The Road to Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions

This is a proverb.

There are several examples of this.

In Mahabharat, when Bhishma takes oath that he will never marry so that his father Shantanayu can marry Satyavati. They have two sons who are not fit for the throne. Then those sons have Kauravas and Pandavas.

Then, Bhishma is powerless to protect the Pandavas and Draupadi during the infamous game of Dice.

In Romance of the Three Kingdoms (don't worry if you are unfamiliar with the story and characters), Liu Bei, one of the heirs to the now fallen Han empire
1. Fails to listen to a genius Zhugh Liang (think of 27 year old Sanyasi who has 10 PhDs and knows about the three worlds), to seize a province from relatives. Because of this, the province will now be seized by Cao Cao (warlord who is basically keeping the Emperor hostage). Lui Bei then has to transport villagers (helps villagers escape) 100 miles away, and many lose their lives in the process.
2. While in the process of escape, Lui Bei gets separated from one of his wifes and ONLY son. One of Lui Bei's Generals, Yuan Shu goes through enemy territory to resue the wife and infant son. The wife doesn't want to create two losses, so she sacrifices her life by jumping down a well, leaving her infant son with the General, Yuan Shu.
3. Yuan Shu battles millions of Cao Cao's troops on his way back to Lui Bei. When Lui Bei finds Yuan Shu, he takes the baby (again, his ONLY son), and is so upset that his Star General risked his life to save "this suckling" that he throws him. Luckily, the other wife catches the baby. Throughout the rest of the story, the baby grows up to be somewhat inept, incompetent ruler.
4. Basically, Lui Bei puts loyal outsiders ahead of family, yet his only qualification as a leader is that he is the heir of the now fallen Han dynasty. Otherwise, he was losing battles left and right, and is only picking up speed from the Chinese Sanyasi, who he is not even properly listening to.

One more example, yet slightly different.

How many of you read "Catcher in the Rye?" I read it in High School, and it is narrated by a teenager from well-to-do parents from NY's Upper East Side. He sees most people as fakes and phonies.

In one incident, he goes to the movies, and sees a woman crying her eyes out at the movie. However, when her son pleads to take him to the bathroom, she scolds him, telling him to be quiet. Holden then says something along the lines of, "99% of people who cry at movies are the meanest witches in real life"

I'm not sure if crying at movies or TV comes under "good intentions" just like the incidents in Mahabharat and Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but it shows poor judgement and priorities.

But I wonder, are we all guity of this? I mean, having good intentions, only leading us to hell? If so, how do we know when to stop ourselves. I guess it all comes to balance.

Many times at work, people will ask for one department, and I would give them the correct extension, and connect them. After a while, it became time-consuming, so when the person would call asking for the same department, I would say "wrong number" and hang up, because I thought it was eating up too much of my time. Turns out, this was bad Karma, and I experienced a temporary set-back.

My organization is never going to change the damn number. So now when someone calls, I give them the correct extension, and transfer them. If they still are unable to get through, I give them more extensions. Sometimes, if a person needs one extension, giving them more than one extension may be unecessary and create more confusion on their part.

Any thoughts on this? Have you ever done something with good intention, only for it to backfire?

 

I work for non-money-making agency (we don't have such policies) so I can relate to people who are unable to reach the person they are looking for. At the end, they are so so so thankful.

Now, I limit myself to giving them one extension, but if they still need assistance and call me back, I give them more.

Well, I hope you were able to accomplish your project work even though you took time to help the student.