Paramacharya

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How to Cultivate Character and Good Conduct from Hindu Dharma

How do we acquire character, how do we come to possess good

qualities? By living according to the precepts of the vedas and

sastras and by following the good customs practised by our own

forefathers as well as by performing the rites that have been passed

down to us. Good conduct springs from a good mind. So the mind must

be free from evil.

 

Everybody does not possess a good mind. Look at your child. It is

all the time up to some mischief or other. It cuts paper with

scissors or cuts down little plants and shrubs. It is naughty all

the time. When the same child is sent to school it is brought under

a discipline. It has fixed timings to go to school and return home,

to read its lessons, etc. It is no longer found to be wayward.

 

In the same way if we have no opportunity of being involved in evils

thoughts and activities, we will also come under a certain

discipline. That is why the sastras lay down rules to keep us

involved in good works. When we are conducting religious rites we

must have no ego-feeling. The preceptors of the Vedic way have shown

us the path to consecrate our karma to Isvara. The Lord has given us

strength to perform them but also the intelligence and the means.

Even a little ego-sense would be ruinous because it is capable of

taking many disguises and of sizing us at an unwary moment.

 

Are we able to see ourselves in a soiled mirror? If we dust it and

clean it well, we can see our reflection clearly. Even a clean

mirror cannot produce a proper image if it keeps shaking. The mirror

must both be clean and steady; only then will the reflection be true

and clear. The mind, the consciousness, is like a mirror. The

Supreme Being is the only Truth. When there are no evil thoughts in

us, the mind-mirror will also be clean. If it is fixed on a single

object it will remain steady-like a mirror that does not shake. Only

than will the Paramathma be reflected in it.

 

Who created this world? Who gives us food, clothing and comforts?

Who is an ocean of grace? If we wish to know it is we must keep our

mind steady and free from impurities.

 

Suppose a copper pot has remained immersed in a well for ten years

or so. How much rubbing will it have to take before it becomes

clean? The more we rub it the cleaner and brighter it will be. If

our mind has been made impure with evil actions over many years it

can be made chaste only by the performance of many a good deed, many

a good-work.

 

Is it enough to keep the copper vessel clean for today? What will

happen to it tomorrow or the day after? It will become dirty again

if it is not rubbed. Similarly, we must keep our mind ever pure by

the daily performance of good works. In due course, atime will come

when the citta, the consciousness, will vanish and Self alone will

remain. Thereafter, there will be no need to cleansed. Until then we

have to keep our mind pure through good actions and good conduct.