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Transcend Character As Well
Character is again something pertaining to the temporal life
- life in this world, in the world of mutual relationships. Light is
needed when there is darkness. If you go by what the Vedas say, at the
time of Creation, there was neither sunlight nor darkness. It was a
state like dawn. No heat, no cold. No light, no darkness, no 'dwandwas'
as we call it, no dualities. So the Ultimate spiritual effort is to
bring that into our life. When there is no personality, there is no
character.
When we come to a still higher level of character, there is something
called INTEGRITY. Integrity means, "Being true to yourself".
Being true to your values at any cost. I must uphold my truth as I see
it. May be it is wrong today. But I prayerfully do it. Because you know
if you study the lives of great men, even politicians, like President
Abraham Lincoln for instance, he used to meditate before he took any
major decision. He did not consult his cabinet. He meditated in the
knowledge, in the wisdom, that essentially the decision is his. The
inner voice is infallible, it is ever true.
So, transcending character comes integrity. Because you find sometimes
men of character also misbehave. It can be a momentary passion or momentary
misdeed. The law recognises that a premeditated murder is not treated
in the same way as an unpremeditated murder. One is hanged and the other
gets a life-sentence. So, that is a moment of passion. Viswamitra is
another example. He was a saint, a rishi, but at the moment of
meditation a Menaka came along, something in him responded to her presence,
and the whole thing after it.
So, character is the ability to make decisions, after examining the
pros and cons. Integrity gives you the ability to do it. If morality
and moral values are instilled in you then you transfer the ability
and the need to judge also to Him to whom you have given room in your
heart. Now I am only an instrument. So there is no question of doer-ship,
there is no question of culpability, because 'I' am no longer acting,
'I' am no longer doing, 'I' am also no longer responsible. This is the
final stage of surrender. Then the body is just moving like a puppet
in the hands of a puppeteer. He who is inside me, is making me move
and act and do whatever is to be done. And largely the saints are supposed
to be like that, they are unconscious of what they say, they are unconscious
of what they do. They respond to the situation in the most unique way
because such actions are never repeated.
So, the first need is the moral values. The second need is integrity.
The third is character. Fourth is the strength of will to enable me
to go ahead with what I decide as right, notwithstanding the circumstances.
"In the hands of a man of character, power
is good. In the hands of a man of character, wealth is good. Everything
is good in the hands of a man of character."
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