Religion & Morality     

Its Relationship
Meera: Is there any relation between man’s ethical norms and religious beliefs? Which depends on which? Ethical norms need not necessarily be based on religious beliefs.
Swamiji: Religion cannot exist without ethical norms. Ethics has value only with reference to the spiritual values or religious values. Without spiritual values, love could not be better than hatredness. Religion teaches that the whole creation is one, and thus our essential nature is to seek identity with everything.

All ethical principles, whether one recognizes religion or not, spring from religion. Religion here is meant in the larger sense of the term as rising above one’s limited ego in dedication to a higher goal. Now, when one stars practicing ethics, unless one has an ideal, a goal to surrender to and be dedicated to, one will not be able to stand against the temptations of the immediate pressures. Whenever I act from the egocentric standpoint, my action becomes immoral. Morality is to rise above the ego, and one can do it. wherever one has an altar of dedication, that is called religion. The altar may be art, literature, politics, or one’s own profession; whatever it is, it becomes a religion. “My profession is my religion.” There are so many people who say that.

Divine Ordinance
Meera: Would it not be safer to separate religion from morality and make moral sanction independent of divine injunction?
Swamiji: If you can do it, go ahead.
Meera: Does the rightness of an action depend upon divine ordinance, or can an act be right in itself? Christianity and the Vedas both admit apta vakya, or religious testimony, as a valid source of knowledge.
Swamiji: Apta vakya is in reference to the experience of saints and sages who have realized the Self and the knowledge they handed down after the realization. It does not refer to ethical action, which comes within the purview of rational reflection.

Trustworthiness of Instincts
Jyoti: As young people, we often act without consciously weighing the motives and desired results. As we grow older there is more often a sense of weighing alternatives. We feel naturally inclined to do something, but our rationality or long-term interest tells us to do something else. Psychoanalysis tells us that we do not take enough notice of our unconscious. To what extent should we trust our instincts? Is not the unconscious? Really the more fundamental part of ourselves, whereas, at present our more powerful instinct is the animal instinct?
Swamiji: Yes, therefore presently we have to train our unconscious to function better. Then we can depend upon instincts, that will be noble instincts. At this moment our instincts are very impure. So if you live according to the instincts in you, your instincts will be the whisperings of your selfish ego. Never do that. But when you have practiced for a long period of time, living the higher values of life and following the instructions of great masters or the Scriptures, that is, when you have trained your unconscious, then when a situation comes, you can, to an extent, depend on your inner voice. In order to purify our inner instincts we follow moral rules and ethical principles. For a long period you live uncompromisingly those higher values. And then only, when they are chastened sufficiently to hear and reflect, then only could it become a medium for the super-consciousness to function through.

Imparting Values to Children
Meera: Do you think that strict moral training from a very early age will curb the urge to do evil? What kind of moral education should be imparted to a child from the primary level, so that he will be spontaneously good and not have to go through repeated moral conflicts while making a choice?
Jyoti: How can we best express to our children the idea of genuine values so that they grow up with open minds, not with a once and for all acceptance but with the ability to sift and decide on right values? If we impart a vague sense of values they may grow up having no real sense of them at all. On the other hand, if we decide for them, they may be limited in their approach to values.
Swamiji: The first question is answered by the second question. The first question is: How are we to do it? The moral part only comes once the activity starts and we classify activities as moral and immoral. Now, how am I to make an individual to act morally? By giving him healthy values. Values of life determine how the individual reacts to the external world and finally expresses it.
Swamiji: How can one impart the values?
Swamiji: Values impartation must be started from the very beginning. Values are so subtle that even an elderly person will not be able to conceive the idea unless it is concretized in an individual acting those values in a given set of specific conditions. Thus Harish Chandra’s story, when you relate it to the children, they understand the compelling situations. Harish Chandra’s own son died, then the mother brought the body for cremation to that fellow who happened to be her husband who said, “Sorry, ten paise is the tax, you pay it.” She said, “I haven’t got a pie.” Then get out of here. My master has fixed me here to collect the tax. Wait here. When the master comes in the morning you discuss it with him. If the master says he has no objection, the matter could be settled.” So the truthfulness, the honesty of words, you know all these from the story alone. You may forget the story but the idea goes in. This is the method. In our modern education we don’t give the children any ideal. Data is given but no ideal to pursue. Ideals must be given. The story is not for history, it is for imparting an ideal. Give it to them and they will always check whether their action was morally good or not, beautiful or not. These children will grow up and in their togetherness will constitute the society.

The social behavior in any part of the world, in any period of time, will be the sum total work of the team of people that constitute the society. Each individual functions in the world outside ordered by, governed by his thoughts. The quality and the nature of the thoughts are determined by what values the individual respects. If the values respected by the individuals are wrong, the individual’s activities can never be good. Similarly, the values entertained by the community or the society are wrong, their total behavior will be only bringing more and more sorrow to them. Hence in the modern times we are insisting upon value based education. The healthy values, psychologically healthy for the individual and therefore healthy for the community have been experimented upon and given out as moral and ethical principles.

First, we have to conceive, understand and appreciate these values. Thereafter, a mere possession is not sufficient. Each individual should learn to live upto them. In order to impart these to our growing children there is no way other than concretizing these values through the heroic stories of people who have lived these values… Hence the need for stories. The mythological stories of India are perfect and artistic examples on how to impart these values to children. Never can children’s education be complete unless we impart to them a true appreciation of the eternal values of life and also help them to open up their sense of beauty and rhythm, their aestheticism and ethicism. That is the reason why we not only try to mould them with our stories of heroism and excellence in character but also give them a free choice to discover and develop their inner secret talents for music, dance, painting, etc. if has been found very rewarding in all our centres.

Do Values have Intrinsic or Extrinsic Worth?
Anjli: Do the values of life have intrinsic worth or do they have instrumental worth? In other words, is the value valuable in itself or is it as an instrument to achieving something else that a value is valuable?
Swamiji: A value is valuable only in relationship to achievements. It is instrumental. It is not absolute. Only Brahman, the Supreme Reality, has absolute value.
Anjli: You mean, Brahman is the only thing of intrinsic value?
Swamiji: The only intrinsic value. All others are instrumental or contributory to reaching that highest intrinsic value. By pursuing negative values you go away from Him. By pursuing positive values you go towards Him. So, values to be acquired by the seeker are only to take you to that intrinsic value, the absolute value that is Brahman.

Charity
Anjli: Explain to us the value of charity?
Swamiji: Charity must come from one’s sense of abundance. True charity springs from a sense of oneness between the giver and the recipient. Unless one is able to identify oneself with others, one will not feel the noble urge to share one’s possessions with others. Thus charity is born out of a capacity to restrain one’s instincts of acquisition and aggrandizement, and to replace these with the spirit of sacrifice.

In the name of charity many a thing is ordinarily done in society, which destroys both the giver and the recipient. Therefore gifts should be given in accordance with certain ethical norms. Gifts should be given with faith. We can have faith only in what we understand to be right. Therefore charity is acceptable only when it toes the line of our independent, intellectual beliefs and convictions. Unless we are convinced of the nobility and unless we have come to a correct and independent judgment of the worthiness of the cause, charity should not be practiced. Every benefactor has the right to inquire into the cause that he is trying to patronize.

Again, a miserly giving will not benefit either the giver or the receiver and, it is said in our Scriptures, having come to judge a cause as worthy, give it your entire patronage “Give in plenty, with both hands give.” Also, charity must be given with modesty, avoiding feelings of egotism and vanity. It must be given with sympathy, which comes from having surrendered to a higher altar. Sympathy generates love in us, and unless this love element predominates, compelling us to seek an identify with the cause, we will not spiritually evolve along the path of charity. Charity constricts the heart and obstructs human growth if it is not honeyed with the spirit of love and the joy of identification. Throwing fifty paisa (cents) to helpless beggar and making him struggle to pick it up from the wayside dirt with his shriveled, leprous fingers is no charity at all, however thick the giver may wear his caste marks on his narrow forehead!!

Duty
Anjli: What is the importance of duty?
Swamiji: Religion is built upon duties and not upon rights. A civilization that is based upon “right” must necessarily come to clamor and fight. The instincts of acquiring and hoarding, keeping and maintaining would develop in that society and ultimately upset the peace. On the other hand, a generation that has understood the value of performing duty will be trained to demand of life only chances to fulfil its duty. Duty therefore develops the spirit of giving, the urge to be charitable, and not the lust to hoard or the anxiety to keep.

Nonviolence      
Anjli: What about nonviolence, or ahimsa?
Swamiji: Ahimsa in its spiritual import means never having cruel intentions. Noninjury is the spirit that should dominate all our motives. Our intentions should not be polluted by even a trace of cruelty or hatred. Harmlessness consists not so much in never causing physical injury to a being as in never contemplating to do harm of any sort. Practicing no injury physically is impossible. To continue living, some kind of physical harm is unavoidable. But even while bringing about unavoidable disturbances around ourselves, if our motives are pure and clean, the harm so brought about is not regarded as injury. If you protect yourself against a robber in your own home or protest against aggressors, you are not transgressing ahimsa. To smash a serpent or a scorpion in your house is not an act of cruelty. On the contrary, to allow these to flourish in the name of nonviolence is weakness sanctioned only by a misinterpreted culture.

Thus, noninjury is a value of life to be applied at the level of our motives. Our motives must be noninjurious and pure. This purity of intention can arise only out of a deep sense of oneness with the Lord’s creation and compassion toward all beings, good and bad alike.

Forbearance
Anjli: How should one meet the pinpricks and also the major setbacks of life?
Swamiji: With forbearance. The ability to live patiently through minor or major physical or mental inconveniences is forbearance-a subtle boldness that is displayed by a person while facing adversity. When an individual daringly confronts life, he cannot always expect happy situations, favorable circumstances, and conducive opportunities. When encountering opposition, many a weak individual feels dejected and is tempted to leave the field of work when it is only half done. Many lose the chance of achieving their goal and desert the field of action almost at the moment that victory is imminent.

In order to stick to our convictions, we need spiritual energy to nurture and nourish our fatigued morals. This inner energy welling up in a well-integrated personality is called fortitude or forbearance. The strength of faith, conviction in the goal, consistency of purpose, vivid perception of the ideal, and a bold spirit of sacrifice cultivated diligently all form the source from which fortitude trickles down to remove our exhaustion and despair.

Purity
Anjli: Isn’t outer cleanliness related to inner purity?
Swamiji: The word cleanliness indicates not only the inner purity-thoughts and motives-but it also suggests the purity of environment, and cleanliness of habit and personal belongings. As a result of an over-emphasis on subjective purity today, we find in Indian society an utter neglect of external purity. Clean clothes and civic habits have both become rare in our society.

Outer cleanliness is, to a large measure, a reflection of the inner condition. A disciplined person with education and culture alone can maintain systematic order and cleanliness around him. One who is aspiring to reach perfection will necessarily be so well disciplined physically that he will be clean both in his relationship with others and in the condition of his belongings around him. It is well known that the condition of a person’s table and the cleanliness of his apparel give a great insight into the mental nature, discipline, and culture of that man. In the Scriptures great emphasis has been laid on physical purity, not only in the person but also in his contacts with the world. without external purity, internal purification will be but a vague dream, an idle hope, and a despairing vision.

At the same time, no amount of external discipline can supply a person with the positive dynamism that is the very core in moral living. A man must live in highest values of life. Then he can burst forth with a positive glow of righteousness and bathe the entire generation in the light of truth and virtue-virtue that implies honesty of intentions and purity of motives  

Service
Anjli: Is service of mankind an important value?
Swamiji: Dedicated work is a means for the inner purification of one’s vasanas. Though the goal is Self-realization, which is realized through the path of renunciation stages of progress from “animal-man” to “God-man” are through an intermediary stage called “man-man.”
The Upanisads glorify service as the highest pinnacle of right living. Dedicated and noble work alone can polish an individual to a state of true culture and right discipline. To those who know what service is, work is not a slavery or drudgery but is the joy of life. Man is not born to revel in idleness.

Vedanta has never permitted escapism, although many uninformed people contend that it does. The earliest Upanisads emphasize that one who cannot live the noble life of renunciation and self-restraint must strive to fulfil one’s desires through means; teaching oneself to live in the service of man and in the glorification of the Lord. Such actions involving service of mankind are necessary to prepare a student for the highest flights in meditation.
Actions do not cling to one who intensively plunges into life, eager and anxious to meet its new challenges, at every turn keeping truth and purity as one’s standards. Such a one is living an entire lifetime in the spirit of paying homage to the Lord, detached from the ego-sense or from the anxiety for the result of those actions. When all activities, whether social, economic, political, or domestic, are pursued in an attitude of detachment, they can never bind the person by their results.

The highest prayer in the world is service, the greatest devotion is loving the people around, and the noblest character trait is divine compassion for all living creatures.

Contentment
Anjli: Whenever a desire gets satisfied, one feels happy. But after a while, we always want something more. It seems as if nothing is enough.
Swamiji: Greed is due to the erosion of one’s mental strength and inner peace when desires are more and more satiated. When a desire gets fulfilled, an insatiable thirst for more and more joy holds the individual, and this endless appetite ruins the mental strength and saps dry the personality-vitality. Greed is a sense of dissatisfaction constantly pursuing and poisoning the sense of satisfaction that we have already experienced. In an indisciplined man, there can be no satisfaction at any time. He is unhappy even when his desires are satisfied because his appetite for enjoyment is sharpened and he hungers for more. If the desires are throttled the disappointment brings him a thought storm of anger, and he suffers the consequent wretchedness.

Contentment with whatever has come to one, as one’s just share is the motto of all serious seekers. To endlessly entertain and satisfy the demands of life would be an unending game, for the mind has a knack of breeding its own demands very quickly. The policy of contentment is the only intelligent attitude to be taken up by sincere seekers or else there will be no time seek, to strive for, and to achieve the divine goal of life. Self-integration is the reward promised for all faithful pursuits.

Equipoise
Anjli: Often one gets shaken by happenings around and then loses the ground that has been gained. One’s equilibrium gets upset every now and then.
Swamiji: Equipoise is a state of mental equilibrium that comes when one has unshakeable intellectual foundations and the mental capacity to soar to the highest pinnacles of greater visions. When a person raises himself into greater ambits of spiritual vision, his mind will no longer entertain any agitations at the ordinary level of likes and dislikes. None of the happenings at the level of the mind and intellect can be of any serious consequence to a person who is trying to detach from the dualistic experiences and who has learned the art of drawing inspiration from something beyond.

Meditation
Anjli: When must one do to be able to meditate?
Swamiji: First of all you must expose yourself to aloneness. When a person is left alone, he start thinking of the higher reality-about death, life, soul, God and the mystery of all Man must strive to seek the absolute God, which is a state of being apprehended within oneself.
Anjli: Does the absolute and intrinsic God really exist? Can one see it? Does meditation help in a practical way?
Swamiji: It is not perceived by the senses but it does exist. The fact that the earth is round and moves, is not seen, but is true. The sky is blue; the sunset is golden-they are seen but false. Energy in the atom, vitality in the sun, gravitational force-not seen, but true. Double moon, mirage waters, dream and hallucinations seen, but false. The world we see, but it is not true, the truth we see not, but it is true. To achieve the state of conscious being, the physical, mental, intellectual and spiritual personalities of a person must all be blended into one harmonious whole. Meditation is the technique of achieving this harmony. It is the highest spiritual discipline. Though meditation a person comes to experience peace within and without. Internecine wars between desires end. Conflicts between duties no longer wreck his nerves. His mind is able to view life as a whole. He will always meet with success, for his meaningless flutterings and the consequent dissipations have stopped. He directs his potentialities with a concentration that cannot be baulked.

Observe the result of concentration all around you in the world. The sun’s rays converging on a point through a focusing lens would burn the thing on which they are concentrated. All successful professionals owe their success to single-pointed efforts. Thoughts of problems yield to undivided attention. Application of a divided mind brings about indifferent results. Every person is a potential genius. Most of us are able to use only an insignificant part of our infinite potentialities. We have unlimited powers, which we have not learned to tap and make use of. It is a question of rediscovering ourselves.

The mind is ever busy fluttering from one object to another. The flow of thoughts is ceaseless. Obviously, before the mind can be made to concentrate on anything, it must be cultivated. The intellect should assert its mastery over the mind and order it to stop all thoughts except the thought of the common denominator. By assiduous practice, the mind can learn to think of only one thing at a time. Such a mind would indeed be a force to be reckoned with. Having become conscious of its true nature, such a mind would not be disturbed by either passing sorrows or ephemeral joys. Prosperity cannot spoil it nor can adversity degrade it. Realization of the Supreme Goal of life would give a new edge to life, and all the passing shows of the world would appear in their stark nakedness, stripped of their power to delude. All curtains would lift before the penetrating gaze of a mind thus established in Pure Consciousness through regular meditation. Shorn of all complexes, it would no more be assailed by doubts and fears.

Be regular in meditation. Be sincere. Be pure. Meditation can never fail. It will ever be a success. Failures in meditation bring greater gains than success in life. Meditate – meditate – meditate, and – meditate. Sincerity and regularity are the secrets of success in meditation.

A Summing Up

Anjli: In summing up, Swamiji, you have said that all ethical principles spring from religion, whether we recognize the goal as God or Goodness or any other of dedication higher than ourselves. Implicit obedience to ethical principles help one to greater good, and that certain antisocial acts attributed to religion are only psychologically perverted cases. Divine ordinance is a valid source of knowledge of Reality because such a knowledge is experiential and outside the capability of the intellect. Ethics, however, comes within the purview of rational reflection, and therefore morality has to be constructed individually depending on various factors and ethical values. If one’s dedication is to a higher ideal, one will demonstrate positive and right values in life, thereby sharpening one’s moral sensitivity and improving the equality of behavior and feelings toward mankind. Individual development takes place by cultivating the higher values of life, which you have enumerated, and giving reasons why these values are valuable. Swamiji has also shown the importance of guiding children and a simple method of imparting values and ideals to them.