(Contd.........Part 1)
How our behaviour is influenced by our Belief System
For, it is our beliefs that determine our outlook, our attitudes and our behaviour. For example, if people believe that man is a fighting animal or is aggressive by nature and that wars are, therefore, inevitable, then their behaviour would be influenced by these beliefs and then nothing can help to make the world better. Similarly, if people feel that man is, originally and basically selfish, then this too would determine his behaviour and then all our attempts to infuse in him the spirit of service would be futile because our efforts to promote values would be weakened by our these beliefs and would be only halfhearted.
It has rightly been said that Man is what his faith is. His faith has the power to move mountains. So, if his faith is that aggression and fighting are natural to him and that he has animal instincts in him, then the tinder is always there and a small spark can ignite it. If, on the other hand, man has the faith that his original nature is pure and divine, then he can be divine’. So, it is essential to give him right type of faith and belief-system.
Influence of relationship on behaviour
Further, it is our awareness of our relations that determines our behaviour. The behaviour of a mother towards her children, a wife towards her husband, a child towards its parents or a teacher towards his or her students is influenced by each one’s awareness of that particular relationship with the other.
Similarly, one’s samskaras also affect one’s behaviour. Even when a person has a wish to become good, his vicious samaskaras may exert great force on him to do the opposite though, of course, he can control this urge or the samaskaras.
An example of a wrong belief and its consequences
Today, a very large number of people think that Matter is the only real thing. They believe that if the existence of an entity cannot be ascertained and affirmed as it can be done in the case of a material object or force, then that entity is only a hypothetical or imaginary one; its existence is not real. So, they do not believe in the existence of soul which is a nonphysical, nonmaterial and a spiritual entity. They either do not know or they overlook the fact that there is available many kinds of evidence that bears testimony to the truth that Soul is a metaphysical entity that really exists and that the nature of the conscient soul is different from the inconscient Matter.
Such people fail to realise that if we treat persons as if they were objects of Matter, they resent and protest. Similarly, we cannot treat material objects as conscient persons because they have no emotions, experience or relationship with us. Obviously, these are two different realms of existence. Consciousness is the basic or the primary reality, for if there were no consciousness, then even the existence of Matter could not be known.
This then shows that the very first or the basic belief of millions of people of the world namely that there are no souls but only Matter is wrong. This wrong belief has led them to identify themselves with their respective body and to consider only their physical relatives as their own relatives. This, in turn, has resulted in narrow loyalties only towards their nearest relatives or only to their racial, ethnic or national groups. It is this that has resulted in giving them narrow world-view, narrow considerations and group-rivalries and this has struck hard at the root of harmony among human beings.
If, instead of this, man considered his identity as nonphysical and realised that he is a soul a conscient being-of-light which has feelings, emotions, memories, beliefs, etc. and that others also are conscient beings and that, as souls, they are all brothers among themselves, with God as their Mother-Father, then the condition in the world would be altogether different.
For, then this realisation would give us all a firm and sound basis for relating ourselves to each other. As brothers, we would think that we have a responsibility to look: after each other, to feel concerned for the well-being of each one and to give each other love and care and to cooperate with each other and to share. Then all that overstressing of the self, or greed, or injustice, or cruelty and violence, which we mentioned earlier, would vanish.
This relationship, built on belief that our identity is as of a soul would give us a link with God and the influence of God and His attributes on us, through this link, would purify our love so that our love would now become universal and divine. This, in turn, would eliminate our tendencies to commit ‘the eight deadly sins’ or nine vices because, as has been explained earlier, the root cause of all of them is vitiation, perversion or pollution of love.
So, let it be clearly understood by all that it is our body-consciousness and our ignorance of our real identity and the wrong belief about the self that has generated these sins. Even Raga and Dvesha—the two roots of these eight deadly sins or the nine major evils, mentioned earlier, have sprung up from ignorance, body-consciousness or the wrong belief about the self-identity working as the seed.
Our Goals and our Circumstances
The circumstances, the events and behaviour of others in their interaction with us also exert their influence on our behaviour. But if we keep a higher ideal to inspire us, and we build up proper attitudes, then we can always maintain a high standard of behaviour. It has, therefore, been rightly said that ‘we may not be able to change the events but we can change our attitudes’ and that ‘it is our high ideal (Laksh) which infuses in us high qualities (Lakshan)’.
Need for new spiritual knowledge
This explains the reason why the wise men, throughout the ages, advised us to ask ourselves the fundamental questions: ‘What am I”? Whence did 1 come? Whether am I going? What is the meaning of life? What is our relationship to space and time? What is the relation of our Karma with our happiness or sorrow? Etc. We now need new spiritual knowledge on these and other questions that is easy and is powerful to bring about change in people on mass scale.
Life-style based on new knowledge
In fact, it is worth experiencing how a life-style, based on the belief that ‘I am an eternal and immortal soul, and am pure and peaceful in my original nature, and am a child of God, who is the Holiest and the Perfect Being and is most loving, kind and compassionate, and that Purity is the mother of Peace and that this world is a Drama builds new attitudes, gives new experience of bliss and constant and deep peace and changes behaviour tremendously. It is this which generates the highest of values in our life. Not only does it fill our emotional void but it also serves as emotional catharisis or as a spirituother-apy for the ills afflicting our soul. It widens our vision, enabling us to consider the whole planet earth as our home and the whole mankind as our extended family.
Process of transformation
Thus, changing our inner world of ideas, it changes the outer world of events. Our complexes, which were exerting unwholesome influences on us, now get dissolved and our inner and outer conflicts get resolved. The complexes which had become morbid or pathological and were dominating our personality and were finding outlets in the form of suppressed desires-dreams, nervous disorders, or disorders of conduct, and our conflicts and emotional disturbances that were finding substituted expression in numerous forms of deviant behaviour or misconduct and were using the psychological mechanisms of Escape, Defence, Substitution, Rationalisation and Regression now find Sublimation. On the basis of New Knowledge, we now have new reconditioning that changes our way of thinking, our thought content and our outlook and life-style.
We die a psychological death from our past and now have a new life, a new awakening, a new kind of contentment, new light and solace and peace. We now have new ideals and better motives, noble ideas and positive thoughts. We now belong to a new culture. This discovery of our real identity and living a life of soul-consciousness is like finding a key to a box that has so many keys, each for a separate treasure. This is a self-generated, self-sustained and easy process of change that makes our life worth living.
All encompassing transformation
We have earlier talked about the influence of home, school, group, institutions, language, literature, media, arts, profession, etc. on our behaviour. Whereas it is necessary to bring values to all these in order to build a better world, the above-mentioned transformation through (1) New Knowledge, (2) stabilisation in the real identity of the self and (3) through establishing a spiritual link with God brings about a change, resist anything that can have negative influences on anyone of the above and triggers a salubrious change in these, thus facilitating or catalysing the process of world-transformation and harmony in mankind.
It is because man’s behaviour, which is mainly his interaction with other persons or objects or his response to situations and events, or his initiatives in action is determined by his vrittis which are a combination of his beliefs, attitudes, outlook, motives, moods and memories and samaskaras. And by stabilising one’s consciousness in the self and by linking one’s awareness to God with deep love, all the others get transformed. This stabilisation in the self and loveful awareness of God is called Rajayoga Meditation. It is this which changes one’s whole ‘privritti’ and personality into a harmonious and integrated personality and gives a person various kinds of balances.
Practice of certain balances
Presently, man either neglects his spiritual well-being due to his ultra-materialistic attitude or he overlooks his material welfare by running away from activity and social life due to wrong doctrines of so-called spiritual knowledge. He is over-emphatic about law and rejects the element of love in social life or he takes the reverse course for opposite reasons.
He is either too much extrovert or too much introvert. He becomes overenthusiastic about spiritual development and does not pay proper attention to material progress or does the reverse of it. But Rajayoga, referred to above, now gives him a balanced life so that he synthesises the material and the spiritual values and takes care of his multisided development. He tries his best to achieve excellence. He aims at all-round perfection and works devotedly and with efficiency to attain the set goals.
Achievement of Excellence
The spiritual knowledge, meditation and effort, referred to above, now give him the goal of achieving perfection in all the divine virtues, such as self-control, patience, tolerance, contentment, humility, truthfulness, honesty, love and sweetness, nonviolence, etc. It inspires him to become all-virtuous like Shri Narayana or Shri Lakshmi or such other beings. This new imagery, picture or vision draws him nearer to this goal of excellency, self-fulfilment and beatitude or bliss.
It also spiritualises his relationships. Whereas his behaviour previously was determined by -such physical relationships as of a father to a son, a teacher to a student, an employee to an employer and so on, his all these relationships are now value-based and are built on soul-consciousness. He considers every human being as a dignified individual and treats everyone with respect and love to all, maintaining at the same time, his self-respect and dignity or royal demeanour.
Further, he is now aware of his samskaras, habits, tendencies or urges and, through Rajayoga Meditation, he now exerts control over them or makes efforts to eliminate them. Thus, his self-transformation works at all of the intellect, mind, emotion, samaskaras, Karmas, etc. levels and this helps him to maintain and promote harmony.
Belief in the inviolable law of Karma
He now considers no one as his enemy. To him, his own evil actions are his worst enemy and his own good actions are his best friends. He treats all lovingly and as friends. He aims at serving all and having a kind of behaviour that harms or hurts none and gives happiness and brings well-being of all with whom he interacts. He offers his best collaboration for noble causes and has goodwill for all, irrespective of any kind of differences. He radiates, peace and spreads vibrations of universal love.
This kind of life-style is what is known as real transformation and it is this that establishes man’s harmony with his own inner self, with his natural and human environment and with the world as a whole. This is brought about by one’s unshakable belief in the inviolability of the law of karma, i.e. in having the firm faith that we will suffer for our bad actions and get happiness or rise higher due to out good actions.
Contd....Part 3
Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya
