All life is sacred. Therefore, deal reverentially with all beings. All beings are repositories of the Divine, because He is the presence within. Recognise this presence. Conduct yourself in a lofty and sublime manner. Be kind to all. Be respectful and just to all. Honour the sanctity, purity and holiness of each and every living being. Be pure in thought, word and deed. Harbour good thoughts, noble, sublime thoughts, goodwill and good wishes towards all your fellow beings. Be polite and courteous in your day-to-day dealings with others. Do not bear ill will towards anyone. Do not bear a grudge towards anyone. Do not taunt anyone. Do not backbite or carry tales. All these go against the basic concept that God dwells in all people.
All people are derserving of our reverence, respect and goodwill. Honour the individuality of others. The living presence of God in all beings should be the basis of our attitude and behaviour towards others, our approach to the world.
Ask: What am I living for?
There should be the urge in you for self-improvement; there should be the urge for evolution in each one of your. The hallmark of an awakened and enlightened individual human soul is that there is a recognition that life is not meant for stagnation, that it is not meant for routine, humdrum repetition of the same monotonous activities, but that it is meant for achievement, for attainment. It is meant for moving towards a supreme goal, a lofty, sublime goal. It is meant for living for a noble ideal. Life is an ascent, an upward ascent.
Those who have bestowed thought on life soon begin to realize that life is not merely biological functioning; it is not merely psychological activity – a confusion of restless psychological activity. Rather, it is higher and a spiritual movemet, it is a higher and spiritual evolution. Once that is known, one has to constantly ask oneself, “Am I engaged in this upward movement of the Spirit towards regaining a state of perfection that is Its natural state, natural condition?
It is therefore, good to ask oneself, “What am I living for, with what objective, to what end, for what purpose?” so that gradually such repeated questioning begins to make your goal, your objective, clear-cut. In the course of time, slowly but steadily you become established in a firm conviction, “This is what I am living for. This is what I am striving to attain and achieve.”
“Life is meant for God-realisation. The goal of life is God-realisation.” That is very easy to say, and that may be your ultimate goal, but you have to live here, very much in this world amongst people and things – undergoing various experiences with different events occurring. So, in this environmental set-up, in this atmosphere, involved in this ever-changing process day after day, how are you to live your life?
Be like salt. Withotu salt everything will be insipid, nothing will be tasty. The great teacher of the Middle East, Jesus, told His followers: “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, it is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out.” Therefore, we should be ever occupied in trying to make ourselves into such an element, such a factor, that it makes life livable for others, it helps make life worth living for others.
This, then, is the objective – to live in such a way that day by day we become a better and better person, more and more an ideal human individual, so that life is better off for our being in it. Not a killjoy, but a joy, not an element of disharmony and discord but an element of harmony, concord and sweetness.
Swami Chidananda in ‘Awake! Realise Your Destiny!’
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