...you must practise discrimination...

"...you must practise discrimination... `lust and gold' is impermanent. God is the
only Eternal Substance. What does a man get with money? Food, clothes, and a
dwelling-place - nothing more. You cannot realize God with its help. Therefore
money can never be the goal of life. That is the process of discrimination. "As soon as
a man finds his mind wandering away to the unreal, he should apply discrimination.
The moment an elephant stretches out its trunk to eat a plantain-tree in a neighbour's
garden, it gets a blow from the iron goad of the driver." (The Gospel of Sri
Ramakrishna)
This was the fourth commandment of Sri Ramakrishna. Discrimination is the
faculty of distinguishing the higher from the lower, right from wrong, the sacred
from the profane, and living that life. It is not mere intellectual gymnastics. Right
understanding without the effort to lead an appropriate life is not only useless; it is
dangerous and results in much suffering. Discrimination should be followed by
dispassion and self-control. Blessed are those who have discrimination. It is the lamp
that burns brightly in the hearts of all good and happy people; it lights up the path
of life and gently leads one to God. Right discrimination results in peace, joy and
Self-knowledge.
Discrimination is there in the heart of every creature helping it survive and
thrive. But it is only in man that discrimination attains a glory that is unsurpassed;
for it leads man to Self-knowledge and absolute freedom. Without it man cannot be
happy even in worldly life, not to speak of attaining any spiritual success. All
successful people whether spiritual or secular, possess it in a greater degree. Most
people, though, use it for worldly ends.
Needless to say discrimination is indispensable in spiritual life. According to
Shankaracharya, Viveka or discrimination is one of the foremost requisites for
treading the path of knowledge; it is indispensable whatever be the path we tread.
Shankara defines it thus: "A firm conviction of the mind to the effect that Brahman is
real and the universe unreal." (Vivekachudamani) This process of discrimination is
useful only for those who are far advanced in spiritual life. Most of us are far from it;
we are not aware of what is unreal even though we are living in its very midst, not
to speak of what is Real. And so it does not really concern us at this stage. What is
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useful for us is to find out what makes us sane, rational, strong, pure, cheerful,
balanced and truthful.
Without discrimination man can never make progress. One of the reasons
why so many aspirants make little or no progress in spite of many years of regular
practice is due to the lack of discrimination.
Four things are necessary to be able to discriminate properly: awareness,
rationality, a well-defined goal, and sufficient will power. The faculty of
discrimination will be absent or does not help us if these four requirements are not
met. The very first requirement is awareness. Most of us wade through life as sleepwalkers,
doing things mechanically, blissfully unaware of what is being done. Laya
(sleep) or mechanical spiritual practice is one of the very first obstacles to Yoga. Until
one develops the habit of doing everything with awareness there will be little or no
progress. If only we can cultivate the habit of keeping a watch on whatever we do -
whether it is talking, reading, cooking or meditating - a lot of problems, both
physical and mental, can be avoided; certainly it saves time, money and effort.
"Even though it was the Master's Day of Silence a traveller begged for a word
of wisdom that would guide him through life's journey. The Master nodded affably,
took a sheet of paper and wrote a single word on it: "Awareness." The visitor was
perplexed. "That's too brief. Would you please expand on it a bit?" The Master took
the paper back and wrote: "Awareness, awareness, awareness." "But what do these
words mean?" said the stranger helplessly. The Master reached out for the paper and
wrote: "Awareness, awareness, awareness means AWARENESS." (One Minute
Wisdom, p.9, by Anthony de Mello, S.J.)
Psychology tells us that by just being aware of our thoughts, emotions,
motives and actions many a problem can be nipped in the bud. Even if the problem
persists it would be easier to deal with and much suffering could be avoided. One of
the functions of the teacher is to keep a watch over the aspirant's behaviour and
warn him of the impending trouble even before it surfaces. Here the teacher is doing
what the aspirant should have done himself. One develops awareness through
constant practice; there is no short-cut.
The second requirement is to use reason and develop rationality.
`Hunger, sleep, insecurity and sex urge are common to men and animals but
the understanding of dharma is the extra quality of man which makes what a man
is'. ( Hitopadesa) Without dharma he is just an animal. The word dharma may be
loosely translated as right conduct and behaviour, which is the result of right
knowledge. And right knowledge can only be got from being rational. To be rational
means to be objective, fair and just. It is also the only way of doing anything rightly.
`Man is a rational animal' is a well known adage, but experience shows human
beings are rarely rational. St Francis de Sales, the admirable and practical teacher
that he was, puts it so succinctly thus: "We are human only because of our reason,
and yet it is very rare to find people who are truly reasonable. Self-love frequently
falsifies rationality and leads it into a thousand kinds of injustices which, though
often small, are nonetheless dangerous. We fault our neighbour for a trifle, but
excuse ourselves for a major fault; we desire to sell for a good price, but to buy at a
bargain; we demand that justice be meted out in the house of another, but want
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mercy in our own; we wish people to take our remarks in the right light, but we are
sensitive and prickly about what is said to us; ....If we take an aversion to someone,
no matter what he does, we find him at fault and ceaselessly badger and annoy him.
We are punctilious about maintaining our rank, but want others to be humble and
accommodating. We readily complain about our neighbour, but are annoyed when
he complains about us. What we do for another always seems considerable to us, but
what he does for us always seems insignificant. Be just in all your actions; always
put yourself in your neighbour's place, and put your neighbour in yours, and then
you will judge fairly. Imagine yourself the seller when buying, and the buyer when
selling, and then you will sell and buy fairly. We lose nothing by living generously,
nobly, courteously, with a royal, just and rational heart. Examine your heart often to
be assured that it is behaving toward your neighbour as you would want his to
behave toward you. Therein lies true reason." (Introduction to The Divine Life,
pp.249-250, by St. Francis de Sales) Most of the ills and suffering in the world can be
attributed to irrationality. The root cause of irrationality is narcissism. Would to God
more of us were more rational and reasonable! On this admirable quality Eric
Fromm has this to say: "The narcissistic orientation is one in which one experiences
as real only that which exists within oneself, while the phenomena in the outside
world have no reality in themselves, but are experienced only from the viewpoint of
their being useful or dangerous to one. The opposite pole to narcissism is objectivity;
it is the faculty to see people and things as they are, objectively, and to be able to
separate this objective picture from a picture which is formed by one's desires and
fears. All forms of psychosis show the inability to be objective, to an extreme degree.
For the insane person, the only reality that exists is that within him, that of his fears
and desires. He sees the world outside as symbols of his inner world, as his creation.
All of us do the same when we dream. In the dream we produce events, we stage
dramas, which are the expression of our wishes and fears (although sometimes also
of our insights and judgement), and while we are asleep we are convinced that the
product of our dreams is as real as the reality which we perceive in our waking state.
The insane person or the dreamer fails completely in having an objective view of the
world outside; but all of us are more or less insane, or more or less asleep; all of us
have an unobjective view of the world, one which is distorted by our narcissistic
orientation. ...." (The Art of Loving, pp. 98-99, by Eric Fromm) Needless to say
without rationality we cannot overcome our narcissism, we wouldn't even be
human. The third requirement is a well-defined goal. While it is true that
discrimination becomes effective only after we have a goal, it is also true that
discrimination itself will not function without having at least some idea about our
goal. An ideal or a goal gives a purpose and meaning to life; it helps us release our
energies and potentialities. Without a goal all our activities become desultory, and
energies become scattered. A goal also serves as a way of measuring our progress.
Without a set goal any talk of progress is meaningless. Even in this world a higher
type of goal brings a lot of peace and joy. It is a common experience that even a little
achievement towards a good goal gives us a sense of well-being not to be had by any
amount of sense enjoyment. If this be the case we can imagine the joy and peace an
aspirant is likely to experience when he has God-realisation as his goal. Sincere
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effort, however small, brings immense satisfaction immediately. Without a definite
goal and a strong desire for attaining it discrimination does not help. Many aspirants
after reading a few books jump to the conclusion that God-realisation is the goal and
focus all their attention on it. Though this is the ultimate goal it is well to bear in
mind it is a long term goal to be attained only after many lives of intense effort.
What should concern us right now and is helpful is to have short term goals that can
take us to the next higher step. These goals include overcoming defects like hatred,
jealousy, waste of time and energy in frivolous talking and useless activities. If we
look objectively at our way of life we will be surprised at the many undesirable traits
we cherish. Without getting rid of these no advancement is possible however much
japa or meditation we may do. One of the devotees of Sri Ramakrishna used to say
often `that rowing an anchored boat is useless'. Swami Brahmananda's advice in this
regard is an indispensable must for every spiritual aspirant: "Every night before you
go to sleep, think for a while how much time you have spent in doing good deeds
and how much time you have wasted; how much time you have spent in meditation
and how much you have wasted in idleness. Make your mind strong through the
observance of continence and the practice of meditation. You cannot buy God. His
vision comes only through his grace. Does this mean that you should not practice
spiritual disciplines? Certainly you must practice, otherwise passions will create
havoc in you. A rich man employs a porter whose duty it is to see that neither
thieves, nor cows, nor sheep, nor any other intruder enter the compound. Man's
mind is his porter, and the stronger the mind becomes, the better." (The Eternal
Companion, p.197) The fourth requirement is a strong will. Oscar Wilde's quip, `I
can resist anything but temptation' is a truism for most of us. If we give in to
temptation what else is there to resist? Temptations, pitfalls and suffering in life are
unavoidable. They are, in fact, our best friends in spiritual life; but for them all of us
would be saints! What separates a saint from a worldly man is suffering and
temptation. If life is all joy and sweetness we will be forever stuck in this mire of
samsara. Miseries and temptations give us an invaluable opportunity of proving our
mettle and strengthening our will-power; these are the very steps of the spiritual
ladder leading to Self-knowledge. No one is born with an irresistible will as a
fatuous gift from God. As we go on developing the habit of exercising our will it
grows. In course of time it becomes strong enough to help us overcome greater
pitfalls and move forward towards our goal. Life affords us daily more than enough
opportunities of exercising our will. The best way of developing a strong will is to
accept the situations of life cheerfully, with equanimity, and to strive to move
towards God with patience and perseverance. Regular practice of japa, prayer,
meditation, study of scriptures and the discharging of all our duties as an offering to
God - all this will gradually but unfailingly make our will strong. Awareness,
rationality, a well defined goal, and sufficient will-power - when these four
requirements are met the faculty of discrimination blossoms forth and becomes an
aspirant's best friend. Soon it leads to right knowledge and is invariably followed by
Vairagya or dispassion. Dispassion is an instinctive rejection as poison of all that
stands as an obstruction in our path. The test of true discrimination is dispassion; a
discrimination which is not accompanied by dispassion is worthless. Discrimination
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is an indispensable practice in spiritual life. The opposite of Viveka or discrimination
is Avidya or ignorance. Patanjali defines Avidya thus:
Anitya-ashuchi-duhkha-anatmasu nitya-shuchi-sukha-Atma-khyatih avidya
(Patanjali Yoga Sutras, 56) Ignorance is mistaking the ephemeral as the Eternal, the
impure as pure, the painful as pleasurable, and the non-self as the Self.
Discrimination and sincere spiritual practice are the only antidotes to ignorance.
Thus when discrimination is practised it dispels ignorance, brings right
understanding, sets before us the right goal, strengthens our resolve, helps us
discard what is harmful, helps us