The Difficulty of Being Good

This book isn’t about religion. It’s about moral complexity in real life, told through the lens of the Mahabharata – an ancient Indian epic that’s anything but black and white.

Gurcharan Das, a former CEO, approaches it not as a scholar or a believer, but as a modern seeker trying to understand what it means to live ethically in an unfair world.

15 Key Insights for Modern Professionals

1. The Mahabharata doesn’t give us clean heroes. Its characters lie, cheat, stay silent, and rationalize – just like many leaders & professionals do under pressure.
2. Yudhishthira, the poster boy for truth, gambles away everything (his kingdom, brothers, and even his wife) because he confuses blind adherence to duty with moral clarity. Das uses Yudhishthira to show how doing things “by the book” can be unethical if the book ignores suffering. That’s a lesson for anyone hiding behind policies and procedures.
3. Krishna is a divine strategist who manipulates and deceives to ensure victory. It forces us to ask: do we justify bad actions if the outcome feels noble? In many ways, Krishna mirrors today’s leaders who bend rules “for the greater good”, often blurring the line between strategy and deceit.
4. Arjuna’s hesitation before the war is treated with respect. Das argues that ethical doubt is not weakness. It’s what keeps power from becoming cruelty.
5. Duryodhan- the so-called villain – is loyal, fearless, and generous. He is also consumed by envy. The Mahabharata doesn’t simplify him. Nor should we oversimplify people in real life.
6. The takeaway: people are not good or bad – they are complicated. Judging actions is wiser than judging labels.
7. Draupadi refuses to stay silent after being humiliated. Her moral outrage drives the story. She is not portrayed as “emotional”. She is the voice of justice. Draupadi reminds us that silence in the face of injustice is complicity. And that moral courage often comes from the margins, not the center.
8. Karna is another tragic figure. His loyalty is touching but also dangerous. He stays loyal to the wrong person for too long, and it costs him everything. Many of us do the same. We stay in toxic jobs or with unethical bosses out of fear, habit, or false loyalty. Karna is a mirror.
9. Das explains dharma not as a fixed code but as a practice- a judgment we must make moment by moment, with awareness and compassion.
10. Bhishma, the patriarch, sacrifices truth for loyalty. He knows what’s wrong but stays neutral. The Mahabharata punishes his passivity. Das calls it out as cowardice dressed as dignity. That idea hit me hard: doing nothing when something is clearly wrong is not neutrality. It’s moral failure.
11. Das explores envy as a corrosive force. It doesn’t just want what the other has – it wants to destroy the other. That has popped up occasionally in my experience, with some senior CFA charter holders trying to malign others.
12. The book argues that virtues become vices when followed blindly duty, loyalty, honesty, even compassion can lead to harm when misapplied.
13. Forgiveness is treated not as softness but as a mature moral choice. It’s not about letting go for others. It’s about reclaiming our peace.
14. Das doesn’t offer moral formulas. He shows us that the struggle to be good -not perfection -is what defines a meaningful life.
15. The biggest insight? Being good isn’t about grand gestures. It’s about small, daily decisions – especially when they’re inconvenient, unpopular, or go unnoticed.

If you’ve ever felt torn between what’s right and what works, this book will shake you up. Read it not for answers, but for better questions, the kind that stay with you long after you’ve logged off.