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What is Morality? (Contd.)
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, "When 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.
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