Today, you must make a beginning to develop pure, sattvic nature. Sattvic people develop a strong faculty of discrimination. They follow their conscience all the time. You, too, can begin here. If you examine your life honestly, you find that though some of your mistakes arise out of ignorance, at times, you deliberately flout the voice of your conscience.
Though aware of the wrong things you think, talk or do, you continue to do similar things because it is easier and more convenient, or simply because you are used to it that way.
This is due to your inbuilt resistance to change that arises from the inertia. In other times, to obtain the desired results quickly, you may intentionally follow the wrong path. This is due to result-oriented thinking that sprouts from the hyperactive mind. When you disregard your conscience, you may justify your actions to others by claiming ignorance and convincing them easily.
However, you can never convince or deceive your own mind which is always aware of its true hidden motives. Since karma begins and ends in the mind, this deliberate deviation from the path of dharma naturally generates negative karma that binds you to it. Though you can effectively discriminate between the right and wrong, most of the time you do not have the will power to implement it.
This is because the faculty of discrimination in you is not adequately supported by detachment or dispassion.
What is detachment or vairagya? It is the ability to let go of all the desires, habits, emotions, thoughts, speech and behaviour patterns that are negative or detrimental to your well being in any way.
Detachment and discrimination are inter-dependent, and mutually strengthen each other.
The more you discriminate, the more you are able to segregate all the harmful desires and discard them.
The more mental trash you discard, the more you empower the faculty of discrimination.
Exercise this simple technique to gain control over the mind so that it stops churning out millions of desires every moment. Select a quiet place and leisurely time, sit down with paper and pen and make two lists. First, understand and write down what your goal in this life is.
You should meticulously list out your aims and all the things you would like to achieve. While you make this list, think about yourself, your family and the future generations.
The second list should contain all your desires. They may be big or small, important or insignificant, right or wrong, demonic or divine. After you have made an exhaustive list, go over it to see which of the desires are truly necessary and dharmic. If you have been sincere in doing this exercise, you will have a long list of goals and desires, many of which may be selfish or against the principles of dharma. You will also become aware that new desires are cropping up all the time.
ashram-india@ shrinimishamba.org