water in her left so that with the one she might burn the glories of heaven and with the other extinguish the fires of hell, and men might learn to serve God from love alone without fear of hell and without temptation of heavenly bliss. Why did Saint Theresa hold a torch in her right hand?
Answer: She desired to burn the glories of heaven with the torch.
b. What does ‘a vessel of water’ signify?
Answer: She desired to extinguish the fires of hell with the vessel of water.
c. What was her message to humanity?
Answer: She wanted people to learn to serve God from love along without fear of hell and without the temptation of heavenly bliss.
2) Wherever he went (in the course of his conquests), he took the Greek language and Greek culture, arts and manners, and today we enjoy the benefits of Greek civilization. It was all right that he was termed “great”, but moral he cannot be called. Who does ‘he’ refer to?
Answer: ‘he’ refers the Greek Emperor, Alexander, the Great. b. What is his contribution to mankind? Answer: He took the Greek language and Greek culture, arts and manners to different parts of the world, thereby enabling all of them to enjoy the benefits of Greek civilization.
c. Why doesn’t Gandhi consider him moral? Answer: Though he went to different parts of the world, the intention behind Alexander’s action was only conquest and renown.
II. Paragraph Writing: Discuss in pairs/groups of four each the answers to the following questions. Individually note down the important points for each question and then develop the points into a one paragraph answer.
1) Write on Mahatma Gandhi’s comments on action prompted by the motive of happiness in another world.
Answer: Gandhiji says that action done for considerations of comfort and personal happiness in another world is non-moral. St. Francis Xavier prayed passionately because it was man’s duty to pray. St. Theresa kept a torch and a vessel of water so that man learns to serve God without any fear or temptations. It is difficult to judge the morality of man’s action.
Paragraph:
Gandhiji says that an action done for considerations of comfort and personal happiness in another world is non-moral. That action is moral which is done only for the sake of doing good. St. Francis Xavier prayed passionately that his mind might always remain pure. For him, the devotion of God was not for enjoying a higher seat after death. He prayed because it was man’s duty to pray. St. Theresa wished to have a torch in her right hand and a vessel might burn the glories of heaven and with the other extinguish the fires of hell, and men might learn to serve God from love along without fear of hell and without the temptation of heavenly bliss. Commenting upon great men who have sacrificed their values for their ambitions, Gandhiji says that with one mean act, they have wiped out all their good deeds. This just shows how difficult it is to judge the morality of man’s action because we cannot penetrate the depths of his mind.
2) Why does Gandhi say that moral action should be done without compulsion?
Answer: A moral act should be free from fear and compulsion. Even rising early out of fear of losing situation will render it non-moral. Similarly living a simple life because one doesn’t have the means to live otherwise is not a moral act. An employer sympathizing with employees or paying them higher wages for fear that they would leave him is not performing a moral act.
Paragraph: Gandhiji says that a moral act should be free from fear and compulsion. He says that there is no morality whatsoever in a person’s act if he rises early out of the fear that, if he is late to his office, he may lose his situation. Similarly, there is no morality in his living a simple and unpretentious life if he has not the means to live Otherwise. Plain, simple living would be moral if, though wealthy, the person thinks of all the want and misery in the world about him – and feels that he ought to live a plain, simple life and not one of east and luxury. Likewise, it is only selfish and hot moral, of an employer to sympathize with his employees or pay them higher wages lest they leave him. It would be moral if the employer wished well of them and treated them kindly realizing how he owed his prosperity to them.
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