What Is "Good"? A Vedantic Inquiry into Morality, Happiness, and the Self

The obvious answer to the question “What is good?” is that good is the opposite of bad. And yet, the first thing to know about “good” and “bad” is that both are in the eye of the beholder. Concepts like good/bad or beautiful/ugly belong to our subjective reality; they don’t exist in empirical reality, and they certainly don’t exist in absolute reality (non-dual consciousness).

Nature simply is—indifferent to our definitions—and the Self, as pure awareness, is free of all objects and concepts. In the end, good and bad are only ideas filtered through our likes and dislikes, and even those change over time. What one generation calls “good” may be redefined by the next.

Nevertheless, “good” is generally associated with pleasure and “bad” with pain. But these are slippery categories: pain can lead to pleasure (training for a marathon), and pleasure can lead to pain (overindulgence on vacation). Good isn’t always good, nor is bad always bad.

Dharma: The Conventional Good

If we move beyond personal taste, we might define “good” as that which is moral—aligned with universal laws that protect both the individual and society. In the Bhagavad Gita, such laws and disciplines are gathered under the term dharma.

Dharma covers physical, psychological, and moral laws—truths that, if violated, bring suffering. Most of us live in relative safety only because others around us also choose to live by rules that respect everyone’s well-being. Without these shared commitments, society would unravel, as we see during times of war.

At its root, dharma’s most fundamental principle is ahimsa—do no harm. The Vedic tradition lists ten values that make up an ethical life: five to avoid and five to cultivate.

Five to Avoid:

• Violence (physical, mental, or verbal)

• Untruthfulness (lying, exaggerating, bending facts for gain)

• Taking what isn’t yours (including illegitimate dealings)

• Inappropriate sexual conduct (in deed or thought)

• Acquiring or keeping more than you need

Five to Cultivate:

• Purity (external and internal)

• Contentment (with what comes legitimately)

• Self-mastery (through discipline)

• Spiritual study (to gain right knowledge)

• Acceptance of all experiences, even unpleasant ones, as teachers

Dharma also refers to duty, respect for the natural order, and the inherent nature of a thing (e.g., the dharma of fire is to burn). In this sense, what is dharmic is what is in harmony with the whole. A person living in this way need not be “religious,” only aware that they are part of something greater than the small self.

Svadharma: The Good of Our Own Nature

The Gita warns: “Better is one’s own dharma, imperfect though it be, than the dharma of another well performed.” We each have a svadharma—a personal nature—that fits us for certain roles. Trying to live another’s dharma breeds inner conflict.

This extends beyond work to every aspect of living. What is in harmony with our body and mind—healthy food, adequate rest, balanced emotions—is “good” in this practical sense. What isn’t in harmony eventually makes us sick, either through quality or excess.

A simple sign of disharmony is suffering, because what is natural to us does not include persistent suffering. This suffering shows up in three primary forms:

1. Sorrow – debilitating grief from not getting what we want or getting what we don’t want.

2. Time – the inescapable reality of mortality and impermanence.

3. Ignorance – not knowing how to avoid harm or find true fulfillment.

The opposite of these limitations is freedom. And freedom, Vedanta tells us, is our true nature.

Freedom, Happiness, and the Self

In our heart of hearts, every desire—whether for pleasure, success, or virtue—is a desire to be free from some limitation. We eat to be free from hunger, sleep to be free from exhaustion, pursue wealth to be free from insecurity. Even the pursuit of virtue is a pursuit of freedom from inner impurity or regret.

Vedanta says our essence is the Self: whole, complete, eternal, limitless awareness. The problem is misidentification—we take ourselves to be the body-mind, which is by nature limited. Seeking freedom through external means only yields temporary relief. The freedom we seek is what we already are.

If “good” is that which does not bind, and the Self is total freedom, then in absolute terms good is the Self. The objects, experiences, and relationships we pursue are just temporary reflections of this original goodness.

Why the Good Feels Elusive

If we are the Self, and the Self is absolute good, why don’t we always feel good?

Vedanta points to two main obscurations:

• The Five Sheaths (Pancha Kosha) – layers of the body-mind that cover the brilliance of the Self:

  
  

  1. Physical body

  2. Energy/life-force

  3. Mind (thoughts and emotions)

  4. Intellect (discrimination, reasoning)

  5. Bliss sheath (limited, reflected happiness)

  
  

  Identifying with any sheath hides the fact that we are other than all of them.

  
  

• The Three Gunas – sattva (clarity), rajas (activity, projection), and tamas (inertia, concealment). The clearer the mind (sattva), the more easily the Self’s nature is reflected. Rajas cracks the mirror; tamas smears it.

Real vs. Reflected Happiness

Most of what we call happiness is the fleeting “blip” we feel when desire is temporarily satisfied. Real happiness is different—less a thrill, more a profound contentment. It is not an ecstatic high, but a quiet, unshakable recognition that nothing is missing.

Vedanta teacher James Swartz describes happiness as:

• The sense that nothing is missing or lacking on any level

  
  

• The feeling of endless possibility, invincibility and unqualified freedom seen in children before they’ve been compromised by conditioning

  
  

• Wholeness, completeness, an unshakable conviction that nothing can be gained or lost

  
  

• The knowledge that one is more powerful than all the objects in the world and all the thoughts in one’s own mind

  
  

• The knowledge that no separation exists between oneself and the world, between oneself and others

  
  

• Unconditional, disinterested love for the sake of the beloved

  
  

• Happiness is the absence of [binding] desire

  
  

• Beyond the intellect and unaffected by time — “The peace that passeth understanding.” 

  
  

• Consciousness, our very essence

Replace “happiness” with “good” in these descriptions and the meaning remains unchanged.

Conclusion: The Indestructible Good

This isn’t religion—it’s a conclusion reached by reasoning from experience. If good = freedom, freedom = happiness, and happiness = the Self, then good is the Self.

Unlike evil, which comes and goes and is rooted in ignorance, good never changes, is never born, and never dies. It cannot be negated because it is our very nature.

In this ultimate sense, good really is good.