Continued...
Five Codes of Conduct
Our conduct should be in tune with our state of being initiated. I recommend following five codes of conduct at the time of initiation. There is nothing secret about it. Everybody should know it. Hence I speak for everyone. No one can move towards God, unless he is pure in conduct. To proceed towards God the conduct must be pure.
We often hear about the necessity of taking pure food. Does it mean that our diet should include sufficient clarified butter? Not that. Pure food implies sattvika food, nourishing food. This is the scriptural injunction. The food that is beneficial both for the body and the mind and for building them up is to be consumed as much as the body needs it, i.e., one must not eat to satisfy one's greed. We must partake of the food with the idea that it will nourish our body and mind, and we shall use the nourished body and mind for contemplation of God.
Purification of one's conduct is even more important than purification of food. We shall state here the five types of good conduct.
1. We should pray for the welfare of all. We should behave in such a manner that no one's feelings are hurt and no harm is caused to anyone. We must not do anything by which anyone is hurt physically or mentally or whereby evil befalls anyone. The scriptures speak of Ahimsa or non-injury. It not only implies not hurting physically or mentally anyone, it also means not to think ill of others or harm others. This must be practiced in thought,word and deed.
2. We must hold on to truth always in such a way that under no circumstance should we deviate from it. We should never have recourse to falsehood. We must honour our commitments. Sri Ramakrishna used to say, 'One who holds on to truth rests in the lap of God.' He further says, 'Truthfulness is the austerity for Kaliyuga.' I am not saying that it is easy to stick to truth.It is not at all easy. We will have to make a lot of sacrifice in life to observe truthfulness. Hence, it is never an easy job. But we should not forget that holding on to truth is our ideal.
3.Let us not cheat anybody or deceive anybody in any way. Let us not get anything by cheating somebody. Let us be satisfied with what is due. This is honesty in our dealings with others. It is of great help in spiritual path.
4. WE have to bring all our sense organs under our control. Let us not be guided by them. Control over one or two sense organs will not do. All the senses are to be brought under control. It is a must for spiritual life.
5. Life is meant for thinking of God and for realising HIM. Lead a simple, straightforward and natural life. We should not seek luxury. I do not mean that all should wear clothes like beggars or live miserably. I mean we should strive to maintain ourselves with minimum requirements. we should be absolutely free from greed. The man who earns thousand rupees a month wants to earn five thousand instead. Another one, earning five thousand a month wishes for ten thousand monthly. In a similar fashion others are after a target of one lakh from ten thousand and even one crore from one lakh and so on. This is how our desires are continuously increasing. Such ever increasing cravings keep the mind constantly restless.
Meditation
We meditate on Sri Ramakrishna. Different people have different conceptions about him. It is natural because he is full of diversities. The more we evolve spiritually, the clearer becomes our ideal. The ideal gets evolved. For example, when we see a house from a distance, it appears hazy, as an outline. The more we get near it, the more it goes on becoming clearer and clearer.
Many ask,'Is it not enough to stare at the picture of Sri Ramakrishna?Why is it necessary to close the eyes?' The reason is,though it seems that we are gazing at the photograph of Sri Ramakrishna, along with it we are also seeing other things. The sight gets diversified away in different directions. The sight does not always remain fixed at the same place. Many try to concentrate their vision on a point. But the focus on a point does not remain still for long. That is why eyes should be closed. The external distractions are avoided by closing the eyes.
Then the endeavour should be only to eliminate the internal distractions. Both internal and external distracting factors remain if we keep eyes open. Therefore naturally, distractions get reduced to a considerable extent if one meditates with closed eyes. The internal distractions are eliminated by persistent meditation.
Meditation means negation and abolition of thoughts other than those of the object of meditation, the meditator, the meditating object and the process of meditation become one. the mind does not exist at that time. Because mind means constant cogitation (sankalpa -vikalpa), that is restlessness. When the mind is absolutely quiet, it is as if non-existent. That is why it is said that the three become one.
To be continued
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Five Codes of Conduct
Our conduct should be in tune with our state of being initiated. I recommend following five codes of conduct at the time of initiation. There is nothing secret about it. Everybody should know it. Hence I speak for everyone. No one can move towards God, unless he is pure in conduct. To proceed towards God the conduct must be pure.
We often hear about the necessity of taking pure food. Does it mean that our diet should include sufficient clarified butter? Not that. Pure food implies sattvika food, nourishing food. This is the scriptural injunction. The food that is beneficial both for the body and the mind and for building them up is to be consumed as much as the body needs it, i.e., one must not eat to satisfy one's greed. We must partake of the food with the idea that it will nourish our body and mind, and we shall use the nourished body and mind for contemplation of God.
Purification of one's conduct is even more important than purification of food. We shall state here the five types of good conduct.
1. We should pray for the welfare of all. We should behave in such a manner that no one's feelings are hurt and no harm is caused to anyone. We must not do anything by which anyone is hurt physically or mentally or whereby evil befalls anyone. The scriptures speak of Ahimsa or non-injury. It not only implies not hurting physically or mentally anyone, it also means not to think ill of others or harm others. This must be practiced in thought,word and deed.
2. We must hold on to truth always in such a way that under no circumstance should we deviate from it. We should never have recourse to falsehood. We must honour our commitments. Sri Ramakrishna used to say, 'One who holds on to truth rests in the lap of God.' He further says, 'Truthfulness is the austerity for Kaliyuga.' I am not saying that it is easy to stick to truth.It is not at all easy. We will have to make a lot of sacrifice in life to observe truthfulness. Hence, it is never an easy job. But we should not forget that holding on to truth is our ideal.
3.Let us not cheat anybody or deceive anybody in any way. Let us not get anything by cheating somebody. Let us be satisfied with what is due. This is honesty in our dealings with others. It is of great help in spiritual path.
4. WE have to bring all our sense organs under our control. Let us not be guided by them. Control over one or two sense organs will not do. All the senses are to be brought under control. It is a must for spiritual life.
5. Life is meant for thinking of God and for realising HIM. Lead a simple, straightforward and natural life. We should not seek luxury. I do not mean that all should wear clothes like beggars or live miserably. I mean we should strive to maintain ourselves with minimum requirements. we should be absolutely free from greed. The man who earns thousand rupees a month wants to earn five thousand instead. Another one, earning five thousand a month wishes for ten thousand monthly. In a similar fashion others are after a target of one lakh from ten thousand and even one crore from one lakh and so on. This is how our desires are continuously increasing. Such ever increasing cravings keep the mind constantly restless.
Meditation
We meditate on Sri Ramakrishna. Different people have different conceptions about him. It is natural because he is full of diversities. The more we evolve spiritually, the clearer becomes our ideal. The ideal gets evolved. For example, when we see a house from a distance, it appears hazy, as an outline. The more we get near it, the more it goes on becoming clearer and clearer.
Many ask,'Is it not enough to stare at the picture of Sri Ramakrishna?Why is it necessary to close the eyes?' The reason is,though it seems that we are gazing at the photograph of Sri Ramakrishna, along with it we are also seeing other things. The sight gets diversified away in different directions. The sight does not always remain fixed at the same place. Many try to concentrate their vision on a point. But the focus on a point does not remain still for long. That is why eyes should be closed. The external distractions are avoided by closing the eyes.
Then the endeavour should be only to eliminate the internal distractions. Both internal and external distracting factors remain if we keep eyes open. Therefore naturally, distractions get reduced to a considerable extent if one meditates with closed eyes. The internal distractions are eliminated by persistent meditation.
Meditation means negation and abolition of thoughts other than those of the object of meditation, the meditator, the meditating object and the process of meditation become one. the mind does not exist at that time. Because mind means constant cogitation (sankalpa -vikalpa), that is restlessness. When the mind is absolutely quiet, it is as if non-existent. That is why it is said that the three become one.
To be continued
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