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our relationship to God? How to attain Moksha? What is the Svarupa of Moksha?
3. The beginning of ethics is to reflect upon ourselves, our surroundings and our actions.
Before we act we must stop to think. When a man earnestly attends to what he recognises as his
duties, he will progress and in consequence thereof his comfort and prosperity will increase. His
pleasures will be more refined; his happiness, his enjoyments and recreations will be better and
nobler. Happiness is like a shadow; if pursued it will flee from us, but if a man does not trouble
himself about it and strictly attends to his duties, pleasures of the best and noblest kind will crop out
everywhere in his path. If he does not anxiously pursue it, happiness will follow him.
4. The increase or rather refinement of happiness, however, cannot be considered as the
ultimate aim of ethics, for pain and affliction increase at the same rate because man s irritability, his
susceptibility to pain grows with the growth of his intellectuality. The essence of all existence is
evolution or a constant realization of new ideals. Therefore the elevation of all human emotions,
whether they are painful or happy, the elevation of man s existence, of his actions and aspirations, is
the constant aim of ethics.
5. The Socratic formula:  Virtue is knowledge, is found to be an adequate explanation of
the moral life of man. Knowledge of what is right, is not coincident with doing it, for man, while
knowing the right course is found deliberately choosing the wrong one. Desire tends to run counter
to the dictates of reason; and the will, perplexed by the difficulty of reconciling two such opposite
demands, tends to choose the easier course and follow the inclination rather than to endure the pain
of refusing desire in obedience to the voice of reason. Hence mere intellectual instruction is not
sufficient to ensure right doing. There arises the further need for chastisement or the straightening
of the crooked will, in order to ensure its cooperation with reason in assenting to what it affirms to
be right, and its refusal to give preference to desire or the irrational element in man s nature when
such desire runs counter to the rational principle.
6. The pure reason urges a man to what is the best. The Asuric nature of a man fights and
struggles against the man. The impulses of a man who has not undergone the ethical discipline runs
counter to his reason. All advice, all rebuke and exhortation, all admonition testify that the irrational
part is amenable to reason.
7. The basis of good manners is self-reliance. For such reasons have the great founders and
eminent teachers of all religions repeatedly proclaimed the need for recognising the Godhead
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within and for self-reliance in the last resort rather than any texts and persons and customs.
Self-reliance is the basis of behaviour.
8. Self-control is the greatest in the man whose life is dominated by ideals and general
principles of conduct. The final end of moral discipline is self-control. The whole nature of man
must be disciplined. Each element requires its specific training. Discipline harmonises the opposing
elements of his soul. The self-control will enable the aspirant to know the Truth, to desire the good
and win the right and thus to realise the Reality.
9. Discipline is the training of our faculties, through instructions and through exercise, in
accordance with some settled principle of authority. You must discipline not only the intellect but
also the will and the emotions. A disciplined man will control his actions. He is no longer at the
mercy of the moment. He ceases to be a slave of his impulses and Indriyas. Such mastery is not the
result of one day s effort. One can acquire the power by protracted practice and daily
self-discipline. You must learn to refuse the demands of impulses. A self-controlled man will be
able to resist the wrong action to which a worldly man is most strongly impelled.
3. Ethics is a Means to Yoga
1. All aspirants commit mistakes now in jumping to Samadhi and Dhyana all at once as soon
as they leave their houses without caring a bit for ethical perfection. The mind remains in the same
condition although they have practiced meditation for fifteen years. They have the same jealousy,
hatred, idea of superiority, pride, egoism, etc. Meditation and Samadhi come by themselves when
one has the ethical perfection.
2. Sadachara or right conduct is the foundation of Yoga. Yoga is rooted in virtue. Ethical
discipline is very necessary for success in Yoga. Ethical discipline is the practice of right conduct in [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]