Mr. Devdutt Pattanaik has a been a huge source of inspiration to me any is one of my favorite authors. This Issue is very well explained by him in the context of Hindu Mythology mega sagas: The Ramayana and The Mahabharata. While Ramayana deals with human principles on the contrary Mahabharata deals with Formation and Breaking of Rules. My further exploration came to a conclusion that these things are very practical in nature and are easily adaptable in our day to day lives. The basic difference between these two categories are:

RULES have NO CHOICE. But PRINCIPLES have CHOICES.

Person success depends on how effectively he follows his principles not how many rules he followed. For instance, A particular person has to obey a rule of 9 to 5 office timings but what to do there in this time are determined by his principles. How he does his work is determined by his principles. To be honest or dishonest towards his duties are his principles. So its the principles who decides a person success not the rule. Rules are here to GUIDE you but principles exists here to DETERMINE or test you. Morality, Integrity, Honesty, Modesty are all basic principles which of course have a choice in the negative context.

CHOICES

While most of the basic rules are predetermined by nature some are determined by the society. It is often observed that Rule breakers are often type-cast as REBELS but this is untrue they are in truly their choices of PRINCIPLES who made them break the rule. For instance, something which is right according to you may be wrong to someone and that is how we have helped create so many political parties in India. They are our chosen representative determined by our Principles to advocate our views. Has there been any Rule or restriction on us that we have to choose this particular party in election every year ? No, Here our principles have made the decision and determined our leader. Here our Principles created a set of checklist to determine the best candidate to suit our society and that is all what we say a Democratic nation.

DEPENDENCY

In the debate between these two entities I feel PRINCIPLES are always a WINNER and RULES are here to always support them. They both just cannot work without each other. While we need rules to bring a strong discipline in the society, Principles on the other hand helps us obey them in a most civilian manner. While some good choices of principles can help create a better society, the other just destroys the society. But to have a healthy competition we need both category of judgement.

APPRECIATION VS CRITICISM

While some qualities in a person are most appreciated some are badly criticized. Its the masses who decides the acceptance or rejection of the principles. Principles have been here since many years as of now. That is why we say Lord Shri. Ram as Maryada Purushottama (Perfect Man or Lord of Self-Control or Lord of Virtu) on the other hand we say Raavan as EVIL- The Demon king. Both of them had tremendous potential with so many powers. But it was their choice of principles who made them good or bad in the eyes of people. To be good or bad has his own sacrifices. Both of these kings gave the needful sacrifices but while one was appreciated for his work, the other was criticized for his work. It was basically the choice of their Principles. The governing RULES still existed but what made one Winner and the other Loser are their choices of principles.

Remember, Whatever RULES you are made to abide. Be careful in choosing your PRINCIPLES because they come with CHOICES which can either make you or break you.

Happy Reading!