"It is morality and ethics which give direction to life."

Religion is, probably, the Kindergarten, the first fundamental introduction of a human being to ethical life. Religion is no more than an introduction to a concept or an idea of Divinity which controls, guides and beckons us to the Goal that we should aspire for and which, by inculcating in us some of the ethical principles and moral values, prepares us for the spiritual life. So the purpose of religion is to put a developing child into an environment where ethics, moral living, truth, all these things are taught.

Master has introduced principles governing our normal daily life such as the need to obey at least some of the Ten Maxims; the essential need for good behaviour; the essential need for good-brotherliness and sisterliness among the abhyasis; not to harm or hurt others by our talk or by our deeds - things like that, which come under the norms or behaviour and ethical principles. He has been emphasizing very much on the need for morality - including the prohibition of alcoholic drinks too. So we in Sahaj Marg have been treated by the Master very much as children in the school of yoga. But when we grow up, we are no longer expected to be foolish in our ways.
This is the stage when we have to enter that stage of life when we have to be educated, disciplined, trained in following the ethical rules, the commandments of morality and, last but not least, we have to be trained to know what is good for us and what is bad for us. We have joined Sahaj Marg not to be childish, not to be flippant, not to have that freedom which is licence - mistaken freedom - but we have come here for spiritual growth which presupposes external changes in behaviour, in ethical and moral living etc.

Conscience in our terminology, according to my Master, is nothing but the growth of a superior consciousness in ourselves. And when this real conscience develops, we find that true morality develops, true ethics develop, not because some church says so, or the police say so, or the Government says so, but because my inside tells me 'this you shall do and this you shall not do.' So, love breeds communion with the Ultimate, that communion makes Him grow in us. This breeds ethical and moral living, and we find that as we progress, increasingly higher states of consciousness become ours. So love makes morality possible. Love makes ethical living possible. Love makes pursuit of the goal possible notwithstanding all the problems that we have to face on the way, the so-called privations that we face, the deprivations that we suffer.

ETHICS

Ethics reflect one's attitude to one's behaviour to one's interpersonal relationship with other human beings. In essence, it is what guides our relationship with the external universe. I think, rather unfortunately, there is a tendency to imagine that ethics apply only to behaviour with human beings. Perhaps that is the most important aspect of ethics or ethical behaviour as such, but I understand from my Master's teaching that the concept of ethics must be a total concept, a global concept, in modern terminology for instance which embraces all life. In the vastness or the illimitability of the ancient Indian Vedic concept, life includes everything from mineral life to Divinity itself. Therefore ethics governs our relationship to all life, all nature as we understand it - how we treat minerals, how we treat plants, how we treat animals, birds, angels, even gods.

Today we see that in the Indian life especially there is a tendency or there has been a manifest tendency resulting in the deterioration of ethical values governing human existence. So much so that we can almost say that a totally selfish attitude reflects a lack of ethicality or ethical behaviour for instance. So when we become selfless, in a sense we can say that one is more ethical than one who is selfish.
So ethics are just rules of behaviour that have been created, like "Satyam vada, Dharmam chara" in Sanskrit for instance, essentially reflecting one's attitude to the outer world to promote one's inner existence, peace, growth, development, evolution to the highest level. But it should not be ignored, it should not be thought to be of lesser value than it is, because without ethics the subsequent things cannot happen, because ethics lays the foundation for one's cultural existence and in that way it forms the basis of human existence as such.

MORALITY

The one thing that makes a difference between a poor man and a rich man is money. The one thing that makes a difference between a fool and a wise man is wisdom. There is only one difference between an ugly girl and a beautiful girl; it is beauty. There is always only one thing which is the difference. You don't need two. And that is the essence of that, which you are seeking for in that. When you go to a beautiful woman, you seek her beauty, not the woman. But in a wife you seek a woman not her beauty. That is the distinguishing factor between morality and immorality. When you seek beauty in a woman you are immoral. If you seek the woman, whether she is beautiful or not, she is a wife. So you go to the Master for what? You should go to Him with the feeling, "Whatever He may be I love Him."

NEED FOR MORALITY
If a man can be a success in business without any education, with corrupt morals, with questionable ethics, I don't see why he should not be successful in yoga where none of these qualities are necessary. We don't need cunning in yoga, we don't need intelligence in yoga, we don't need auditors, we don't need solicitors, we don't need lawyers. All that we need is a heart which says, "I want to go home. Show me the way."

Today even black-marketeers say, you know, "I have done no harm, Sir! Why does this thing come to me?" I don't know what exactly they mean by 'doing no harm' when a man sells rice at twenty five rupees a kilo in times of famine, and considers it 'no harm', but genuine and legitimate profit, - you see we have perverted even the idea of morality that "when I do something with my money and it earns me a profit, however high, it is legitimate!" So we have twisted our ideas of morality, to suit our morals. We are not living by moral principles! We have twisted moral principles to suit the standard of life that we are living.

Is there any connection between moral degradation, loss of the heart in a spiritual or emotional sense, and its physical degradation? I remember that when I was young, I rarely heard of heart attacks or heart failures. Why today all of a sudden, you know, in frightening proportions? Also the same thing with cancer. Why? Why are these diseases suddenly coming into human beings? And if you want to know the answer, which you know but you are frightened to say, I am not afraid to say it - morality! And the latest manifestation of our immoral living is AIDS.

Please remember that all the great civilizations of the past, whether it was that of the Middle East or Greece or Rome or Babylon, they all fell when human beings became devils and morality disappeared from the scene. It is perhaps in this sense that you have the Christian tradition of the fall by temptation. It is supposed to have been the first immoral act. I do not know whether it is right or wrong, true or not true, but it is significant, significant enough for you to think over it because society has always fallen because of this.

Now this may look quite negative to Western people, that we have to live without power and knowledge and wealth. But that was not the intention of the yogis or of my teacher, of my Master. All that yogic practice demands of us is that we remove our attachment of these things. And instead of living for knowledge, or for wealth, or for power, we begin to live for ourselves and try to improve our inner substance, our inner condition, our inner quality, so that a moral stage of perfection can soon be reached when for such a person, all these things become instruments. Now he is able to use wealth, not for himself but for general good, power for the peoples' elevation, for their evolution, for their good, and education also for their good. So the self-centredness of the human being becomes now, a concern for humanity at large. That is why, in the Eastern traditions power is entrusted only to the morally perfect person.

It is very difficult to advocate anything. You see, you have to change the heart of the human being. Ethics and morality cannot be enforced. The more you enforce, the more there is reaction. It has to come out of an inner awakening. So we believe spiritual practice is the only possible way of changing the heart in such a way that there is a lasting change in human character. And by changing individuals only, we can change society.

Master has clearly, and in unambiguous language, emphasized that there cannot be, and must not be, an artificial divorce of morality and ethics from the other dimensions of life. Morality is the cornerstone of the edifice of human existence. Where it is lacking, that existence is one of fraud, of deceit, and of a selfish preying on society. Such a life has to be changed. Morality must not only be accepted as being essential, it has to be made the foundation for one's existence. To the extent that abhyasis anywhere are able to achieve this, to that extent will they be able to draw Master to themselves.

WHAT IS MORALITY?

The dilemma of existence we all face is precisely because we don't understand the principles, but try to think or act according to each individual circumstance. It is like, you know, we have in India the rules of the road, one way streets, but if there is no policeman, everybody goes through it. So this is a useful interpretation of rules, that when nobody sees what we are doing, we can do as we like.
One of the old definitions of morality, indeed, of all behaviour is: When you are alone, behave as if you are being watched by everybody else. When we don't wish to follow this principle, you find that we have several aspects of behaviour, one for ourselves, one in public, one at home, one in the office. And to mould our understanding of morality to such situations, we create individual morality, group morality, national morality, things like that. I don't think there is anything more than one morality. We have often come across people who say, well this is Indian morality, what about European morality? You see, it is as childish as saying we have Indian hunger and we have European hunger. So the first thing to be understood is that morality is one, applicable to all.

The second thing to be understood is that morality is free of the limitations of space and time. What I mean is that what is moral today cannot become immoral tomorrow, and what was immoral yesterday cannot become moral today. To put it briefly, we can say that morality is an absolute. I would like to say that wherever there is life, there must be morality.

What is one's attitude to one's own self is essentially what we understand by morality in the Sahaj Marg System. There is all too much of an emphasis not only in India but abroad to relate morality to solely sexual morality. I think one can see this rampant in Indian life, where if one is perhaps sticking to one's own wife and not playing around with others, one is supposed to be moral, though you can go around looting the people, conducting dacoities, making money by illegal means; all these are allowed under the terms of the overall concept of morality which restricts itself to the relationship between the two sexes.

Now my Master's teaching is that this is a narrowing down of the meaning of morality. Because morality is what one does with oneself, not what one does with others. So that is one aspect of morality as governing your personal integrity, which means that one must be oneself under all circumstances. Say what you mean, mean what you say. This is the fundamental, the root of moral existence that we don't say something when we mean something else, or we try to mean something when we say something else.

From that develops, as if from the roots, the further conception of morality that one must behave as if one's entire existence is involved in that behaviour. If we are able to do that, putting ourselves into each thought and action, then it becomes not only implicit, but explicit that my entire existence depends on what I am saying and doing. It is my wholeness, a completeness to my exposition of myself, shall I say, which reflects itself in all that we do and in what we say, how we act and how we behave. So while morality embraces sexual morality, it cannot exclude everything else except sexual morality which is an unfortunate trend in modern times, I think possibly as a revulsion against the permissive state of society in many of our countries.

So morality can be defined very simply, in my Master's words, as being fair to oneself in such a way that one can promote one's development to the highest, because when we do something wrong, forget what we are doing to others, it is what we are doing to ourselves that is more important. When I tell a lie, I am telling a lie to myself. When I cheat somebody, I am cheating myself. If I cheat somebody and think I am a good man and moral man and an ethical person, I am telling lies to myself, therefore I am hurting myself. In fact, we can say it is spiritual suicide. So morality is not committing spiritual suicide - that can be another definition of morality.

A third definition of morality emerges from a discussion on celibacy which I once had with my Master. What was the great need for celibacy, because we find in our ancient traditions rishis have had two wives; gods are always portrayed with two wives. My Master said, "Celibacy has nothing to do with morality per se. Morality is what we do to ourselves. So the Sahaj Marg conception of celibacy, as part of the moral tradition, is something to do more with the conservation of energy than one's behaviour. So we come finally to the meaning of morality as conservation of one's resources.

It is also morality to consume the minimum for the maximum benefit. So, morality is, at a certain level, a question of consumption or the proper utilisation of energy. It is therefore immoral to waste money. Just because I have money, I am not permitted to waste it. It is immoral to waste food. And the same principle is applied to what you all think of morality whenever you think of it - that is the relation between the sexes. It is immoral to waste the highest energy given to man or woman, the energy of creation. I have emphasized this, because very often people ask: when people love each other, what is wrong? It is like saying: I love food, so why should not I eat it? No love can be true if it is wasteful, or unnecessarily consuming things which it should not consume. In short, we can say that love cannot justify indulgence.

Love is morality. In this sense, that where love exists, there is no exploitation, there is no indulgence. We can easily understand this when you look at a person like the Master who loves all. And suppose He has to indulge with all, what would be the situation you see? So love has nothing to do with indulgence, nothing to do with gratification. So, at that level, love and morality are one. Such a person is moral, such a person is love personified, and there is no difference between the two. So, it is only one who is capable of such a love, who has absolute morality as part of his existence, part of his character. In fact, you can say such a person loves, because he is totally moral, and he is totally moral because he loves. In such a person we find a total conservation of energies. The principle of minimum consumption and maximum output we find automatically manifested in their lives. And whether they are expressing the lowest function of their existence or the highest function, the principle is the same.

Master always used to say that even in transmission the dosage should be exact. The principle being that because a thing is good, more of it cannot be better, and much more cannot be the best. Now this is the principle that normally governs our life. We think that because one glass of wine is good, two must be better, three must be the best. Similarly we apply it to riches, to pleasures, to enjoyments, all these things, you see. And unfortunately it takes a lifetime of material experience to tell us, to teach us, that excess is excess in whichever sphere we may exercise it. So, in that sense all excess is immorality. This principle Master once very beautifully said in a few words. He said, "Well, enough is enough. Anything more is too much."

So, the highest morality is exact utilisation of all the faculties that are given to us. And that means that whether it is the power of the mind or the power of the body or the power of spirit, the utilisation at all levels of existence has to be exact, and for the purpose for which they were bestowed upon us. And this principle Master has put very beautifully, that we don't use a crane to pick up a needle! So morality is the utilisation of each energy for the purpose for which it was given to man, to be used exactly as it should be used: no waste, no indulgence.

Thus, Morality is nothing but efficient utilization of resources, whether it is money, whether it is food, whether it is sex. We don't spend money for pleasure - we shouldn't. If you do that you are a fool, because money is hard-earned. They say, "The fool and his money are soon parted." So when we come to celibacy, it is the same thought: that something which is potent, which is creative, should not be squandered.

Money should not be spent for pleasure,
food should not be eaten for pleasure,
sex should not be indulged in for pleasure.
This is absolute morality.

Time is the most precious resource we have. Money can be earned again; time cannot be brought back. So when we waste time, when we squander time in pleasantry, in tomfoolery, in pleasure-seeking, we are destroying our existence and that is the highest immorality. So you see, wastage of any resource is immoral, whether it is our personal life, or whether we buy a loaf of bread and eat two slices and throw away the rest in the incinerator, or we chuck money around, or we indulge in other pleasures which are unnecessary - Morality is conservation. When you don't cut down trees which need not be cut or should not be cut and you protect life, when you become a vegetarian not because you love vegetarians or you hate meat, but because you cannot take life - " I cannot take another life to keep my life alive" - that is morality.

So please remember that resources must never be wasted. You know, in Denmark, I was shocked to find there was no cultivation in the fields because they are paid not to cultivate. Is this morality? A society which pays its farmers not to cultivate, a society which pays its drunkards and its lazy louts because they have no employment - what sort of a society are we living in? It is topsy-turvy, and we call it social benefit and such societies are wonderful: "In our country, you know, Chari, there is no poverty." What do you mean there is no poverty? There is absolute poverty of values, of moral values. Where is morality in such societies where you throw away food and see another person starving on the streets, and your heart doesn't open up and say, "Give this half loaf to him or her." "No, no. They don't work. They don't deserve sympathy."

So you see, it is an all encompassing morality where no God-given resources should be wasted or squandered - including the thinking process. I should not sit and think lazily of this, that, and the other. Therefore we meditate; we give a direction to our thought that is purposeful, that is productive, that is evolution-oriented. A man cannot become a woman, to be in Sahaj Marg. We don't ask Christians to embrace Hinduism. But you can change your thinking, and through right thinking, purposeful thinking, change your heart.

Now the principle of perfection also says that as we become more perfect, we become more perfect in morality, in utilization, in everything else. The higher we go, the less we have to use. And this we have seen in our experience with the Master that the longer the transmission the lower the level of the work. At the highest level He had to transmit for hardly a fraction of a second. And at the highest level, there is a system in existence where the input was absolutely the minimum and the output is absolutely the maximum. That is at the level of Divine creation where with one 'kshobh' what began is still continuing!

Morality is nothing more than being available only to the Beloved. It has nothing to do with sex and freedom, and all this nonsense - Bourgeois ideas! It is available only to the beloved. In spirituality, this is the relationship between the Master and the disciple. The lover sees only the beloved, the Master, listens only to the Master; reads only what the Master writes; follows only the Master. But today's abhyasis, they go to some other place, "Oh, your Master is like this?" No, no, no, Chariji. I have doubts in my mind." So they have given their ear to another person - their love is shattered. Doubt comes; there is no more love.

God does not give anything like that. And if you know that, you avoid excesses in any field, keeping the reserve for yourself to be used in a better way, then you become really moral because you know that when you play around you are playing with yourself. When you deplete your resources, you are depleting yourself. When you misbehave, you are misbehaving with yourself, fundamentally. And if this wisdom dawns, morality comes automatically.

The morality which says that I have this and this and this and I must use it to the best benefit of those who are in this world with me, that is the highest morality. At the top, we find everything meets: Divinity is the same as morality, morality is the same as spirituality, it is all one.

So morality ultimately, is a total conservation of one's total resources so that it is like confining an energy resource into a capsule like what you have in the rockets - in one grand burst it can take you from here to Eternity.

"Morality is that which keeps pushing me up."