Articles for Saadhana

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.

I was writing on some of the qualities of the human individual particularly of those who are in the performance field. Any country has to progress and the progress can be made only when there are national performers. Performers who feel happy in taking up national missions, national tasks and doing them well. There is always a conflict in the mind because the salaries and rewards given by the Government are always much less than what the private industry can afford and does give.

So it is very difficult to get good performers for the Government. In that case you will find the Government work and achievement will always be substandard and will be greatly delayed. This is a bane of perhaps of every country, I don’t know, but certainly of India. But amongst them you will find there are some people who are given to good and classical performance because this is always related to subjective inner personality and the qualities it has.

Truthfulness - It is not a quality of the body. Honesty - That also is not of the body. In that way you will find perseverance and integrity. Integrity is a quality which stands in an outstanding manner. It is recorded by world documentation experts that any chief executive who has been able to elevate the corporation to considerably higher levels has always been a man of integrity, integrity, integrity.

So integrity is not a subduing quality. It’s not a negative one. It is a very powerful, positive one. So, I was trying to think as to how this integrity works and how people of integrity are successful. Generally you will find a man of integrity is invariably surrounded by people who are not so. So how will he make his mark? The people surrounding him are of his level and levels above. Particularly political lords under whom he has to work. So can integrity succeed? Is it possible? If you ask me, I am a researcher. So I have to research and bring forth the truth. So I was quoting one verse from Bhagavad Gita.

Sri Krishna, in the last six chapters of Bhagavad Gita presents a number of enumerations. The entire spirituality and philosophy are presented in an arithmetical manner giving names, giving categories, comparisons, contrasts etc. There he categories everything as sāttvik, rājasik and tāmasik. The sāttvik one is the most qualitative one.

He says sukhās also are categorized as tāmasik, rājasik and sāttvik. What is this sāttvik sukha? Without any qualms he says, ‘yat-tad-agre viṣamiva’. Whatever is poisonous in the beginning but subsequently become nectarine. So if you have a sāttvik quality, that quality will certainly bring about bitter and painful experiences to begin with. Only in their hands, the mind will derive the deeper and loftier qualities to be a very good performer and to be trusted by nature. This is something very important.

A happy mind cannot have strength. A mind which has undergone sorrow, privation, austerity, hardship, confrontation, that mind is the powerful mind. Unless you are climbing hills you will not have steady feet. Whether you climb the hills or maybe in your treadmill also, you put it on an incline and start walking. It is a very important point. How to develop your heart? You have to walk fast, run and the like. So every time, as is the case with the body, the mind also has to be tested and teased by hardship, difficulty etc.

So far as sukha is concerned, he says, whatever is initially bitter and painful, subsequently it becomes nectarine. This is the quality of sattva.

Any quality of the mind and the intelligence is actually a spiritual quality. In our personality, the body is governed by physical, chemical, bio- physical, bio-chemical and biological laws. The entire world of matter-energy is also governed by these laws. But if the matter-energy body has to be acted upon, has to be acting and efficient, it has to be acted upon by the supra-material elements like the mind, intelligence and ego.

If our functions, our life primarily depends upon supra-material constituents, then the laws pertaining to them are even more effective than the physical and chemical laws because they are the inner laws by virtue of which our mind and intelligence are motivated and they become functional.

So I am trying to argue out and establish on one factor. Integrity is actually a spiritual quality. So the spiritual law is operating in that field. That spiritual law is such that ‘yat-tad-agre viṣamiva pariṇāme’mṛtopamam.’ Initially it will be painful and inflicting. But later on, it will prove to be nectarine.

A man of integrity is surrounded by so many factors. There will a number of unfriendly people. Some very good performers used to say “Swamiji, how can I stand the jealousy of so many people around me?” When somebody is promoted and people write about him, speak about him, his photograph is published, write-ups appear on world magazines, automatically parallel performers will have a feeling of difficulty. It is a confrontation to them. You cannot ignore them. It is a fact. But you have to ignore, never try to take it into account and suffer or try to do anything about it. This is characteristic of such people.

So you must always have the defense, the defensive attitude. Let all of them do and say whatever they like. The law of integrity, the law of spirituality will take over because the opposition, jealousy etc. are springing from their mind and intelligence. The laws that are to govern them are the spiritual laws. And the spiritual laws are such that integrity, honesty, commitment and the like have the intrinsic worth to sustain and succeed. It is their spiritual worth, spiritual potential to sustain and succeed that make the people of integrity succeed against all odds and ends. I think this is something to be understood by people.

Everybody is asking. “I am truthful. In this world, truthfulness cannot pay, unless I become untruthful.” Because the people are by and large untruthful, that is all the more reason that you should become truthful.

When the body is infected, what do we do? We are trying to generate immunity and also fight the infection. So, a few untruthful people will not mean destruction of the world. The truthful people will have to assert their adherence. Then you will find the spiritual laws shield them, make them sustain, sustain them and lead them to success. The law is what Gita says. I call it “The Integral Yogic performance.” That will shield you, sustain you and lead you to success because it has got that intrinsic power to do so.

Just like the force of gravity, the law of motion, this is the law of integrity. I think one should know about it well. Normally people don’t know but they practice the quality. But how integrity punishes, how it rewards in the end? This is a law by itself. The mind cannot improve or gain in its worth, depth and loftiness, unless it is nursed by a lot of opposition, confrontation, hardship and the like.

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.