The Philosophy of the Upanishads c12.s3.t2.1

c12.s3.t2.1

Europeans, practical and shrewd as they are, are wont to estimate the merits of an action above all by its objective worth, that is by the resultant profit for neighbours, for the multitude, or for all men. He who has obtained the greatest results by this standard passes for the greatest man of his time; and the widow's mite is never anything more than a mite. But this objective worth of a good action is too entirely dependent on the favourable or unfavourable character of environment, on mental endowment, on position in life, on the accessory forces of trade and other accidents, to be capable of serving as a standard of moral value. Such a standard must have regard rather to the subjective worth of an action, which consists in the greatness of the personal sacrifice which is involved, or more strictly speaking in the actor's consciousness of the greatness of the sacrifice which he believes himself to be making, and consequently in the degree of self-denial (*tapas*), and self-renunciation (*nyâsa*), which is exhibited in the action, whether in other respects it be of great or little or absolutely no value for others.